The Prescott Cardinals won their first “home” game Friday night at Ramer Field in River Falls, defeating the Regis Ramblers by a score of 26-0. Regis had not lost a regular season game since 2017.

Regis came out of the gate aggressively, going for it on 4^th and 2 near midfield with only two minutes having expired in the first quarter. They converted, but ultimately had to punt leaving Prescott near their own end zone.

A botched play resulted in a loss of 10 yards, pinning Prescott near the goal line. The offense responded to the adversity with alacrity as Quarterback Theodore Bernick connected with Wide Receiver Nolan Thomley who made a fingertip catch down the middle of the field and took it to the house with a catch and run of 87 yards, bringing the score to 7-0.

Prescott wasn’t done with big plays however as their defense forced a punt and they got the ball right back. This time Bernick connected with Wide Receiver Will Packard for a 37-yard catch and run putting them in excellent field position. Unfortunately, the offense stalled near the 20-yard line, and they had to settle for a field goal, which went wide right leaving the score unchanged.

The defense continued to do what they did all game by immediately getting the ball back for their offense as they intercepted a deep shot attempted by the Ramblers who were looking to even the score. Prescott wasn’t able to do much with the turnover, however, as they punted and went into the locker room at halftime with the score sitting at 7-0.

The Prescott offense came out swinging in the second half, though, marching down the field and completing another passing touchdown, this time to Packard. A blocked extra point left the score at 13-0.

Regis stayed aggressive on their next drive, going for it on 4^th and 1, but the Prescott defense held and forced a turnover on downs.

The ground game picked up steam in the second half as well with some impressive running from Thomason and Temmers, who both had rushing touchdowns in the 4^th quarter sandwiched between yet another stop by the Prescott defense which forced a turnover on downs. This ultimately brought the score to 26-0 with less than four minutes remaining.

The game came to close shortly after that as the Prescott defense, unsurprisingly, forced another turnover, this time a fumble. With only 3:04 left, Prescott ran out the clock and took a knee to end the game.

If it weren’t for the consistent barrage of Prescott’s defense throughout, this game might be called a tale of two halves with 19 of Prescott’s 26 points coming after halftime.

“We drove the ball down the field consistently on offense, we just couldn't punch it in in the first half,” said Jordan Hansen, coach of the Prescott Cardinals. “We knew we just had to stay the course and eventually we're going to get the ball in the endzone. And, defensively, that was a huge stop at the end of the first half. They could have gone in and tied it up, and then it's a little different ballgame coming in second half. That stopped gave us momentum, and our guys were fired up.”

Fans of Cardinals football can get used to seeing this group of players on the field together.

“We had seven or eight sophomores that got a lot of playing time last year,” said Hansen. “A lot of our guys are juniors now along with a couple seniors and a sophomore, Kobe Russell, so we’ll retain most of the core group next year as well.”

There were a number of individual standouts on the night. Will Packard had 9 catches for 89 yards and a touchdown, Lono Thomason had a rushing touchdown to go along with seven total tackles including three sacks, and Barrett Temmers filled up the score sheet with 16 carries for 65 yards, a touchdown, 9 total tackles, a forced fumble and an interception.

Coach Hansen says he hopes that their next home game will come, well, at home.

“We kind of thought we were going to be playing at home this week, but there is some referendum work being done on the school itself and the parking lot that affects the ability to host games,” Hansen said.

Next week the Cardinals take to the road (once again) as they travel to Durand to play the Panthers on Friday. Kick off is at 7 p.m.