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In the game of football especially at the high school level it is a good thing to have more than one weapon.
And an even better thing not to come into any game overconfident.
In other words, play the entire game and play it hard.
Highland's defending Six Rivers co-champs found their opener with Shullsburg more difficult than the match-up appeared on paper. The Miners have only 20 out for football so that means a lot of underclassmen get on the field for them.
But, the Miners had upset on their minds and it wasn't until weapon number two kicked in for the Cardinals that they were able to turn things in their favor.
The weapon?
The passing prowess of senior quarterback Blake Bodenstein who eyed his brother, Bailey for a couple completions and guided the Cardinals to scoring position--twice.
Shullsburg scored on an eight yard Brett Matye to Bret Doyle slant pass in the opening quarter and the lead stood for much of the game.
Highland got an eight yard run from senior back Nic Pierick for their first score in the second quarter but a missed conversion kept it in Shullsburg's favor, 7-6.
Blake Bodenstein then capped off a second Highland drive by running in a score late in the fourth quarter.
That gave the Cardinals the 12-7 win in the Six Rivers opener at the UWP Jamboree.
" It was a very tough game against a Shullsburg team that came ready to play and we didn't," said Highland coach Shane Reuter. "We had to go to the passing game in the fourth quarter to get the lead and thankfully we were able to move the ball in the air. Blake Bodenstein was 8-12 for 152 yards and on our go ahead drive we passed all the way down the field before he punched it in."
The Cardinals also received a boost from senior defensive tackle Trey Olson who came up with a huge play forcing and recovering a fumble towards the end of the game.
Part of what ended up to be a sluggish performance could be part of an early season learning curve.
"We do have some kids trying new positions and it is definitely still a work in progress,"Reuter said. "I expect they will be a lot better this week at doing their job."
Reuter said the key to the game and the turning point was when the Cardinals went to the airways.
"We were able to move the ball down the field," said Reuter. "All eight of Blake's completions were for over 15 yards and two of the incompletions could have been caught."
Key plays in the game included:
-The Bodenstein connection got things going for us in the fourth quarter.
-Branden McCollough also had three catches in the game.
-Levi Linschied and Caleb Yager are also there to throw the ball to.
"Hopefully we can pass a little more and that will help open our run game up," Reuter said. "Nic Pierick ran really hard and got a lot of his yards on his own. Our offensive line does not have the size it did last year but we are a little quicker so we hope that we can stay with our blocks a little longer from here on out."
Trey Olson had the big one forcing and recovering a fumble from the quarterback as Reuter's play of the game.
"I thought Andrew Wolfe played a real good game at defensive end for us with it being his first game there," he added.
The Cardinals have been working on playing to the whistle this week.
"We are working on blocking until you hear the whistle, being more aggressive, and putting forth effort on all plays," Reuter said. "I was not real happy with our effort on Saturday. Our goal is to win another conference title and we need to put forth a championship effort every play."
One of the area's top teams and the only Six Rivers squad to get the best of Highland this week comes to Tyler Field Friday.
"On Friday we have the Black Hawk Warriors at Highland. They are the only team to beat us last year in conference and they beat us up pretty good down there. They lost the first week to really good Potosi team and they do not want to start 0-2 so we will have our hands full. They are very athletic and quick team up front and return some very good players from last year. We will have to play much better to beat Blackhawk," Reuter said.