After playing and losing to four ranked teams in games where they were outscored 192 to 12, Ell-Saline got back into the win column Friday wiping out the Eagles at Ellinwood, 43-7.

Junior quarterback Kade Wilson ran for a pair of Cardinal touchdowns and had a hand in two more TDs on pass plays.

Wilson scored the only points in the first quarter with runs of 9 yards and a 3 yard rush that capped an 84 yard Ell-Saline drive.

The Cardinals would add three more scores in the second quarter.  Their first touchdown of the stanza came on a 5-yard run by sophomore Ryder Dent.  Following that score, Ellinwood would get their only points of the game on what appeared to be a broken play.  Eagle running back Cole Petz, a senior, was about to be tackled for a loss when he pitched the ball back to his sophomore QB Drew Heinz who raced 37 yards down the sideline for the score.  Following that play, Wilson got busy with his arm.  With exactly 5 minutes to go until half, he found his favorite receiver senior Taegen Bradley on a 5-yard scoring pass.  The dagger would come 4:59 later when Wilson hit senior Garrett Phelps on a nice touchdown pass that covered 28 yards and came with one tick left on the clock before halftime.  That made the score 33-7 Cardinals at the intermission.

Ell-Saline played several second team players in half number 2 and with 3:16 left in the third quarter, back-up running back junior Aidan Brockway ran to pay dirt from the 3-yard line and the stanza ended with the Cardinals up 40-7.

The only score of the final period occurred with 8:46 to go in the game when senior Noah Carrazco booted his first field goal of the season from 21 yards out.

With the win, Ell-Saline improved to 3-5 on the year and 3-3 in the district.  The Cardinals will now wait to see who and where they play next week in the first round of the 1A playoffs.  With the loss, the Eagles fall to 1-6 on the 2021 season.