Cardinals seeking big road win at Huffman

Published 8:31 am Wednesday, October 21, 2015

BRIDGE CITY — After a dominating win against Orange County rival Little Cypress-Mauriceville last week, the Bridge City Cardinals are honed in for another big clash on the road Friday that could have definite playoff aspirations when they take on the Huffman Falcons in District 10-4A Division play.

After suffering a tough 48-47 road loss at Jasper, the Cardinals (5-2, 2-1) were a well-oiled machine against LC-M last week, jumping out to a 42-7 lead and winning 62-35.

The Falcons (5-2, 3-0) who had some early season injuries that hurt them in non-district, are off to a flying start in 10-4A play.

Huffman has dumped Cleveland (56-21) and Splendora (45-14) the last two weeks and stunned Silsbee (50-47) on the road in their 10-4A opener Oct. 2.

The Cardinals are coming off an LC-M game in which they piled up 474 total yards and forced the Bears into five turnovers.

Running back Cayce Draper is closing in on the 1,000-yard mark after he rumbled for 127 yards on just 11 carries against LC-M. He also caught three passes for 63 yards in the big win.

Cardinal quarterback Camden Dubois put together perhaps his best game in a Cardinal uniform last week. He completed 5-of-5 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 69 yards on 12 carries and three more scores.

Colt Poole and Derick Dearing each add a mean punch out of the Cardinal backfield as the Bridge City offensive line has been dominant up front for its backfield.

The Cardinal defense should see plenty of balance from the Falcons, who are averaging 385.6 yards a contest, 200 in the air and 185.5 on the ground.

The Falcons are led by three-year starting quarterback Cody Gaitan. Gaitan has completed 104-of-170 passes for 1,136 yards with 17 TDs and four interceptions.

He has several receiver to go to in the forms of Lane Shively (27-393-5), Dylan Lorfing (26-335-4), Trey Lundy (21-268-5) and Noah Thomas (17-200-2).

Huffman tailback Cesar Marroquin has darted for 864 yards and 10 TDs on 124 carries while Cmararon McMahan has 414 yards and four TDs on just 40 totes.

Huffman downed the Cardinals 61-16 last season, totaling 553 yards. Gaitan completed 22-of-28 passes for 418 yards and five TDs.

It will be a crucial two-week stretch for the Redbirds as they are still on a quest for a 10-4A title as they will play host to Silsbee next week.