For the third time in four weeks, the Ell-Saline Cardinals failed to put any points on the scoreboard losing to the 4th ranked Smith Center Redmen 41 to nothing.

The Cardinals did hang in there for a while only giving up 14 points in the first quarter.  Junior running back Bentley Montgomery opened the scoring when he punched it in from the 1-yard line at the 9:34 mark of the opening stanza.  Sophomore Luke Franklin had a 15-yard run with 23 seconds left in the quarter.

The Cardinals would give up three TDs in the second quarter.  With 5:23 to go before half, Montgomery got his second touchdown of the night on a 7-yard run.  At the 3:14 mark, senior Jacob Kirchhoff scored on a 37-yard rush.  The backbreaker would come just 2 minutes later.  Ell-Saline was driving and in a good position to score when Kirchhoff came up with a 64-yard pick-6 to give the Redmen a 35-0 lead at intermission.

The second half was played with a semi-continuous clock with Smith Center getting the lone score of the half with 10:48 to go in the game when sophomore Luke Franklin ran to pay dirt from the 5-yardline.

With the win, Smith Center kept their perfect season alive through seven games.  The Redmen will have a very tough test next week when they return home to host the top rated team in Class 1-A the Inman Tuetons.  Inman is also undefeated and have only given up one field goal on defense all season.  Meanwhile, the 2 and 5 Cardinals hope to get back into the win column when they travel to Ellinwood to take on an Eagle team that only has one win on the year.