Hays leads Cardinals to regular-season finale win
NEW BREMEN — The Cardinals got it done on both the ground and through the air on Friday night, defeating Versailles 36-7 on senior night — and boy did the seniors have a night.
Senior quarterback Mitchell Hays led the way with 152 yards rushing on 13 carries and went 10-for-16 passing with 143 yards and three touchdowns; Zack Bertke ran the ball 12 times for 68 yards and caught one touchdown; Dan Homan caught five passes for 50 yards, scored a touchdown and recorded 1.5 sacks; Kyle Tenkman led the Cardinals (4-2) in tackles with five and also intercepted one pass; Ben Blickle recorded four tackles, Nick Alig had a huge tackle-for-loss and an interception and Wyatt Dicke added an interception of his own.
“That was definitely the best we’ve played all year long,” said Cardinals coach Chris Schmidt. “That’s what you want headed into the playoffs. Our playmakers made plays for us tonight and that’s what you need.”
The Cardinals punted on their opening drive but Versailles (4-2) proceeded to fumble on their opening play. Hays recovered it and New Bremen was set up with great field advantage.
The very next play, Hays found Homan across the middle for a 16-yard gain but a Versailles defender jarred it loose at the goal line and the Tigers recovered in the endzone.
New Bremen didn’t let their lone turnover of the night get them down for long.
On 3rd and 17 on Versailles following drive, Dicke intercepted Carson Bey and returned it 17 yards.
Two Hays runs set up a 23-yard pass to Bertke for a touchdown.
Versailles proceeded to punt on their next drive giving the Cardinals another opportunity to strike.
Five plays was all it took as Hays found Branxton Krauss down the middle of the field for a 46-yard touchdown pass. A blocked PAT put the New Bremen lead at 12- 0.
Versailles had their best drive of the night
that finished the first quarter and took up half of the second. They converted on fourth down twice and Bey was able to cap it off with a 3-yard touchdown run.
That’s the closest the Tigers would get on Friday as New Bremen needed just one play to find the endzone; Hays ran it up the middle for 67 yards to score a touchdown with 4:53 left in the half.
The first half scoring for the Cardinals wasn’t finished, however.
Following a Versailles punt, they took over at their own 31-yard line.
A mix of Hays and Bertke runs got the Cardinals into the red zone. On 2nd and 6, Hays found open for the touchdown. New Bremen took a 27-6 lead into halftime.
The Cardinals scored once in the third quarter on a 32-yard field goal by Owen Gabel.
New Bremen’s first drive of the second half was very run-dominated. The Cardinals ran it nine times on the drive. The lone completed pass coming on 3rd and 5 when Hays scrambled to his right, avoided tackles, ran back to his left and found Bertke open along the sideline for a 12-yard completion and first down.
“As a coach I’m like, ‘Hey, that’s great’, obviously it’s not the way you draw it up but when you got kids that can run around and make plays, it makes the job a lot easier on the coach,” Schmidt said about the play.
Hays ran the ball in two plays later for a 12-yard touchdown. A made point after try by Gabel gave the Cardinals the 36-7 lead which proved to be the final score.
“To beat a team like Versailles, I wanted to go into the playoffs fresh off a victory and have that momentum and confidence,” said Schmidt. “I think we needed this win against this team tonight to hopefully continue some momentum.”
Earlier this week, Schmidt had commented on Versailles size, saying that was going to be the biggest issue on Friday.
“This was the biggest team we were probably going to see all year long and so it was one of those things where we could use our speed and get out into space, I thought we could hopefully wear down some of their bigger guys and handle their size. If we can use our speed and play with great technique, we thought we could be OK,” he said.
Schmidt commended Hays on another great performance.
“He’s continued to grow each game and just be confident and make great decisions. I think he’s starting to let the game come to him a little bit,” said Schmidt. “He’s an ultra competitor too. He’s not necessarily real vocal all the time but there’s not many kids that are going to be more competitive than him.”