Cardinals to focus on themselves in first game back

SHINER — Hurricane Harvey forced Shiner St. Paul head coach Jake Wachsmuth to make a decision last week. After having a scrimmage canceled, the week before, and then canceling the game against Yoakum, the Cardinals were left with either scrimmaging against another opponent or possibly play another opponent. However, the Cardinals opted to not play against someone.

“You’d hope you did the right thing,” Wachsmuth said of the decision. “Obviously, the weather and the events played a factor in not having a second scrimmage and well we could probably play last week, but we didn’t exactly have a normal week of preparation.”

Instead, Shiner St. Paul opted to prepare for this week’s game against Bryan St. Joseph and hope that this current week’s of preparation will be enough to get things rolling on the field.

“What you’re looking for after a few weeks off practice are things that you need to correct from the first scrimmage,” Wachsmuth said. “[We were] worried about conditioning, we definitely had a break in things to where we had to get back on it.”

The head coach noted that anybody that’s been in that situation knows certain things on the field aren’t going to be right until there is game-time experience.

“Hopefully we can learn from [our mistakes] the first week, and win the ball game,” Wachsmuth said.

The advantage the Cardinals do have is they were able to scout Bryan St. Joseph that first week. The counter to that point, Wachsmuth noted, was that Bryan St. Joseph already has a game under their belt.

Nonetheless, the Cardinals will have to contain Bryan St. Joseph’s quarterback John Najvar, a three-year starter.

“He’s a good athlete,” Wachsmuth said.

Wide receiver Joshua Saldua and running back Philip Blaszak are also players to watch out for.

“They’re definitely not the same team from a year ago, but neither are we,” Wachsmuth said. “We don’t know what we are right now, so more than worry about them, we’re trying to focus on getting better ourselves.”

Defensively, Wachsmuth knows the Eagles will have some speed.

“We saw them last year at the regional and state track meet and they have some kids that have some good speed and athleticism. They struggled a little bit the last two years, but they have some seniors that have been a part of some good football teams. It’s the same thing on both sides of the ball. The big thing for us is to know where their experience is.”

But as far as tonight’s game goes, the Cardinals are focused on themselves. It’s Week 2, but it’ll be their first game of the season. It’s going to take more than one game to figure out an identity, but with the storm long gone, tonight will finally be their first step toward figuring it out.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.