The Prescott Cardinals were defeated by the Baldwin-Woodville Blackhawks by a score of 35-7 on Friday night in Prescott.

It was homecoming for the Cardinals who got the ball first wearing their red home jerseys. Prescott quarterback Teddy Bernick got the ball moving with his legs, hustling up field for a first down. Running back Barrett Temmers made his presence known as well by pushing his way up the middle for another first down.

A sack on 2^nd and 3 made it a long 3^rd and 13 from the Baldwin 35-yard line. Bernick took the snap, and let the play develop, but nothing much was there. As the pocket collapsed, he heaved one deep towards wide receiver Kobe Russell who tried to go up and over the defender, but it was intercepted near the 10-yard line resulting in a 1^st and 10 from the 16 for the Blackhawks.

The Cardinals likely would’ve punted anyway, so this was essentially the same result, maybe even better because Baldwin started with poor field position. Unfortunately for the red birds, they took it 84 yards to the house on the first play they ran, making it 7-0 with 7:43 remaining in the first.

Prescott attempted to establish the run again on the next drive, but it didn’t work, resulting in a punt without ever crossing midfield. The Cardinal defense made a stand on their next drive punctuated by a strong tackle for a loss which forced the Blackhawks to punt on 4^th and 5 from the 44.

Things just weren’t working again for the Cardinal offense though, as they started pinned at their own 6-yard line and went three and out. The punt was a short one, and the Blackhawks started with tremendous field position from the Prescott 35. Five plays later, Baldwin scored on a pass up the middle to make it 14-0 as the quarter came to a close.

The Cardinals looked like they had something going on the next drive. A beautiful 14-yard pass from Bernick to Bayer got them the first down, and Bernick did it again three plays later as he threw a bullet to Packard for 16 yards, converting on 3^rd and 9.

The run game just wasn’t working for Prescott and a third consecutive third down ensued. Bernick once again went back to the air, throwing a deep shot, but this one was off target and was intercepted once again. However, similar to his previous interception, it left Baldwin with terrible field position at their own 5-yard line.

What happened next was a turning point in the game, it just didn’t go Prescott’s way. A poor pass by Baldwin that should’ve been an easy interception for Prescott’s deep safety was tipped back into the Baldwin receiver’s hands by a Cardinal cornerback who, instead of letting the ball travel, tried to make a nearly impossible one-handed grab.

The next play added insult to injury as a Baldwin wide receiver beat coverage and scored on a deep ball thrown from midfield, bringing the score to 21-0 with 7:26 remaining in the half.

A big return from Russell on the following kickoff gave the Cardinals a great starting position near midfield. Some tough running by Prescott got them the first down, but four consecutive missed passes resulted in a turnover on downs.

The Cardinals almost got another punt out of the Blackhawks on the next drive, but their QB broke free on 3^rd and long and scampered 40 yards downfield. Baldwin used the legs of their quarterback just a couple plays later to score and make it 28-0 with 3:07 left in the second quarter.

The Cardinals’ two-minute offense was in full effect on the following drive. Multiple chunky plays from the running backs and wide receivers had them pushing towards the end zone in the final seconds before the half. At 1^st and Goal from the 4-yard line, Prescott used its final timeout.

The flukey bad luck plays struck again. The Cardinals ran the Wildcat, a play in which Wide Receiver Russell takes the snap and has the option to throw or run. Russell’s pass was on target, but as tight end Owen Bayer caught the touchdown and fell to the ground, the ball came free and popped directly into the hands of a Blackhawk defender.

The third quarter started like the second ended, with a flukey play going Baldwin’s way. Another poor pass by the Blackhawk QB that should’ve been intercepted by Prescott ended up going off their hands instead and directly into the waiting arms of Baldwin’s wide receiver who took it all the way to the 14-yard line. The Prescott defense stepped up and made the stop, forcing a turnover on downs.

Temmers got things going for the Cardinals on their next drive as he flashed his speed, cutting and making multiple defenders miss tackles while bursting for 34 yards out to midfield. Unfortunately, a drive that featured great plays from Bayer and wide receiver Nolan Thomley stalled out at the 10-yard line and resulted in another turnover on downs.

The Blackhawks kept their trend of big, explosive plays going as a missed tackle on a short slant pass ended with a 52-yard run downfield for Baldwin. A QB sneak finished their drive and brought the score to 35-0 as the third quarter came to an end.

Rookie running back Ethan West handled the return duties for the Cards on the following drive, and he streaked downfield, nearly returning it for a touchdown, easily the biggest play of the night for the Cardinals. Another couple of strong West runs had Prescott knocking on the door once again, but this time Temmers muscled it in for the score, putting them on the board at 35-7 with 10:02 remaining in the game.

The Blackhawks drained almost the entire clock off the board on their following drive and the game ended without another score.

West, who is a junior this year, was one of the only silver linings in a game where everything seemed to go wrong for the Cardinals. He averaged over 10 yards per carry on the ground on seven carries while racking up well over 100 all-purpose offensive yards. Even his presence in this varsity game is remarkable because, as of a few months ago, he’d never played football before in his life.

“I run track, so, I mean, I’m pretty fast. My teammates on the track team that also play football talked me into playing. I have the fastest 40-yard dash time on the team, so the coaches like to put me in on certain plays where that speed is most useful,” West said. “At the beginning, I was fourth string running back, and I had no idea what I was doing. I was just trying to scrap everything together at camp, but I really started to learn when I started playing JV games, like how to hit people and how to take a hit. Then, after Lono got hurt, which sucks for our defense and offense, I became second string.”

For the Prescott varsity football team, homecoming hasn’t been a harbinger of good times for quite a while now, unfortunately, according to Head Coach Jordan Hansen.

“It’d be nice to win a homecoming game one of these days. I tried to look up the last time we’ve won one, but I couldn’t find it. It’s been a long time,” Hansen said. “That's homecoming in general, there’s a lot of distractions, but we can't blame it on that. We’ve got to be ready to play.”

Hansen says the flukiness of the plays that kept going against Prescott is just part of the game, and they just need to do better at taking advantage of the opportunities that they create for themselves.

“You can look at any football game, and it usually comes down to three or four plays that can change the game. The ball just didn’t bounce our way tonight,” Hansen said. “We were inside the 25 three times and turned it over three times. So, we’ve got to look inward a little bit to make sure what we're doing puts us in position to win. We’ve got to win one of the next two to give us a chance to make the playoffs. If we win both, we’re in, so that’s what we need to focus on.”

Right now, the 2-3 Cardinals are in a three-way tie for third place in conference play with Somerset and Ellsworth. This makes their next game a big one as Prescott will travel to Ellsworth on Friday night to play a rivalry game with major playoff implications for both teams. Buckle up Middle Border fans, things are about to get interesting.