Fairlawn Cardinals Junior Midgets still unbeaten

By KAYLA PANU

Sports Writer

PAWTUCKET - Holding off the rain and the opposition, the Fairlawn Cardinals Junior Midget team beat the Cumberland Colts, last Saturday, 20-0, in a Blackstone Valley Youth Football League game to remain undefeated as well as keeping their shutout streak alive.

The Cardinals are now 7-0 and not one conference team has scored against them.

"I thought they played solid offense and defense," said coach Mark Carrara.

Fairlawn jumped out to the 7-0 lead in the first quarter after the Colts fumbled the ball and the Cardinals recovered it at the 30-yard line.

They strategically moved the ball down the field, with little running plays and just pushing through the Colt defense. After Diaceyea Dorbor was tackled at the 24-yard line, Mark A. Carrara caught a pass and ran it in for a touchdown and the 6-0 advantage. Alfred Dorbor took the ball in for the successful extra point to make the score 7-0.

Coach Carrara said that his team did the little things well.

"We cut down on penalties and mental mistakes," he said. "We had only one penalty and our defense hasn't let in a point all year."

At the start of the third quarter the Cardinals were ready for another score. They received the ball at the 45-yard line from the Colt kickoff. They moved the ball up the field, and after recovering their own fumble, Power Kangar ran it in for the touchdown. The Cards added the PAT and took a 14-0 lead.

The Colts started off the final quarter with the ball and threw three incomplete passes before punting the ball away. The Cardinals' Artur Debarros fielded the ball and ran it to the 15-yard line.

The next play was a pass play that concluded in the end zone, but it was negated by a penalty and the Cardinals were pushed back to their own 35.

The next pass was almost intercepted by Cumberland and on the second down the pass was incomplete.

On the next play, Livingston McCarty fired a completed pass to Alfred Dorbor, who was tackled at the 21-yard line.

Only one play later, Kangar again broke loose and barged into the end zone for a 20-0 lead and eventual victory. The extra point was blocked.

The Colts looked like they would finally score in the fourth when Brenden Guerin passed to Jonathon Stoddart who reached the Cardinal 24-yard line.

But the momentum ended there as they were pushed back and finally threw an interception caught by Edwin Montoya that ended the game.

The Cardinals will finish out the season in Seekonk against the Junior Warriors.

"We look to continue to get better and focus on the mental side of the game," coach Carrara said. "We want to get people healthy and head into the playoffs."

In other Cardinals action, the Junior Pee Wee team snapped its four game losing streak by pulling out a 25-7 win.

The Colts jumped out to the 7-0 lead on the first drive of the game. David Ballah got that back quick when he broke loose on a 70-yard touchdown run and tied the score.

The Cardinals dominated the rest of the game, shutting down the Cumberland offense. Jordan Merhi had a big day, rushing for a pair of scores, and Alexander Johnson scored the last touchdown for the Cardinals to end the game at 25-7.

The Pee Wee team tried to fight back against the Colts but came up short 21-12.

The Cardinals finally got on the board in the third quarter when the Colts tried an onside kick that bounced into Hassan Jatta's hands and he ran it in.

Later in the quarter, Nelson Dolo moved the ball into the Colts territory and Dejon Sackie provided a gain that moved the ball into the red zone.

From there, Jatta slammed into the end zone for a touchdown with help from Lucus Beland who had a key block. The extra point was no good and the Cardinals lost 21-12.