WINLOCK — On a night where the fumbles outnumbered the pass attempts, the Winlock Cardinals used a fast start to crush Oakville-North River 41-8 in Winlock Friday night.
The Cardinals scored 21 in the first quarter and another 20 in the second, but a big factor in the game was fumbles falling in Winlock’s favor on a rainy night. ONR fumbled nine times, with Winlock recovering four, including one in the end zone by John Mansfield, and the Cardinals fumbled seven times, but only one was lost.
Winlock head coach Ernie Samples believes the fumbles bouncing their way may be a good omen for a season turnaround.
“We got lucky. They were falling for us, and a lot of the time this year, we were on the other end of that and we were handing the ball to the other team,” he said. “It was nice to be gifted that.”
Without starting quarterback Carter Svenson, the Cardinals leaned on their new backfield strategy that consisted of using a tight end in their eight-man offense and handing the ball off Mansfield and Camren Cusson. Cusson followed up a 37-yard scamper with a 4-yard touchdown run for the first score of the night.
Backup sophomore quarterback Monte Williams, who Samples said was waiting all week to hear that Svenson was going to be ready to go, floated a touchdown pass to senior lineman Arean Thapa who rumbled for a 54-yard score.
Winlock recovered an Acorns fumble on the ensuing kickoff, and Williams found offensive lineman Julien Auve for a long catch and run before Mansfield capped off the drive from 2 yards out. In less than nine minutes of game time, the Cardinals led 21-0.
On another wacky play, this one kicking off the second quarter, Mansfield lost the ball just shy of the end zone, and Thapa fell on it for his second touchdown of the first half. As the rain lightened up, Winlock kept pouring it on with two Mansfield touchdowns — one on a 5-yard run and another on a defensive fumble he scooped up in the end zone.
The Cardinals (2-4, 2-3 Southwest 1B) headed to halftime and homecoming festivities with a 41-0 lead, and they held on to win 41-8. Mansfield led the team with 64 rushing yards and two touchdowns on nine carries. Williams threw for 97 yards, a touchdown and an interception while completing three of his eight passes in relief of Svenson.
Ben Kimbrel, who finished with 88 rushing yards on 22 carries, scored the lone touchdown for the Acorns (3-3) who could only muster up 140 yards on the evening without star quarterback Gio Rodas again.
Running back and linebacker Lewis Koser also returned but was mostly limited to defensive snaps, head coach Camren Bowes said. He expects the senior will see more offensive snaps next week, as well as a return to the field for Rodas, but he said the biggest difference Friday was what he called a lack of preparation from himself and the coaching staff.
“I don’t really blame the players. I thought they played to the best of their ability. It was just me and the coaching staff,” Bowes said. “I feel like we didn’t prepare our guys to be successful enough last night. We were scrambling to figure out how to adjust on the fly.”
Samples believes the Cardinals’ contagious energy on both ends of the field started earlier in the day Friday before they even took the field.
“We had an early release on Friday and we had a really nice assembly. It was a good vibe in the air,” he said. “They were bringing lots of intensity, and it just went to the field tonight. It was a shock to come out of the gate hot.”
Winlock hosts Taholah next Friday night, and Oakville will visit Northwest Christian (Lacey) at Tenino’s Beaver Stadium next Thursday.
