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The Columbus Cardinals picked up their second win of the 2026 season after defeating the La Grange Leopards 41-31 on Friday, Sept. 4 at John H. Massey Field at Memorial Stadium in Columbus.
The Cardinals came away with the 10-point victory, but it was a hard-fought win for the Cards.
The Cardinals came out of the gate hot and jumped out to a 13-0 lead by the end of the first quarter. La Grange then started to find a rhythm on offense and found the endzone to cut the Cards lead to 13-7.
La Grange’s defense then forced a fumble that led to a field goal to make the score 1310. Then after a muffed punt by the Cards, La Grange’s offense took over inside Columbus’ five-yard line and punched in a score to carry a 17-13 lead into halftime.
Fumbles and turnovers were a problem for the Cardinals throughout the game as they finished Friday night with six fumbles and three of them were recovered by La Grange. Two of their turnovers led to points for La Grange, and Cardinals Head Coach Matt Schobel said they have to clean those up moving forward. “We definitely need to play cleaner and take care of the ball better,” Schobel said. “I am disappointed in that, but I am proud that our kids kept fighting and kept playing and we were able to turn it around in the second half and take care of business. We have a lot to work on, and our kids will be ready to do it.”
The Cards did in fact turn things around in the second half in a major way as their rushing attack came to life to start the third quarter. With their first possession of the third quarter the Cardinals marched down the field and capped things off with a 10-yard rushing touchdown from quarterback David James to give the Cards a 19-17 lead.
They followed that up by handing the ball to Brennan Hicks, and he found an opening to torch La Grange’s defense for a 63-yard rushing touchdown. James then scored on the twopoint conversion to make the score 27-17 heading into the fourth quarter.
La Grange then responded with an 80-yard touchdown to cut the Cards’ lead to 27-24, but the Cards were ready with a response. The Cards offense came back on their next possession with a 72-yard rushing touchdown from Mikael Shifatu to extend their lead to 34-24 and swung the momentum back in their favor.
Then on defense Hicks recorded an interception to give the Cards the ball and when the Cards were back on offense, the first play went to Hicks, and he finished the play with a 40-yard touchdown to bring the score to 41-24.
La Grange came back and scored a 97-yard kick return to make the score 41-31. La Grange then forced another fumble, and the Cards’ defense had to come up with another big play.
Gregory Fitzgerald recorded an interception to seal away the victory for the Cards and Schobel said the defense played a tremendous game, but there is still work to be done.
“The defense played really hard for us tonight, especially in the second half,” Schobel said. “We just have a lot that we have to get cleaned up.”
The Cardinals will be hard at work this week in practice to get those turnovers cleaned up and will hit the road for their game on Friday, Sept. 11, where they will face Needville.
