Football team punches in first ‘W’ of season

WALTHILL – For the second straight year, Walthill has provided the Randolph Cardinals football team a chance to flex its muscles and it did so once again.

Bouncing back from an openingweek loss, the Cardinals rallied from a 20-8 deficit and won 36-26 Friday to record their first win of the 2023 campaign.

Bryson Eledge (15 carries, 96 yards and two touchdown runs), Dayton Winkelbauer (13 carries, 51 yards and two touchdown runs and two touchdown passes with 82 yards passing) and Ryan Engel (23-yard touchdown reception) sparked the offensive attack for Randolph.

“The heat index was well over 100 degrees and practices were shortened and held inside,” Randolph head coach Mark Lech said of the team’s preparation during the week. “The heat wave broke Thursday night, but we had to play at 2:30 in the afternoon on Friday. This was a challenge as players from both sides felt the heat and it came down to a game of attrition.

“We had to battle back after halftime with 20 unanswered points to take the lead. We were able to hang on to the lead and come away with this season's first victory.”

Lech said the Cardinals shuffled a lot of players due to the heat and Engel, a freshman, stepped up.

“He had an early interception that turned the momentum back to Randolph,” Lech said. “He followed that up with a big catch and a touchdown later in the game that helped seal the victory. Ryan was thrown into multiple positions on offense and defense due to his versatility and he really came through.”

This Friday, the Cardinals host O’Neill St. Mary’s for the team’s home opener and Parents’ Night.

“St. Mary's beat us out there last year and have a couple of really good athletes,” Lech said. “Slowing down their quarterback will be our No. 1 priority this week as he makes their team go. We need to recover a bit from the bumps and bruises of this week and then continue to step up our practices if we want to knock them off.”

Randolph’s Joe Miller said the worry about getting big-headed after this win – something a number of Cardinals said happened last year after the season-opening win against Walthill – is a non-issue.

“I didn’t want to be overconfident and not think we were going to run over these guys,” Miller said. “They had a lot of their guys coming back so I knew they would be a little better.

“It wasn’t a blowout like last year and it was a hardfought game. I’m not worried (about overconfidence) and we know what we need to do. We got a chance any week to do it; we just have to get it done on the field.”

The win still felt good for a team hoping to make finishing on the positive side of the ledger a habit.

“It was good to get the win,” Miller said. “Losing last week kind of hurt. Last week, we just had to get all the kinks out and had a lot of messed-up plays. This week, we were the aggressors after last week not coming out with fire in our guts.”