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The defending UIL Class 3A State Champion, Columbus Cardinals welcomed the Cuero Fighting Gobblers to kick off the 2025 season.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals week one did not end the way they would have liked and came up just short against the Gobblers 28-21.
It was a defensive battle from the opening kickoff of this game where the slightest breakdown in coverage led to a touchdown. Both teams made the most of their offensive opportunities.
Cuero got the party started though, early in the first half they were able to connect on a deep pass to open the scoring. Columbus quickly responded with a score from Bryan Salazar and then shortly after Doc Cantu found the endzone to give the Cards a 14-7 lead.
Cuero quickly answered back though with a 77-yard quarterback run to tie the game up at 14 going into halftime. Coming out of halftime Cuero scored the first touchdown in the third quarter to take a 21-14 lead.
But Jack Schobel used his legs to break away from the defense and tie the game up for the Cardinals at 21 a piece. Cuero answered back with 2:16 left on the clock and the Cards offense was unable to find the endzone for a fourth time and the game ended with a 28-21 final score.
“It’s disappointing, we did not play too well in some areas, but I thought our guys played really really hard tonight,” Cardinals Head Coach Matt Schobel said. “I had a feeling we would play hard and we did. I thought we would make some mistakes and we did which was expected.”
Schobel said the mistakes were expected and that both players and coaching staff will be looking to improve going into next week.
“There were mistakes but it’s week one and we got some guys in new places, but we still played really hard,” Schobel said. “There are some things we need to clean up for both players and coaching staff. I love these though and I am excited to look at the film and move forward.”
Looking at the defensive side of this game the Cards defense was flying all over the field Friday night. They were getting consistent pressure on the quarterback and even took the ball away a couple of times and Schobel said they are going to get even better as the year goes on.
“They played well, we expect them to play that way and they are going to get better. We expect them to make some jumps in the next couple weeks,” Schobel said. “If you talk to our defensive staff and our players, they would tell you they gave up too many points, but I think they played their butts off just like all of our kids did and we’ll watch the film and get back to work.”
On the offensive side the rushing attack for the Cardinals was dominant as all three of their touchdowns came on the ground. Schobel was pleased with the rushing attack but said he wants to find some more chunk plays to help his offense move the ball more effectively.
“We have to create more big plays, more explosive plays,” Schobel said. “We had some chances in the passing game; we just overthrew one a little bit and didn’t quite hook up over here. Those big chunk plays are going to make life easier on our offense instead of driving it 5-7 yards a carry and again our passing game has been getting better and better and if we hook on those two long ones I think we have a different story but we just have to keep working on our offense.”
The Cards now set their sights on their week two matchup against the La Grange Leopards on Friday, Sept 5, where they will travel to La Grange to try to pick up their first win in 2025.
