Mancelona too much for Cardinals; big one at Pellston Friday night

The Onaway High School varsity football team suffered its first loss of the season Friday when it fell at Mancelona, 56-14. The defeat dropped the Cardinals’ record to 4-1 (2-1 in the Ski Valley South).

Onaway needs two wins in its final four games to gain an automatic playoff berth. The Cards will attempt to get one of those victories tonight (Friday) when they travel to Pellston.

The Hornets, like the Cardinals, are 4-1 and thinking playoffs. One of the teams will take a big step toward accomplishing that goal tonight, while the other’s hopes will suffer a sizeable blow. The game is a big one to be sure.

To win, the Red Birds will have to sure up their defense, which had allowed just 10 points per game coming into last week’s contest at Mancy, but gave up to eight touchdowns to the powerful Ironmen.

Mancelona took advantage of a short field on its first two drives – once on an interception and once on a short OHS punt – turning both into touchdowns in route to an early 14-0 lead.

OHS responded with a 42-yard touchdown pass from Carlos Bautista to Tommy Auger, cutting the lead to 14-6, but that’s as close as the Cards would get, as the Ironman offense rolled all night.

Onaway put a second touchdown on the board midway through the second quarter, on a 34-yard pass from Bautista to Rich Hoff Jr. (Bautista hit Gedda with the conversion), but it was all Mancy after that.

Bautista comp

leted seven of 14 passes for 95 yards, and ran the ball five times for 43 yards, while Jason Sigsby carried the ball nine times for 41 yards and had eight yards receiving.

Wyatt Derrer paced a potent Mancelona ground attack, running the ball 19 times for 141 yards and five touchdowns. Trevor Ackler ran for 83 yards and two touchdowns.

Chris Cleaver was in on 21 tackles to pace the Red Bird defense. Gedda was in on 17 tackles, Chae Whitsitt was in on 10, and Bautista and Jamal Porter were in on nine apiece.