Cardinals look to avenge last season’s loss

SHINER — Districts aren’t usually decided the first weekend of October in Texas high school football. However, Shiner St. Paul (4-0, 1-0) take on last year’s district champion, a team that gave the Cardinals their lone loss in TAPPS District 5 – Div. III.

The Boerne Geneva Eagles (4-0, 0-0) went undefeated in district last season, knocking of Shiner St. Paul with their big-play offense, something the Eagles look to accomplish again tonight.

“They’re definitely a good team,” Cardinals’ head coach Jake Wachsmuth said. “They got a lot of people back.”

Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine pegged Boerne Geneva as district runner-ups to St. Paul, and the Cardinals know how the Eagles may come into this game with a bit more motivation.

“They’re probably looking at it like they should have been picked first,” Wachsmuth noted. “They’re well coached, bigger than us size wise, more kids.”

“We don’t worry about all that,” Wachsmuth continued, “we kind of just worry about us and getting better every day.”

Offensively, the Eagles will come out of a spread with a “good veteran quarterback,” taking control of that side of the field.

“Last year they threw the ball quite a bit on us,” Wachsmuth scouted, “looks like they like to that this year. They try to spread you out. They’re good at it.”

Defensively, Boerne Geneva will run a 3-3 stack, move people around to give multiple looks.

For the Cardinals to continue their district success, mistakes need to be cleaned up on both sides.

“From the offensive side, we got to get more consistent,” Wachsmuth said. “Too many penalties last week and another turnover.”

A lot of St. Paul’s mistakes were self-inflicted, the head coach noted. If they can take away those errors, the Cardinals’ offense will be more successful.

On defense, big plays have been a problem. Going up against Boerne Geneva, the defense will need to shore that up since the Eagles took advantage of that last season.

Tonight’s game is at home at Comanche Stadium, with kickoff scheduled at 7:30 p.m.