Cardinal Comets bring Pekin Playoff hopes crashing to Earth

The Panthers won the coin toss, and by doing so they elected to receive the opening kick, which they returned to their 35. This drive would take Pekin all the way to the Cardinal 39, where they turned it over on downs.

 

Christian Bowman hauled in a four yard pass from Maddux Jones to get Cardinal on the scoreboard first with 8:02 left, but their PAT failed.

 

Cael Baker got Pekin on the scoreboard with a 12 yard rush with 46 seconds remaining in the first quarter. Griffin Greiner hauled in a 53 yard pass from Jones at the end of the first quarter

to go up 12-7.

 

The second quarter only saw one score, a three yard rush by Colton Comstock on fourth and goal, but multiple penalties pushed the PAT attempt back and it failed.

 

9:14 remaining in the third quarter is the next time the scoreboard lit up, thanks to a seven yard rush by Jones, the conversion attempt failed. Cael Baker got another rushing touchdown, Griffin Greiner quickly responded to make it 24-21 Cardinal after three quarters of play.

 

Pekin would then methodically move the ball down the field, all the way to the Cardinal 9, until fumbling it and Maddux Jones returned it 91 yards for a touchdown. Ian Liles would have a successful run for two more points after touchdown.

 

Michael Jones of Pekin had a scoring rush from the 5 yard line, and the two point conversion was successful, bringing the score to 32-29 with 6:56 left in the game.

 

After failing to convert a fake punt from their own 21, Pekin turned the ball over on downs.

 

The first play on this new possession would see Maddux Jones score on a 21 yard rush with 2:05 remaining. This 38-29 victory for Cardinal was their first over Pekin since the 1970’s. The Comets will face off against No. 3 Sigourney-Keota on Oct. 23 at Cobra Field.

 

1st 2nd 3rd 4th SCORE

Pekin 7 6 8 8 29

Cardinal 12 0 12 14 38