The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

The Cardinals opened up the 2010 football campaign with a 50-0 thrashing over the Shepherd Pirates Friday night at Larry Ward stadium.

The offense scored often and easily with both the passing, and running attack. The redbirds generated 332 yards of total offense, with 227 coming on the ground and 105 through the air. The defensive performance was just as impressive as the offensive display. They only gave up 58 total yards while recording their first shutout of the year. The defense recorded two interceptions and forced a safety in the contest.

Quarterback Matt Menard’s first two passes of the young season put up six points each for the Cardinals. The first pass came on the fifth play of the game for 50 yards. Menard hit Mitchel Hubbard in stride while he was racing past the Pirates secondary. Devin Bertrand added the extra point after the score.

The second touchdown pass, of 36 yards, was to Cameron Dishon who easily trotted into the end zone. A bad snap on the extra point attempt hindered the gaining of an extra point, and the first quarter ended up with a 13-0 score. Dishon added two carries for eight yards, and had a punt return of 48 yards during the contest.

The Redbirds exploded for 28 points in the second quarter.

Hunter Clark ran in from seven yards with an extra point from Bertrand for the first seven. Clark carried the ball 12 times for 57 yards and had a kickoff return of eight yards.

Josh Ozio added the second touchdown of the quarter by picking off a pass from Quarterback, Josh Whittleman, for a 24 yard score, with Bertrand adding the point after. Menard recorded the next two touchdowns with his legs, with runs of eight, and an impressive 65 yard run where he outran everyone in Shepherd‘s secondary. Bertrand connected with both points, to make it a 41-0 halftime score.

The half time talk must have been a good one, because the Cardinals wasted no time to get back on the scoreboard. Jason Broussard recovered a fumble on the kick off, which allowed Menard to record his third rushing touchdown, a 13 yard run. Bertrand followed that score with another extra point.

That was enough for Coach Stump to give Menard a rest. Menard finished with nine carries for 137 yards, and he went three for five through the air for 93 yards. Broussard, along with that fumble recovery, had one catch for seven yards and a kickoff return of 12 yards. The scoring ended in the third quarter with a safety when the defense tackled the Shepherd punter in the end zone.

Colby Carpenter took a break from his defense and receiving job to get in some work at Quarterback. Carpenter had six carries for 15 yards, one pass for 12 yards and also had a punt return for 19 yards.

Tyler Roberts had one carry for 10 yards and Slate Arnold had a catch for 12 yards in the game.

Friday night football is here and it was good to see the Cardinals back on the field. The band was great and the cheerleaders kept the crowd going all night, and how about those Strutters?

Bridge City will host the Vidor Pirates this Friday at 7:30 p.m. This game will be a nice test for the Cardinals. Vidor lost to Texas High 48-41 which took two overtimes to decide. LET’S PACK THE HOUSE.