Cardinals look to improve on 2020 performance

RANDOLPH — The hope is that things start and finish much better than last fall for the Randolph Cardinals football program.

In 2020, the Cardinals struggled to a 1-6 record, couldn’t finish the season when their final game against rivals Wausa got canceled due to a positive COVID-19 result within the Randolph ranks and the program missed the playoffs.

The hope is that the returning talent will have more than enough to get things back on track.

REC/DB Collyn Beal, REC/DB Jacob Calder, DE/TE Tom Korth, OL/DE Andy Hausmann, OL/DL Aiden Gubbels, QB/DB Isaiah Salmon, TE/DB Ajay Gubbels, RB/DB Carter Olson, RB/DB Bryson Eledge and OL/LB Joe Miller provide plenty of optimism for head coach Mark Lech.

“Collyn is our top returner when it comes to stats on offense,” Lech said. “He played wide receiver and has big play potential and scored multiple touchdowns for us last year. Jacob and Tom also contributed a lot last year on both sides of the ball and will be our senior leaders coming back. Our other returning impact players are linemen with Andy being a strong offensive guard and defensive end.”

Salmon steps into the role of leading the offense under center and expects to see the winds of change in the positive.

“Last year we switched quarterbacks three times and like other teams, COVID affected us a lot: The last game we would have had five or six guys out,” Salmon said. “Defense, we wouldn’t be able to stop some of the teams – they’d be too quick for us. The Wausa game, I was one of those who couldn’t play, and we didn’t have many players left. You always want to play against your rivals.

“This summer we went to the Epic Camp over the summer and were trying to figure out what our offensive identity is going to be without Justin Haselhorst (the team’s leading total yardage player from a year ago). We took it pretty seriously. We’d go to the football field and throw it and made sure that we were ready.”

Salmon said the Cardinals went into the offseason trying to raise their level of competitiveness this fall.

“We always think we have a chance, so we don’t mope around,” Salmon said. “It’s not ‘oh, why us.’ You should expect us to try and play hard and we are still trying to figure stuff out on offense, but defensively we should be pretty good.”

The Cardinals battled a tough slate in 2020 and that won’t change, but the Cardinals could have enough to sustain this year’s schedule.

“We have a schedule that is favorable for us as many teams we will play in our district are in a rebuilding phase,” Lech said. “We have to replace our entire backfield, so we need a quarterback to separate himself from his teammates and to find a running back from the many contenders.

“We should be strong on the line on offense and defense. We will have to have some underclassmen step up and fill roles that they played in Junior Varsity last year.”

Randolph will run an offensive attack that relies heavily on the line to make the right decisions and provide that needed push.

“Our base will be strong power runs, that set up the big play action pass down the field,” Lech said. “We need to take advantage of our strengths which is our line and our wide receivers.

“A weakness right now is not having a true number one quarterback. In the next couple of weeks, we need to have a quarterback step up and show he can run a varsity offense. On defense, our strength will be up front with our size and a lot of experience with our defensive backs. Our biggest weakness will be inexperience at the linebacker position.”

The district once again will be a tough one and Lech knows that it’s no easy sledding, expecting Winside to stand out as a favorite.

“They return most of their skill players and had a young line last year,” Lech said. “Wynot is always a good team and we have a natural rivalry with our neighbor Osmond. The district should be very competitive.

“It feels good to get back to football and to focus on the practices and the games. We had to juggle our schedule constantly last year and missed a game due to Covid, so we are hopeful this year we will return to a full schedule of practices and games.”

That all begins 3 p.m. Friday at Hartington-Newcastle.