Homer hands the Randolph Cardinals another setback
Alan Dale
Randolph Times
HOMER — Every week the Randolph Cardinals football team continues to show marked improvement even if the scoreboard and overall record may not reflect that.
As the Cardinals enter its likely final week of preparation for their rivalry game against Wausa, they will have to shake off the dust from a 55-14 road loss to Homer last week.
Randolph got on the board first on a 14-yard touchdown pass to Bryson Eledge from Isaiah Salmon – who also ran in the two-point conversion – to go up 8-0 four minutes into the game.
A Collyn Beal nine-yard run tied the game at 14-14 early in the second quarter and Homer took control from there.
“We had a strong opening drive,” Randolph head coach Mark Lech said. “We moved the ball well the whole game, but multiple drives stalled because of penalties or dropped passes.”
Beal rushed for 112 yards on 22 carries and Eledge added 37 yards on eight carries while Salmon completed five passes for 50 yards and rushed for an additional 31 yards.
Defensively, Tom Korth led the team in tackles and Eledge and Shaw Backer contributed with strong nights according to Lech.
Senior Jacob Calder noted the Cardinals solid start to the game before Homer found its mojo and was able to pull away.
Calder said he hopes the massive youth on the roster is getting the experience it needs to move forward even if the handful of seniors may not reap the benefits.
“They have also had to play their first games when we had injured players and were just thrown in there,” Calder said. “It’s been a rough year for the underclassmen. I see them as a bunch of kids that love to play football and they are willing to put in the work.”
Eledge also added an interception to his evening’s work.
Wausa now heads to Randolph as the Cardinals will try to wrap the season on a high note.
“Wausa is coming off of a loss, but has had a good season, so the Cardinals will have to play well to get a win,” Lech said.
Calder said the Cardinals will go out and give it a go and see what happens in the finale.
Last year, the Cardinals had to forfeit the matchup with COVID-19 causing the teams to skip the event and so this will make up for lost time.
“We know if we win, we still have a chance (for the playoffs), but for us seniors we know that’s it if we don’t,” Calder said. “We just want to have one more run at this. I just want us to do it right. I feel this would mean a lot to us since we had such a rough year. We just need something to come our way in terms of a win.”
Homer 14 15 20 6 — 55
Randolph 8 6 0 0 — 14
Randolph Homer
Passing 5-18-50 4-7-52
Rushing 42-182 37-318
Total off 60-232 44-370
Penalties 6-49 5-40
First Downs 17 23
RUSHING
Randolph - Collyn Beal, 22-112; Bryson Eledge, 8-37; Isaiah Salmon, 9-31; Shaw Backer, 1-1; Gage Jensen, 1-1.
PASSING
Randolph - Isaiah Salmon, 5-16-50; Collyn Beal, 0-1; Dayton Winkelbauer, 0-1.
RECEIVING
Randolph - Jacob Calder,1-18; Bryson Eledge, 1-14; Collyn Beal, 2-13; Shaw Backer, 1-7.
TACKLES
Randolph - Tom Korth, 13; Shaw Backer, 8; Aiden Gubbels, 7; Bryson Eledge, 6; Isaiah Salmon, 5; Ajay Gubbels, 4; Collyn Beal, 3; Dominic Wilcox, 3; Gage Jensen, 2; Jacob Calder, 2; Walt Hammond, 2.
