Tue Feb 09 2010
Early in the season Georan Cardwell thought of himself as Frankfort High’s “secret weapon.” This Friday in the Panthers’ first-round playoff game, Cardwell will be a secret no more.
The junior speedster will be stepping under center for his first career start against Bishop Brossart that, at 5-5, posted the first winning season in the program’s three-year history.
Cardwell began the year as a wide receiver and even threw a touchdown pass to quarterback Dylan Quinn on a trick play against Gallatin County. As the third-string quarterback, he was pressed into duty last week when Quinn went down with a concussion and backup Marcus Washington re-aggravated a shoulder injury.
With Quinn still dealing with the after-effects of his concussion and Washington nagged by his shoulder, it will be Cardwell’s job to direct the Panthers’ offense against the Mustangs.
“We didn’t expect our star quarterback to get hurt,” Cardwell said. “Nobody wants that to happen, but it happened so I guess I’ve got to step up.”
FHS coach Craig Foley said the Panthers will probably scale back the passing game with Quinn out. That means plenty of work for running backs Zach Mason, Jeff Dunmire and Joseph Morgan.
“It’s going to be one of those weeks where there’s a lot of misdirection type stuff, getting creative, and it’s going to be a lot of running the ball,” Foley said.
“Hopefully the line takes it to heart and gets some things done up front.”
Mason said the quarterback change shouldn’t slow down the Panthers too much. Mason was a running back at Second Street when Cardwell was the signal caller back in their middle school days.
“He’s a pretty mobile quarterback,” Mason said.
“We’re going to do a whole lot more running because of that. Georan can throw the football but not as well as Dylan.”
Even if the offense struggles, Frankfort High has been leaning on its defense all season to win games. The Panthers shut out four of their six Class 1A opponents during the regular season.
“Defensively, we feel like we’re in pretty good position,” Foley said. “I don’t think they’ve played a lot of speed so that’s going to be something they haven’t seen.
“They’re big up front. Their backs are big, about 205 I think. We preached to them that if we make them go east and west we feel really good about it. If they line up and let them go north and south against us then we’re going to have some problems.”
The Mustangs are led by workhorse Chris Bowman, who racked up 920 yards as the team’s leading rusher. Bowman is also tied with teammate Kyle Reinhart for most sacks on the team with four.
“We really don’t know too much about Bishop Brossart,” Mason said. “They’re a northern football team, so they’re probably going to power run the ball.”
Lack of knowledge doesn’t necessarily equate to lack of confidence for FHS in this case -– even without their starting quarterback.
“We feel like we can get by this one,” Foley said, “but we’ll definitely have to have (Quinn) for future games down the road.”
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