El Dorado’s defense pitched a shutout for most of the first half on Friday in a 35-34 victory over Camden Fairview. Fairview tied the game at 14-14 at the half, scoring on a fourth down 12-yard pass on the final play of the second quarter. The Cardinals’ other first half score came on a 98-yard kickoff return.
“We played well for the first 45 minutes on defense but we have to finish the game when we have a team down and we didn’t do that,” said defensive coordinator Wes Ables.
El Dorado held Fairview to 70 yards rushing but the Cardinals threw for 299 yards including touchdown passes of 30 and 49 yards.
“The big issue I saw tonight was we’ve got to do a lot better job of collisioning receivers,” said head coach Chris Hill. “Receivers love a free release so they can run where they want to and that’s what we let them do. We didn’t collision receivers at all. Receivers hate guys taking shots at them. We’ve got to be more physical with receivers. We’ve got to disrupt. I mean, if you let a guy free release you might as well be playing 7-on-7. It cost us a couple scores tonight.”
AJ Gilmore had seven tackles, including one tackle for loss. Jarondy Williams had 6.5 tackles and a pass break up. Bretaveon Brown had 6.5 tackles. Jakori Lumsey had five tackles with one tackle for loss. Jaylen Caldwell had four tackles with one tackle for loss. Marquette Montgomery and Tahmadai White each had four tackles and Josiah Crosby had three tackles with one tackle for loss.
“A lot of young guys are gaining valuable experience before conference play starts,” said Ables.