Football: Willmar Cardinals click quickly to hammer Tech

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Oct. 9—ST. CLOUD — Willmar got this one over with early.

The Cardinals beat host St. Cloud Tech 62-14 in a matinee football game at Tech.

The game was moved up to 4:30 p.m. Friday instead of a regular 7 p.m. kickoff time because of safety concerns expressed by the St. Cloud school district.

Fans were asked to walk through metal detectors and then to leave immediately afterward. There were no incidents.

Meanwhile, Willmar piled up 358 yards on the way to a 56-0 halftime lead. Seven receivers caught balls. Many starters were pulled with about six minutes remaining in the first half.

Willmar's backups started the second half. Tech (2-4) kept most of its starters in until the end, which included fourth-quarter running time.

Willmar is 6-0 and ranked third in Class AAAA in the state media football poll.

The Cards clicked quickly on both ends of the ball.

On the first play from scrimmage, a botched hook and ladder play by the Tigers led to a fumble that was recovered by Willmar's Jackson Carlson at Tech's 40-yard line. Willmar capitalized by scoring on a seven-yard run by Hudson Sjoberg.

Willmar built its lead to 21-0. Tech got down to the Cardinals' 12-yard line before the drive was stopped on a Jacob Ellingson interception in the end zone for a touchback. Willmar responded with a 44-yard touchdown pass by Alex Hoppe to Aidan Paulson.

It was 28-0 through one quarter.

The Cardinals also got a defensive touchdown. Carlson battled a ball up in the air towards a trio of Cardinals. It ended up in Sjoberg's hands, who raced 52 yards for the touchdown with 10:15 left before halftime.

Tech fumbled the ensuing kickoff and it was recovered by Lawson Anez.

Willmar went up 42-0 on a 13-yard TD run from Sjoberg with 8:05 left in the second quarter.

With 5:50 before half, Willmar went up 49-0 after Nickoli Vogel caught a 62-yard pass on a bubble screen from Jake DeBoer, who was in at quarterback for Hoppe.

DeBoer then scored on a two-yard touchdown run with 3:06 to go before halftime to make it 56-0.

Tech's first team then scored two touchdowns on the Cardinals' back-ups. Senior quarterback Andrew Brown completed 25 or 41 passes for 245 yards and two TDs.

Willmar recovered two fumbles and had five interceptions, including two by Ellingson and one each from Anez, Tommy Quinn and Sjoberg.

Willmar plays at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Detroit Lakes.

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