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September 2, 2010

JUNIOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Trail of tears, or triumph?

Cards hope to change fortunes at Cisco, where last season began to fall apart

Jayson Larson The Athens Review

ATHENS — TRINITY VALLEY (1-0)

at CISCO (1-0)

7 p.m. Saturday

Chesley Field

TVCC leads series, 40-9

When the Trinity Valley Community College Cardinals board a bus headed west for Cisco this weekend, they’ll be returning to the site where their 2009 season fell apart.

And don’t think they’ve forgotten it, either.

The Cardinals, coming off a 51-16 thrashing of Independence (Kan.) in their season opener, will be looking to make amends for a surprising and devastating loss in West Texas last season.

“We want to beat them in the worst way,” sophomore offensive lineman Isaac Puapuaga said. “It’s still fresh in our minds.”

TVCC was 3-0 when it traveled to Cisco last season. The Cardinals left town with a 27-24 loss that began a season-destroying five game losing streak. They didn’t win again until the season finale against non-conference opponent Arkansas Baptist.

What was worse was the Cardinals had already beaten the Wranglers, 41-14, at Bruce Field during the second week of the season.

Last week, TVCC was one of only three Southwest Junior College Football Conference teams to pick up a win. Blinn and Cisco were the other two.

The Wranglers manhandled Dodge City (Kan.), 53-21.

So fans may be in for quite an offensive show this Saturday.

The Cards got plenty of “O” from sophomore running back Josh Johnson, who ran for 91 yards last week. He leads the conference with three rushing TDs.

Si’Darius Blackshire is near the top of the conference passing ratings, as he completed a league-best 73.7 percent of his passes (14 of 19) with a touchdown.

TVCC’s defense is the top-rated unit in the conference, having given up 175 rushing yards and no passing yards in last week’s win.

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