The Cardinals faced the Lincoln Mustangs at Lincoln High School on a sunny afternoon on Oct. 21. They fell short 6–14, setting their season record at 0–2.
In the first quarter, both teams struggled to score a touchdown, but in the second quarter, Lincoln scored a rushing touchdown. However, they missed the field goal. The Cards were down 0–6, but they rallied on.
According to sophomore quarterback Ronald Pollick, his biggest challenge was “staying through the whole game and keeping my head up.”
The Mustangs scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion in the third quarter, raising their lead to 14–0.
By the fourth quarter, Lowell started to move the ball faster, rushing for two first downs and getting 20 yards in two plays.
In the middle of the fourth quarter, Pollick threw a five-yard touchdown pass to sophomore running back and wide receiver Brennan Nguy. However, the team failed to score the two-point conversion.
Trailing 6–14 at this point, the Cardinals were extremely motivated to score again and potentially tie the game. However, in the end, they were unable to close the gap.
“This is by far the closest game we’ve had.”
After the game, senior middle linebacker Matthew Fiamalua put a positive spin on the loss. “This is by far the closest game we’ve had,” said Fiamalua. However, the senior also saw room for improvement. “Defensively, we need to step up more, especially for the backers because we are not executing as fast as we are supposed to,” he added.
The Big Picture
At the beginning of the season, the Cardinals were forced to forfeit their first two preseason games because they didn’t have enough players, which really hurt their team, according to head coach Danny Chan. The roster has since then expanded to 18 players, which is still a disadvantage compared to bigger teams like Lincoln.
In addition to the forfeited games, rescheduled games also affected the team’s season. The game against the Burton Pumas was originally scheduled for Oct. 12 was moved to Nov. 18 due to the poor air quality from the North Bay fires. Many players felt affected by the rescheduling. “It hurt. If we’d had Burton, we could’ve come in with a winning pedigree,” senior offensive guard and defensive tackle Jacob Weiss said. “We could’ve come in angrier, we could’ve come in more powerfully, and maybe it would’ve been a different game.”
The Cardinals will face off against the Balboa Buccaneers at 3 p.m. today.