Football Game Preview: Cardinal Mooney Cardinals vs. Girard Indians

Cardinal Mooney is on a nine-game streak of home wins (dating back to last season), while Girard is on a four-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Cardinals will face off against the Indians at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. One thing working in Cardinal Mooney's favor is that they have posted at least 31 points in their last three games.

Cardinal Mooney is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They blew past Garfield, posting a 56-14 victory. Given the Cardinals' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio football rankings (they are ranked 26th, while the G-Men are ranked 185th) , the win wasn't entirely unexpected.

Ike Lake had a dynamite game, rushing for 84 yards and a pair of touchdowns on only seven carries. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in rushing touchdowns (two).

Meanwhile, Girard hadn't done well against Poland Seminary recently (they were 1-6 in their previous seven matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Friday. The Indians slipped by the Bulldogs 28-27. 28 seems to be a good number for the Indians as the team scooped up a win with the same number of points in their previous game.

The match pitted two dominant signal callers against one another in AJ Pearson and David Xipolitas. Pearson had a great game and rushed for 182 yards and four TDs. Meanwhile, Xipolitas was balling out in the loss, rushing for 99 yards and one score on only ten carries.

On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Girard's defense and their five sacks. Allen Hess-Cardona was especially locked on to Poland Seminary's QB and sacked him four times. Hess-Cardona is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made six or more in each of the last 17 games he's played dating back to last season. Girard got some further help from Braxton Sloan: he made eight total tackles and defended one pass in addition to snagging two interceptions.

Cardinal Mooney's record now sits at 9-2. As for Girard, their record is now 12-0.