Take season opening win over Cardinals

CLEAR LAKE The Flandreau Fliers opened the year with a win on the road after defeating the Deuel Cardinals on Friday night, 21-0.
It was a great team win, Flandreau head coach Josh Edlund said. Coach Garrett Carr put together a great offensive game plan. We wanted to establish the run with our physical fullbacks and while the stats dont always show it, they ran really hard and executed the game plan.
The Fliers racked up 211 yards on offense with 78 coming through the air.
The game was scoreless until Flier quarterback Paul Parsley connected with Luke Sheppard for a 15 yard touchdown with one second remaining in the first half.
The third quarter was all Flandreau as they took advantage of three Cardinal miscues.
Ben Ballard recovered a Deuel fumble and nine plays later, Parsley ran for a 15 yard touchdown with 5:04 on the clock.
Deuel got the ball back and immediately were intercepted by Ballard who and took it to the end zone just nine seconds later.
On Deuels next possession, at 4th and 23 from their own 19 yard, the snap flew over the head of the punter and into the endzone for a safety.
Coach Parsley had our boys ready to go, Edlund said of his defense. Not only preparing our guys well enough to put up a goose egg but also having some big turnovers in the game as well.
Leading the offense, Justin Klein led in rushing with 32 yards on eight carries and Ben Ballard had six carries for 23 yards. Karter Headrick had three carries for 15 yards while Alex Poitra had one carry for 18 yards.
But Paul Parsley had a solid game, completing 4-of-9 passes for 78 yards and a touchdown and adding 11 carries for 49 yards and a touchdown.
Paul did a great job at quarterback, completing big passes in big moments and running well when his name was called, Edlund said.
Alex Poitra caught one pass for 17 yards while Micah Otto caught one pass for 15 yards, Cam Flute caught one pass for 31 yards and Luke Sheppard caught a 15-yard touchdown with one second left in the first half.
Edlund also credited his offensive line for paving the way in the victory.
Our offensive line put in the work, Edlund said. They went toe-to-toe with Deuel and won the battle. Emmett Skroch, Tyton Peters, Gage Ballard, Willie Lone Bear and Kaden Iott all did a great job.
The Fliers defense also played well as Ben Ballard had two solo tackles, an assisted tackle, the intercepted touchdown and a fumble recovery. Kody Kneebone also had seven solo tackles, four assists and a forced fumble.
Coach Parsley had our boys ready to go, Edlund said of his defense. Not only preparing our guys well enough to put up a goose egg but also having some big turnovers in the game as well.
Flandreau will host Baltic in its second game of the season on Friday at 7 p.m. Results in the September 11 issue of the Enterprise due to Labor Day holiday deadline.