ABOVE: Fairmont quarterback Joe Long delivers a pass to Nolan Schultze in a South District football game against Tri-City United.

FAIRMONT – The now 2-0 Fairmont Cardinals are preparing for their next opponent, the Albert Lea Tigers.

Coming off a 41-13 victory over Belle Plaine, the Cardinals have focused on correcting the few defensive errors to prepare for the Albert Lea option offense, ensuring they’re ready for every look that can be thrown at them.

Fairmont will host Albert Lea in a 12:30 p.m. Saturday game.

The Cardinal offense is confident coming off their last win in which quarterback Joe Long went 11 for 14 in the air for two touchdowns and 203 yards, setting his career high as the starter. Receiver Nolan Schultze is coming into this game after a solid performance with 45 yards and touchdown, while star running back Elijah Johnson put up 130 yards and two touchdowns in the Belle Plaine matchup.

“Looking back at Belle Plaine, we made some mistakes defensively that kind of caught us off guard a little bit,” said Fairmont football head coach Mat Mahoney. “It wasn’t the Fairmont football way, and coming in this week, we’ve corrected those errors and we’ve got a good matchup coming on Saturday for the Tigers.”

The Fairmont defense gave up its first points of the season against Belle Plaine, allowing 13 after shutting out Tri-CIty United in Week 1. Hank Artz of the Cardinals put on a solid performance, putting up his first pick-6 of the season. The team is still making the adjustments needed, however, to keep the defense on track.

“They’ve got a really good quarterback and he’s really good at running their option and he will pitch the ball, he’ll keep the ball, he’ll run with it,” said Mahoney of Albert Lea. “He’s just a dynamic player and they got one really good-looking receiver, number one, so we have to make sure that we know where he is at all times. And they’ll do some things formation-wise to try and get him the ball and so we’ve just got to be able to line up correctly.”

The Cardinal offense is continuing to develop, building off of a successful start by Long under enter, who is getting even more comfortable after every snap. The running game continues to be a dominant force for the Cardinals and the tandem of Artz and Johnson will continue to be a threat heading into this weekend’s game.

“Joe has just done an unbelievable job,” said Mahoney. “You can just see his confidence is growing every week. Every week it’s just more reps for him to understand our offense and I think it’s really starting to come together for him.”

The Cardinals had success running the ball against the Tigers last year and are looking to build on that, but the team is taking nothing for granted not relying on one particular aspect of their game but the entire set of tools at their disposal.

“We’re gonna take whatever the defense gives us,” said Mahoney. “If they want us to throw the ball vertically, we’re gonna throw it vertically. If we need to throw it horizontally, we’ll throw it horizontally, but we’re gonna do whatever the defense dictates.”

Mahoney plans to use the Cardinals’ aggressive run game to disrupt the Tigers’ defense and open up the passing lanes for his receivers, setting up a multi-faceted look to keep his opponent on their toes and all of his options open come game day.

The Cardinals defeated the Tigers in their last meeting 41-8. Elijah Johnson had 15 carries for 289 yards and four touchdowns in that game, setting the Fairmont High School rushing record for a single game.

The Cardinals are looking to continue their win streak Saturday.