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Evan Rusch had some "getting used to" to do for Highland's Six Rivers football game at Benton/Scales Mounds Friday.
Rusch was pressed into action to go behind center when JR Linscheid received an injury on the first series last week and will miss several weeks.
Rusch guided the Cardinals to 137 yards through the air and handed off for another 192 on the ground but he could do nothing about the penalties, fumbles and the Zephyrs' big plays.
The Cardinals coughed up the ball twice and lost both of them.
"That put our defense in a bad spot," said Highland coach Shaun Reuter. Benton/Scales Mounds outscored the Cardinals 28-6, holding them off the scoreboard until the last quarter.
It was 16-0 in B/SM's favor after three quarters and the Cardinals put their game together enough to cut the margin to 16-6. Austin Yager did the honors with a two yard plunge.
But making the game close was short lived as Joel Fawcett found a seam and scampered 72 yards for a quick B/SM score.
Before the game ended Kyle Pulvermacher took off on a 40 yard run to make it 28-6.
The first two Zephyrs scores came from Kyle Wienen on a 12 yard run in the first quarter followed by a two point conversion. Fawcett scored in the second quarter from 30 yards out and Wienen nailed Jeremiah Bailey for the two point conversion.
Yager was the workhorse for the Cardinals when they ran the football with 17 times for 49 yards. Again, he drew a lot of attention form the defense.
"Austin is working hard for us but the opponents are really concentrating on him so we did move him around a little bit to try to get him the ball," Reuter said.
With the difference in points the Cardinals had to use the airways more than they would have liked but Reuter saw some good things with Rusch's arm.
"We passed a lot more than we would ever want to but Evan did throw the ball really well," Reuter said. "That was a bright spot that we may be able to mix up our play calling a little bit. The negative side of having to throw that many times is that we couldn't get our run game going."
Rusch was 13 for 19 for the 137 air yards. Yager grabbed six for 111 yards.
The Cardinals actually had more yards than the winners with 329-320 but fell short on points.
"We didn't play well at all and I think the kids may have taken them too lightly," Reuter said. "I don't think we were ready to play. They were more physical and wanted it more than we did."
The Cardinals, already light on numbers and experience, lost another player in the first quarter when Nate Michek left with an injury.
"We were missing four starters on both sides of the ball," Reuter said. "We are down to the point of playing more underclassmen than upperclassmen. We hope to get a couple of them back for Friday if they can get cleared to play."
The next challenge for the Cardinals will be Pecaton-ica/Argyle, a big team that runs a non-conventional offense.
"Pec is our next opponent and they always give us trouble because they spread us out with their athletes and make us play in space," Reuter said. "It is a much different offense than we have seen so far this year so we will really have to work on our coverages and try to prevent the big play."