18 year Hanover head coach Matt Heuer had a spectacular career record for the Wildcats coming into the season at 167-31.  However, nobody is great every year and this is definitely a work in progress for Heuer and the Wildcats this season.  For the second week in a row Hanover suffered big loss giving up a total of 102 points in the first two games of the season.

Ell-Saline senior QB Kade Wilson gave Heuer and the Wildcats headaches all night long on Friday.  Wilson had 4 TD passes and ran for two more en route to the big Cardinal win.

After a scoreless first quarter, Ell-Saline got on the board on the first play of quarter number 2 when Wilson finished off a 60 yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Melvin Lutes.  Less than 5 minutes of game clock time later, Wilson hit junior Joe Heichel on a 30 yard scoring strike.  Then with 3:17 left in the half the Wilson-Heichel combo came up golden again this time on a play that covered 4 yards and the Cardinals took a 20-0 lead into the locker room at intermission.

Ell-Saline picked up right where they left off on the opening drive of the third quarter with Wilson finding a wide open Mason Ellerman in the back of the end zone a pitched a 5 yard touchdown pass to his fellow senior and the Cardinals led 28-0.

Hanover got on the scoreboard as the clock expired at the end of the third quarter on a TD pass from sophomore quarterback Rieken Stallbaumer to Noah Juenman, also a sophomore, in a play that covered 30 yards.

The Cardinals needed all of 40 seconds to match that score on a 2 play drive capped off with a 27 yard dash to pay dirt by Wilson to make the score 36-6 early in the final stanza.  Hanover answered that TD at the 9:27 mark to go in the game when Stallbaumer found senior Josh Zarybinicky for a 13 yard scoring pass.  Again, the Cardinals matched that touchdown with Wilson taking it in on a nifty run of 10 yards with just 6:50 to go in the game.

Following an Ell-Saline interception by freshman Kas Kramer, senior Obed Ruiz put the final nail in the Wildcat coffin with a 37 yard run down the near sideline to make the final score 50 to 14 giving Ell-Saline their second win of the young season.

Next up for the Cardinals, a road trip to Little River for a game that has been moved to Thursday night at 7 PM.  The Redskins improved to 1-1 Friday night with 57-6 blowout win over Rural Vista.