St. Paul’s Joseph Natal barrels into some Boerne Geneva defenders Friday night ( October 5, 2018 ) in the Cardinals’ 38-6 non-district loss. [ NOTE: click any photo to enlarge ]

all photos by Mark Lube

The St. Paul Cardinals had to battle through some tough breaks as they were bested by Geneva School of Boerne 38-6 Friday night ( October 5, 2018 ) at Comanche Stadium.

“Geneva is a good team and certainly deserved to win,” St. Paul head coach Jake Wachsmuth said. “Every time we did some good things tonight, we got an unlucky break.”

The loss drops St. Paul to 0-5 on the season as the Cardinals continue to fight adversity.

“The key is going to be to get over that hump, where we start to not let unlucky breaks get us down,” he said.

The Cardinals had Kai Giese return from injury and he shared time at quarterback with Zak Johnson as well as playing receiver.

“Zak has done good things this year; we know Kai can do good things. I thought they both competed and did well running the offense,” Wachsmuth said.

The Cardinals kept plugging and plugging, and did put together some drives but fell on hard times, getting stopped by the Eagles several times.

In the second half, St. Paul drove nearly the entire length of the field in nearly 20 plays and over eight minutes off the clock to put the ball in the end zone.

“We continued to fight,” he said. “We got way behind and it mattered enough to us to go in and put a touchdown up. That’s a big deal.”

Johnson and Giese combined to throw 22 passes, a slight anomaly for a run-heavy offense like St. Paul’s.

“We may need to do that more,” Wachsmuth said. “I told them we might be throwing the ball more and see what happens. We have guys that can catch the ball. We made some plays throwing the ball and that is a positive.”

The Eagles opened the game with a an 11- play, 60-yard drive that eventually ended with a 31- yard field goal as St. Paul kept Geneva out of the end zone.

The Cardinals offensive line attempts to get a push against the Boerne Geneva defense on Friday night ( October 5, 2018 ) .St. Paul plays its first district game tomorrow against Austin Brentwood Christian.

The Cardinals ran 13 plays to get to the Eagle 49, with a 16-yard pass from Johnson to Noah Boedeker and a 9-yard run by Joseph Natal as key plays but eventually the Cardinals had to punt.

The Eagles went three and out but caught a break as St. Paul muffed the punt, giving the Eagles the ball back at their own 38. Geneva then scored on the first play of the drive, a 62-yard pass from Cade Barone to Joel Calderon for a 10-0 lead.

The Cardinals had another long drive going from their 25 to the Geneva 35 but were unable to convert a fourth down.

After neither team were able to put points on the board the next couple of drives, the Eagles had the ball at their 25. After a negative run by Devon Ahrens, Cardone put up a long ball that was tipped by a Cardinal defender and made its way into the hands of Jackson Young who took it to the house for 77 yards and a 17-0 lead.

Following a short punt by St. Paul, the Eagles scored a 31-yard run by Ahrens for a 24-0 lead with 1:15 left in the first half.

The Cardinals got the ball to start the second half but were stopped close to the 50. The Eagles then drove the ball 46 yards in seven plays, capped by a 2-yard run by Ahrens.

Cardone had a 30-yard pass to Ethan House for the Eagle’s final score to go up 38-0 with 1:14 left in the third.

The Eagles pinned St. Paul inside the 10, at the 9, on the kickoff. St. Paul faced a 4th- and-2 play at the 17. Natal fought for 4 yards and the first down at the 21. A few plays later, Giese scrambled for 13 yards to the 50 for a first down. On another fourth down, Giese found Cole Brown for 12 yards to the Eagle 35 to keep the drive alive.

Giese and Brown teamed up later on an 8-yard pass for the Cardinals’ lone score of the game with 4:04 left.

Kellen Opela had two assists; Noah Boedeker had two tackles, one forced fumble; Dalton Jahn had two tackles, one assist; Atley Pilat had two tackles; Johnson added one tackle, one assist.

Natal had three assists, two tackles; Carson Reese had seven tackles, three assists; Brown had one tackle; Patrick Green had two tackles, two assists. Luke Darilek had one assist; Kade Leist had one tackle, one assist; Garrett Wauson had three tackles, one tackle for loss; Grant Barta had one tackle for loss.

GAME STATISTICS

  Boerne Geneva 38, St. Paul 6
    October 5, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
    Comanche Stadium, Shiner


  SCORING SUMMARY

                       1    2    3    4      F
    Boerne Geneva     10   14   14    0  -- 38
    St. Paul           0    0    0    6  --  6


  SCORING DETAILS:

    BG  - Austin Dennis 31 FG, 9:22 1Q.
    BG  - Joel Caldron 62 pass from Cade Barone (Dennis kick), 2:11 1Q.

    BG  - Jackson Young 77 pass from Barone (Dennis kick), 2:19 2Q.
    BG  - Devon Ahrens 31 run (Dennis kick), 1:15 2Q.

    BG  - Ahrens 2 run (Dennis kick), 5:38 3Q.
    BG  - Ethan Houser 30 pass from Barone (Dennis kick), 1:14 3Q.

    SSP - Cole Brown 8 pass from Kai Giese (run failed), 4:04 4Q.


  TEAM STATISTICS:

                      Geneva     St. Paul
    First downs           13           16
    Rushes-yards      23-134       42-160
    Passing yards        234          101
    Passes              6-12        16-22
    Penalties-yards     6-33         7-33
    Fumbles-lost         1-0          2-1
    Punts-aver          1-27         3-33


  INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS:

    Rushing
      BG:  Devon Ahrens 10-80, Cade Barone 7-53, Christian Compton 3-3, Brock Ambelang 1-3,
           Aidan Christal 3-(-5).
      SSP: Kai Giese 11-49, Carson Reese 7-33, Joseph Natal 12-30, Noah Boedeker 7-30, Zak Johnson 5-18.

    Passing
      BG:  Barone 6-12-0-234.
      SSP: Johnson 8-12-0-59, Giese 8-10-0-42.

    Receiving
      BG:  Joel Caldron 2-67, Jackson Young 1-77, Ahrens 1-35, Ethan Houser 1-30, Easton Myrick 1-25.
      SSP: Dalton Jahn 5-8, Cole Brown 3-27, Boedeker 2-19, Natal 2-17, Jared Pesek 2-11,
           Giese 1-13, Patrick Green 1-6.