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It’s been a tough season for both the Cardinal Stritch and  Gibsonburg football teams with Gibsonburg winning once
and Stritch yet to pick up its first victory.
After losing their first two games in convincing fashion, in week one to the Cleveland Knights (34-0) and in week two to the Woodmore Wildcats (49-6), the Cardinals (0-4) have shown improvement. In the third game, Stritch fell just short against Lakota, 34-26, and, the following week, played Lakeside Danbury tough before losing, 40-27.
The problem for Stritch has not been their offense, but rather the defense -- they’ve been able to put points on the board, but haven’t been able to keep the opposing team’s offense in check.
Against Gibsonburg, if the Cardinals can contain quarterback Matt Tille, who has 710 yards of total offense this season, they’ll have a good shot at winning on Friday.
On the other side, things haven’t gone much better for Gibsonburg.
After defeating Lakota in week two, 19-16, the Golden Bears have been outscored 65-7 in their last two games, losing to Fremont St. Joseph CC, 27-7, and falling to Ottawa Hills, 38-0. In their last two games, Gibsonburg has turned the ball over 11 times. In four games, they’ve turned it over 14 times, which includes eight fumbles and six interceptions.
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Cardinal Stritch
defensive
back Zach
Denomy(4)
looks to inter-
cept a pass
thrown by
Danbury return-
ing all-state
quarterback
Lucas Kennedy.
(Press photo
by Doug Karns)
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Gibsonburg
coach,
Steve Reser.
(Press photo
by Scott Grau)
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“Our team needs to realize there is a lot of football left to play in the second half of the season,” said Gibsonburg head coach Steve Reser. “It would be great if we could get back on track.”
For Reser, it’s been a challenge trying to turn things around in just his second season at the helm.
“It seems, at times, that we get stagnant or content with just being on the field,” he said. “We need to understand that’s not enough. To give ourselves a chance, we are going to have to compete on every play better than we have shown to this point. We haven’t even realized ourselves how good we can be.”
Gibsonburg, which employs a spread offense, is led by Tille, who, despite being a freshman, has rushed for 395 yards and thrown for 315 yards so far. However, Tille has completed only 32.8% (20-for-61) of his passes this season. If he can start to complete a high percentage of his passes, it will allow the offense to open up more and give them opportunities to make big plays.
Running back Jon Angelone has rushed for 119 yards on 29 carries and two touchdowns, and wide receiver Logan Jones has caught 14 passes for 260 yards (18.6 per reception) and a touchdown. Defensively, Angelone has an interception and a fumble recovery.
It’s been a struggle for both coaches as they attempt to revive these respective programs. On top of that, neither team has had much success in the past decade.
After going 4-6 last season, the Cardinals had three consecutive 1-9 campaigns. That was however, preceded by an 8-3 season in 2006 in which the team qualified for the playoffs, and a 6-4 season before that.
One of the problems for Stritch has been maintaining stability at the head coaching position. The program, which is now led by Jim Kubuske, has had seven coaches since 2000.
Kubuske is currently in his first year at the helm. Previously, he’s been the head coach at Lake and Tiffin Calvert, leading the Flyers to their only two playoff appearances in ‘00 and ’01.
Gibsonburg has had even worse luck, going without a winning season for years. In the past six seasons, they’ve gone 0-10, 3-7, 5-5, 2-8, 0-10 and 0-10, respectively.
While the Golden Bears have shown signs of improvement this season, there is still plenty of work to be done.
Reser remains optimistic that things will eventually get better.
“I don’t feel our record shows exactly how good we can be,” he said. “We haven’t even realized ourselves how good we can be. The ability is there, we just need to pick up our work ethic and play together.
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