By John Bassetti

sports@vindy.com

Canfield

In the heart of fair country, there wasn’t much to crow about at Cardinal Stadium on Friday night as Louisville dismantled Canfield, 24-7.

It wasn’t “Friday Night Lights” and it wasn’t “When The Game Stands Tall,” but the non-conference season opener had its moments as individuals found the spotlight, such as when Louisville quarterback Connor Zwick ran 31 yards, then passed to Tyler Adams for a 31-yard pass play as the Leopards marched toward their tying touchdown in the second quarter. The back-to-back 31-yarders were followed by Zwick’s 18-yard TD pass to Kyle Woost and Austin Terra’s PAT and produced the 7-7 deadlock with 5:56 remaining until halftime.

It was Canfield QB Aaron Jenkins who got the Cardinals on the board just minutes into the game with a 55-yard TD run followed by Bryan Kristan’s point-after conversion.

“We felt pretty good to be tied at halftime because we didn’t think we played very well the first half,” said Louisville coach John DeMarco. “They had a couple of opportunities to score in the first half and didn’t take advantage of them. I don’t know if it was miscues on their part or defensive stops on our part, but I’m sure they were disappointed to be tied, 7-7, at the half because they kind of dominated the first half, I thought.”

But the Cardinals didn’t do much thereafter as the visitors scored 17 straight points.

The turning point was Louisville’s defensive stand during Canfield’s first series of the third quarter.

“That was huge,” DeMarco said of his team’s play following the second-half kickoff. “We wanted to come out in the second half and have our kickoff team pin them deep, like Canfield did to us to start the game. We wanted to make a stand and then have them punt and have us get good field position and we were able to do that.”

After Louisville stopped Canfield on its first possession of the third quarter, Zwick’s simple handoff to Walter Schrock was the game-breaker as the 5-foot-6, 156-pound senior zipped his way down the left sideline and into the end zone at 10:04.

An exchange of turnovers took place late in the third quarter when Canfield first recovered a fumble, only to have Louisville jump on another loose ball a few minutes later. After Terra made a 20-yard field goal early in the fourth period, Schrock scored his second TD for Louisville on a 74-yard run with 5:08 left.

Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky expressed his view of the game succinctly.

“I thought we had three chances in the first half, but only converted on one,” he said of sputtered drives. “We’ve got to be able to finish drives. If we would have done that a few more times, we would have had a few more than seven points.”

Pavlansky also noted that big plays killed the Cards.

“You can’t give up big plays on defense,” he added. “All of their touchdowns came on big plays. We’ve got to correct that, defensively, if we want to experience any success.”

Canfield’s offense had a chance to make hay when the Cardinals trailed, 17-7, early in the fourth. But a snap over Jenkins’ head left Canfield with a 19-yard loss and an insurmountable situation.