‘New season’ begins for Cardinals looking for district opening win

SHINER — A team that loses its first seven games of the season usually isn’t considered a playoff contending team. But when those first seven games are non-district, Friday’s game for the Shiner St. Paul Cardinals (0-7) provides them an opportunity at a reset of sorts, to see if they can be among three of the four district teams to advance to the playoffs.

The Cardinals, as they’ve had all season long, have a tough test this week as they take on the Central Texas Christian Lions (7-0).

Offensively, the Lions tend to run the ball and “get into formations not exactly like us, but get into some stuff [we like to do] with two backs, powers, pitches and leads,” St. Paul head coach Jake Wachsmuth said.

Players to look out for include running backs Rylan Turner (5) and Jacob Shipp (44).

Defensively, the Cardinals will be facing some kind of an eight-man front, whether it’s a 5-3 or traditional split, Wachsmuth noted.

For St. Paul, the offense needs to stay consistent and needs to break out “a big play,” something the team hasn’t been able to do according to Wachsmuth.

“It’s hard to run 10 or 15 plays in a row without making a mistake,” the head coach said. “We need a few of those big plays.”

The team has done better with their penalties. Last week against Brentwood Christian, the team was penalized just once for three yards.

But offensive consistency is what the Cardinals need to achieve in order to get their first win of the season.

Kickoff is set at 7:30 p.m.