By Con Marshall
After winning their season opener for the eighth straight year 28-8 over Broken Bow last Friday night, the Chadron Cardinals will visit Valentine this Friday. The kickoff will be at 6 p.m. MT.
The Badgers are rebuilding. Although the Cardinals beat them 42-21 the last time they played in Valentine two years ago, the Badgers finished with a 5-4 regular season record that fall and advanced to the Class C-2 playoffs. Most of their top players were seniors.
Thus, Coach Ian Bish was forced to play primarily freshmen and sophomores last fall and the Badgers were 1-8, defeating only Centura 14-6. Chadron blanked them 49-0.
Valentine threw 35 passes, completing 12 of them. The clock ran continuously during most of the second half.
Quinn Bailey did well even though he barely played offense in the second half. He carried the ball 13 times for 195 yards for a 15-yard average and scored six touchdowns, five of them in the first half. It was just the second time a Chadron High player had scored six TDs in a game. Jackson Dickerson also did it in 2013 vs. Valentine during a 60-0 triumph.
The Badgers lost their season-opener 28-20 last Friday night in O’Neill. But a year ago, O’Neill won by a 51-16 margin. Valentine still likes to pass. Quarterback Trace Buechle threw a couple of touchdown passes, one of them a 57-yarder Isaac Cronin.
Cronin is a good athlete. He’s about 6-4 and placed third in the Class C high jump at the state meet last May as a sophomore by clearing 6-6. And, he might be about as good a basketball player as there is in the western half of Nebraska this winter.
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Note: While rushing for 219 yards on 38 carries vs. Broken Bow last Friday night, Bailey has now carried for more than 3,700 yards during his high school football career.