By John Rittenhouse
The stage has been set for what will be the biggest regular season game for the Luverne Cardinal football team.
After a sound, 34-6 thrashing of Redwood Valley in Redwood Falls Friday, the Cardinals will have the honor of hosting what essentially could be the Southwest Conference championship game tomorrow when they entertain Jackson County Central.
Luverne brings a 3-1 league record and a 4-2 overall mark into the showdown.
JCC, the state’s sixth-ranked team in the latest Class 3A poll, checks into the tilt with a 6-0 overall record and a 4-0 conference mark.
With no other team in the league with less than two conference losses, tomorrow’s tilt will go a long way toward settling the SWC championship.
There’s no doubt tomorrow’s game is a big one, but Cardinal coach Joel Swanson is downplaying its importance. A win would give LHS a shot at winning at least a share of the SWC crown, but he’s not looking at the contest like it’s a must-win situation.
"Like any other game we play, our goal is to show improvement and cut down the number of mistakes we’re making. The keys will be to limit our number of turnovers and cut down on our penalties," he said.
The Cards made some mistakes during Friday’s game in Redwood Falls, but they were able to overcome them with a dominating running performance on offense and solid effort on defense.
Luverne ran the ball for 311 yards and five touchdowns against RWV. After losing the ball by a fumble during its first possession of the game, the Cardinal offense scored touchdowns with its next three possessions in the first half and its first two possessions of the second half.
At the same time, Luverne’s defense blanked RWV through three quarters before yielding a meaningless fourth-quarter tally. RWV did pass for 220 yards and compile 303 yards against the LHS resistance, but a good share of the yardage came when Luverne’s regulars were on the bench late in the game.
"It was a good team effort," Swanson said. "We came out and moved the ball pretty well to start the game. Everybody did a good job. The big thing was we didn’t have key turnovers in big situations. We did fumble on our first possession, but that was it."
Luverne recovered from the fumble that ended its opening possession of the game by recording a pair of touchdowns in a 3:19 span in the first quarter with its next two possessions.
After forcing RWV to punt after three plays during its first possession, the Cardinal offense went on an eight-play, 50-yard drive that ended with Kyle Crable scoring on an eight-yard run at the 4:58 mark of the first quarter. James Fisher added his first of four extra points to make the difference 7-0.
Crable, who carried the ball 19 times for a team-high 123 yards in the game, ran for 45 of Luverne’s 50 yards during the initial scoring drive.
The Cardinals received a break moments later when RWV’s punter mishandled the snap from center four plays after Crable’s touchdown run. Luverne’s punt return team chased RWV’s punter out of bounds far short of a first down when he tried to run with the ball, giving the LHS offense good field position on the RWV 22-yard line.
Luverne took advantage of the field position when Crable scored on a 10-yard run five plays later to make the difference 14-0 with 1:39 remaining in the opening period.
RWV made a bid to get back into the game when it advanced the ball deep into Luverne territory in the second quarter, but a five-yard gain during a fourth-and-seven situation ended the threat on downs at the LHS six-yard line.
When the Cardinal offense followed the stop with an 11-play, 94-yard scoring drive, RWV’s will was broken.
The drive, which was capped by Tony Sandbulte’s four-yard touchdown run with 2:22 left to play in the first half, featured a 41-yard pass completion from James Fisher to Luke Iveland. Sandbulte and Zach Skattum had runs of 17 and 13 yards during the march that gave LHS a 21-0 lead.
Luverne’s 21-point eruption in the first half ended a streak of sub-par performances during the first two quarters of nearly every game this year.
"I think our kids were ready to play during this game. We need to have more first halves like that for the rest of the season and when we get into the playoffs," Swanson said.
Luverne had an equally impressive start to the second half, when it scored 13 points with its first two possessions to put the game out of reach.
The Cards put together a four-play, 53-yard drive that ended with Sandbulte scoring on a 20-yard jaunt at the 8:45 mark of the third quarter, making it a 28-0 game.
Sandbulte, who ran for 94 yards with seven carries during the contest, had a 25-yard gain before scoring on his 20-yard run.
Luverne’s second possession of the second half resulted in an 11-play, 65-yard drive that was capped by a one-yard plunge by Skattum with 2:47 left to play in the third quarter.
Sandbulte had a 17-yard run during the drive, but a missed extra-point attempt kept the score at 34-0 after the touchdown.
RWV ended the scoring at the 7:40 mark of the fourth quarter, when quarterback Cory Boe tossed a 17-yard touchdown pass to Ted Johnson against Luverne’s defensive reserves. The extra-point attempt failed.
Team statistics
Luverne: 311 rushing yards, 41 passing yards, 352 total yards, 17 first downs, 11 penalties for 100 yards, one turnover.
RWV: 83 rushing yards, 220 passing yards, 303 total yards, 14 first downs, nine penalties for 60 yards, two turnovers.
Individual statistics
Rushing: Crable 19-123, Sandbulte 7-94, Skattum 8-40, Ryan Goebel 4-16, Fisher 2-15, Marcus Walgrave 5-11, Joel Evans 2-6, Aaron Schmidt 1-3, Pete Connell 1-3.
Passing: Fisher 1-4 for 41 yards, Connell 0-2 for zero yards.
Receiving: Iveland 1-41.
Defense: Fisher one interception, Matt Herman one interception.