Cardinal football team bucked by Kossuth

The Adamsville football team crossed the state line on Friday night for a matchup with the Kossuth Aggies. The Aggies won the battle against Adamsville by a final score of 31-22.

The Cardinals got plenty of offense in the game, but they had trouble stopping the Kossuth offense. The Aggies posted 31 points in the game and also had a total of 371 yards of total offense. Kossuth did most of their damage on the ground with 256 rushing yards in the game.

Cardinal head coach saw some positives in the loss but is hopeful to make improvements in practice this week.”Our kids played well, they just gave up some big plays on third downs. It seemed like every time they scored it was after a third and long or a fourth. We need some leadership. But our kids never quit. They were still trying to score down to the last second,” he said.

Quarterback Bradley Melton had three touchdown passes in the game. Melton had touchdowns of 20, 14, and 6 yards. Josh Shoate caught a pair of touchdown passes for the Cardinals. Stephen Jackson also had a 20-yard touchdown reception for Adamsville in the game against Kossuth. Dustin Plunk added a PAT for the Cardinals.

Melton had a total of 156 passing yards as he completed 13-of-27 pass attempts. Shoate had 102 yards receiving on seven catches. Jackson had a total of 45 yards receiving with three catches. Jamel Sanders rushed for 101 yards on just 12 carries in the game for the Cardinals. John Blakely led the Cardinals on defense with 10 total tackles. Blake Edwards and Kameron McDaniel each had nine total stops in the game.

The Cardinals will face Riverside in their first district game of the season on Friday night. Riverside opened the season with a 21-14 victory against Lexington in their opening game last week. The Panthers were ranked eighth in the Class 2A state poll by the Associated Press earlier in the week.

In last week’s victory against Lexington, Riverside was led by running back Brice White. White had 121 rushing yards on 17 carries, including a pair of touchdown runs. Panther quarterback Jebb Jones completed 5-of-10 passes for 67 yards in the victory against Lexington.

Gray knows this is an important game for the team. He was concerned about the health of his team after seven starters were out of practice on Monday due to injury or sickness. “This is our biggest game of the year so far. We’ve got to get better on defense and continue to execute on offense,” he said.