Kindred, North Dakota (newsdakota.com)——-The Carrington Cardinals  used 3 big plays on offense to score all 20 points of the contest and defeated the  Kindred Vikings 20-0 to start the 2018 football season. The Cardinal’s first score came with 4:27 to play in the second quarter when senior quarterback Seth Nelson connected with senior wide receiver Payton Smith on a 58 yard touchdown pass. Nelson’s pass was a perfect strike to Smith who caught the pass in perfect stride and raced untouched to the end zone. Nelson appeared to put the Cardinals in the lead late in the first quarter after a 45 yard interception return for a TD. The TD was called back on an illegal block during the return and kept the game scoreless until late in the first half.

Leading 6-0 at halftime the Cardinals would strike again midway through the third quarter when Nelson floated a screen pass to Drew Page and 68 yards later Page made it 12-0. Nelson ran in the 2 point conversion for a 14-0 lead. Trey Rosenau sealed the victory on a 72 yard TD run midway through the fourth quarter on an inside reverse.

Defensively the Cards did a good job of controlling the Vikings offense. The Cardinals forced 3 Kindred turnovers and the Vikings only entered inside the Cardinal 20 yard line one time in the game (aided by a 15 yard penalty). Outside of the 3 big offensive plays for the Cards, neither team sustained any offensive drives as the game was dominated by defense. Kindred did a great job up front on the defensive side stuffing the Cardinal running game most of the night, making things difficult for the Cardinal running game. Kindred, 0-1 will travel to EEK (Ellendale-Edgely-Kulm) next week and Carrington (1-0) will host HWC (Harvey-Wells County) next Friday at Stadium ’76 in Carrington. Pregame will start at 6:30 on The Cardinal, AM 1600, and newsdakota.com Kickoff will be at 7:00.