The Elgin/Pope John Wolfpack are taking a road trip to square off against the St. Mary's Cardinals at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Elgin/Pope John sitting on four straight wins and St. Mary's on five.
If St. Mary's heads into halftime all tied up, they better play a good second half: that's when Elgin/Pope John took over last week. The Wolfpack breezed past Creighton to the tune of 38-8 on Friday. The game was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Wolfpack had established a 22-point advantage.
Elgin/Pope John didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off four passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Evin Pelster and Trey Rittscher. Pelster got in on the action too, converting a pick into a touchdown.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask St. Mary's). They claimed a resounding 78-35 victory over Ainsworth. The final result isn't all that surprising considering the Cardinals' considerable advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska football rankings (they are ranked third, while the Bulldogs are ranked 110th).
Elgin/Pope John better keep an eye on Gage Hedstrom. He was instrumental in St. Mary's win, throwing for 319 yards and seven touchdowns while picking up 13.3 yards per attempt, and also rushing for 64 yards and one score on only eight carries. Thanks to that big game, Hedstrom is now up to 18 passing touchdowns on the season. Another player making a difference was Ben Barlow, who picked up 126 receiving yards and three TDs.
St. Mary's didn't let much get past them through the air: they limited Ainsworth to a completion percentage of just 47.1%. The team can thank Hedstrom for the heroic effort on defense: he. St. Mary's hasn't an opponent to post a completion percentage of 0.6 or higher in four consecutive matchups.
St. Mary's defensive line didn't let the opposing QB, get away unscathed either: they got into the backfield for three sacks. Dalton Herley refused to say out of the backfield, picking up 1.5 sacks all by himself. Hedstrom got in on the action too, converting a pick into a touchdown.
Elgin/Pope John's record now sits at 4-1. As for St. Mary's, their record is now 5-0.
Elgin/Pope John took a serious blow against St. Mary's in their previous matchup back in October of 2024, falling 68-28. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Hedstrom, who rushed for 140 yards and three scores on only 13 carries, and also threw for 136 yards and three touchdowns on only eight passes. Now that the Wolfpack know the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
