ABOVE: Brett Willliams breaks the plane and scores on a 55-yard touchdown reception while cheered on by Elijah Johnson (8) and Nolan Schultze (3) Saturday in Fairmont during a South District, Central Subdistrict football game Saturday.

FAIRMONT – A versatile performance from the Fairmont Cardinals football team proved to be too much for the Albert Lea Tigers on Saturday as the Cardinals came away with a 47-7 victory in a South District, Central Subdistrict football game.

The Cardinal offense came out swinging, setting the tone early by establishing the run in order to set up the play-action option. Despite what was called, however, the Tigers couldn’t do much to stop it.

If the Tigers managed to set up a pass defense, Fairmont quarterback Joe Long fell back to his trusted run-game support in Elijah Johnson. On the occasions that the Tigers managed to stop the run, Long had no problem finding his receivers over the top with his preference leading to multiple connections with receiver Nolan Schultze.

“The run’s been working well, the short throws are working well,” said Long. “Everyone’s getting open, we’re all just working together pretty well. Nolan Schultze is a great receiver, Elijah is a great running back, always reliable.”

Leading the Cardinals’ offense was Long who completed 14 of 19 passes for 188 yards in the air and one touchdown, while Schultze caught six passes for 83 yards. Tavian Harvey snagged three passes for 25 yards and Brett Williams reeled in one for 55 yards that resulted in a touchdown. On the ground, Johnson ran for 161 yards on 19 carries while adding three touchdowns to his season total, while Long ran for two touchdowns of his own and Ty Tumbleson broke loose for a 9-yard rushing touchdown.

“We played really well. I thought overall we played three really good quarters,” said Fairmont head coach Mat Mahoney. “We had a small little hiccup there in the second quarter, but our guys responded extremely well in the second half. And you know, anytime you can beat a team 47-7, you’re doing something right. And we did a lot of good things today.”

The game was not all offense for Fairmont. On the defensive side of the ball, the Cardinals made sure to be as disruptive as possible. Despite giving up 230 yards, they kept the Tigers out of the end zone all but once. Leading the defense, Caleb Chambers had two fumble recoveries, while Isaac Taplin had one of his own. Trevor Maakestad had 2 1/2 sacks, while Hank Artz and Tumbleson added another 1 1/2 sacks each on the day. Also adding to the sack tally was Mathew Martin, Benet Mathiason and Tyler Bickanes.

“They’ve got a good quarterback, good couple receivers,” said Mahoney. “So, we just threw in a couple extra defensive backs to slow them down, jam them up at the line, and played a little bit more heavy down the field, and that slowed them down.”

The scoring took some time to open up and with just over nine minutes on the

clock, Johnson broke free for a 4-yard touchdown run to start the scoring for the Cardinals. The Cardinals found the end zone two more times in the first quarter.

After Tumbleson found a gap for a 9-yard touchdown run with 5:40 left on the clock, Johnson did what he does best four minutes later and broke free for a 16-yard touchdown run to close out the scoring for the quarter.

The Tigers’ defense was doing a solid job of holding the Cardinals at bay in the second quarter, only giving up one touchdown with a minute left on the clock when Long scampered in on a 2-yard keeper for the only scoring play in the quarter.

Two minutes into the third, Long again used his legs to find the end zone on a 5-yard run. The Tigers’ defense was holding up until Long found an open Williams for a 55-yard touchdown through the air.

Starting the fourth quarter up 41-0, the Cardinals were able to find the end zone one more time when Johnson ran through the secondary for a 32-yard touchdown. Despite being down 47 points, the Tigers finally got to show off some of their skills when quarterback Layton Yost connected with Teaghen Tolbers on a 50-yard TD throw for their first and only touchdown of the day.

The now 3-0 Cardinals have stuck with the “brick by brick” mantra that the coaching staff instilled at the start of the season and now look to this week’s opponent St. Peter, who they play at home for their Homecoming matchup Friday night.