By Chris LaClair
EAGLE TIMES SPORTS EDITOR
CLAREMONT, NH — The Claremont Mini Cardinals program opened their season on a beautiful Saturday night at Barnes Park as they hosted the Springfield Cosmos.
The first game of the night featured the fourth and fifth grade teams as they battled in a tough-fought game that saw the Mini Cardinals pull out the 38-24 victory.
Eli Flood exploded past the defenders on the first play of the game as he took the rock to the house for an 80-yard touchdown run. Ray Lewis Jr. punched the 2-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.
As the time expired in the first quarter, Springfield fumbled the ball into the hands of Dominic Sullivan who ran it back; Flood ran it into the endzone for a 16-0 lead. Lewis Jr. scored on back-to-back touchdown runs to put the Mini Cardinals up 30-8 as the halftime buzzer sounded.
Flood opened the second half just as he had in the first half with another rushing touchdown only 55 seconds in. Raymond Hughes grinded past the goal line for another 2-point conversion for a Mini Cardinals 38-8 lead.
The Cosmos made a game of it with 2 rushing touchdowns of their own to chip away at the lead. Samual Wright punched in the ball from the 1-yard line with Keaton Thurber rushing in the first 2-point conversion. Ryan Wilson finished out the scoring with his own rushing touchdown and another 2-point conversion from Thurber.
The sixth grade team played the nightcap. The score of this game wasn’t as close as the younger team; the Mini Cardinals dominated the Cosmos 50-0.
Tatum Lunderville opened the scoring for Claremont with a long rushing touchdown. Benji Whitney followed that up with a long rushing touchdown of his own that was called back for a block in the back. That didn’t stop him from scoring again on the next run as well as him converting the 2-point conversion for a 14-0 lead.
Whitney would find the endzone again twice before halftime as well as rushing in two more 2-point conversions.
Lunderville would score the last touchdown of the half on a beautiful reception from a perfectly timed pass from Elijah Jillson. The second half saw an exciting touchdown run from Carter Friesen and another touchdown pass from Jillson that was right on the money to Lunderville.
“It was a great team effort as most of the kids are new to the team,” said Cardinal Coach Raymond Lewis said. “Seeing them implement what they’ve learned in practice is a great feeling. They were able to identify mistakes in the game and adjust all while having fun doing it. [It’s] such a fun group, couldn’t be prouder of them.”
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