by Game recap by Brandon Miller
Sheffield Village, OH- The Brookside Cardinals and head coach Scott O’Donnell hosted non-conference foe the Fairview Warriors who are led by head coach Sean Ranc. The Cardinals come into this contest with a record of 1-1 with a victory over the Brooklyn Hurricanes in the season opener by a score of 35-0 at home but were coming off a shutout loss at the hands of the Huron Tigers by a score of 49-0 in Huron last Friday Night. The Warriors on the other hand were looking for their first victory of the 2023 campaign. They had lost to both Cuyahoga Heights and Columbia High School both on home soil. In the end, the Cardinals of Brookside High School defeated the Warriors of Fairview High School 28-13.
The Brookside Cardinals opened the game with the ball and were looking good as senior quarterback Ben Montgomery rushed for a huge gain of 35 yards until the Cardinal offense stalled and turned it over on downs on a fourth and one call. After a Warrior punt, the Cardinals got on the board as Montgomery broke a Warriors team tackle for a 14-yard rush to put the Cardinals into prime scoring position. On the very next play, Montgomery found paint from 22 yards out to put his team up 7-0. On the Warriors ensuing possession, a false start penalty caused them to have to punt the ball away which ultimately finished the first quarter with Brookside up by one score.
Both teams had traded empty possessions to open the second quarter until Montgomery scrambled 24 yards into the end zone to put his Cardinals up 14 to 0. The second quarter was all defense on both sides as nothing but punts and turn over on downs resulted from the great defensive effort by both teams. As a result of the spectacular defensive showing by both squads, we headed to halftime with the Cardinals up by two touchdowns.
Fairview got the ball to start the second half. The Warriors came out strong as they drove the ball down the field and this drive was capped off by a 46-yard rush by junior running back Brandon Clark to score the first points of the game. The Cardinals answered right back on their next possession when Montgomery rushed for 24 yards to the end zone on a fourth down conversion to put this team back on top by two scores. After a punt by the Warriors, the Cardinals converted a third and seven play when junior Tyler Kitzberger rushed for 15 yards, but this unfortunately resulted in a punt. This would lead us to the final quarter of play.
Montgomery completed a pass to senior Lincoln Barnhart for a 12-yard gain to put the Cardinals back into prime scoring position. On the next play, Kitzberger rushed for 3 yards to put his team up by three scores at 28-7. The Warriors answered back though when sophomore quarterback Burke Lowry threw a bomb to senior Nolan Reis for 49 yards to try and spark the offense for a possible late comeback but unfortunately the point after attempt was no good, so the score stood at 28-13 in favor of the Cardinals.
As a result of a Cardinals punt, the Warriors did not go away quietly as they completed a much needed third down conversion when they completed a pass for 13 yards. Despite this conversion, the Warriors were picked off by no other than Montgomery who had himself a game on both sides of the ball. This would end the game as the Cardinals of Brookside High School defeated the Warriors of Fairview High School 28-13.
The players of the game are quarterback Ben Montgomery of Brookside who had 23 carries for 194 yards and 3 touchdowns on the ground along with 2 of 3 for 30 yards and no touchdowns through the air but came up with a game sealing interception on defense. As for the Warriors, the player of the game is sophomore quarterback Burke Lowry who ended the game with a line of 14 of 28 for 203 yards with two touchdowns and a pick.
Next up for the Fairview Warriors, is Lutheran East Falcons at home and the Brookside Cardinals travel to Oberlin to take on the Phoenix.
