The Blue Earth Area Buccaneers’ quarterback, Ashton Lloyd, looks for an open Buc receiver during the game against the Fairmont Cardinals on Wednesday night, Oct. 19, in Fairmont. While the game was tied 14-14 at halftime, the Cardinals outscored the Buccaneers in the second half of the game and won 34-20.

Blue Earth Area was unable to stop Fairmont’s sure-handed receiving corps, and when Cardinal quarterback Brendan Schmidtke wasn’t attacking the Bucs’ defense with his arm, he did it with his feet.

Schmidtke amassed 263 yards in the air and the Cardinal signal caller also ran for 70 yards, including a 25-yard sprint for Fairmont’s final touchdown.

The end result was a 34-20 win for the host Cardinals who regained possession of the Little Brown Jug.

BEA’s opening drive included a couple of first downs but a false start penalty helped stall the drive and the Bucs punted the ball to the Cardinals who began their opening drive at their own 11-yard line.

It looked like the Buccaneer defense had forced their rival to punt following an incomplete pass on third down. However, BEA was penalized for roughing the passer and the Cardinals had new life.

Schmidtke and the Cardinals marched down the field and 11 plays later Fairmont’s Levi Pooley timed his jump to grab Schmidtke’s pass in the end zone and put Fairmont on the board with 1:39 left in the first quarter. The kick was good for the extra point and the Cards led 7-0.

BEA’s Parker Meyers returned the ensuing kickoff to the Bucs’ 39-yard line and the Bucs marched down the field covering 61 yards in 10 plays. Meyers and quarterback Ashton Lloyd did the bulk of the work rushing while a 21-yard pass to Jack Norman kept the drive alive on a third down and nine yards to go situation.

The touchdown came when Meyers ran behind the right side of the line from the wildcat formation. The Bucs’ 2-point attempt failed and the Cards retained their lead at 7-6.

Following a good kickoff return, the Cards went to work from the Bucs’ 49-yard line. Three plays later they had reached BEA’s two yard line. The BEA defense stiffened and stopped the Cards from reaching the end zone for the next three plays. But, on fourth down, Pooley caught his second touchdown pass from three yards out for the score. Following the successful PAT kick, Fairmont was in front 14-6 with 4:14 remaining until halftime.

BEA put together a 58-yard drive which resulted in a touchdown pass to Norman with six seconds left in the half. Lloyd ran the ball in for the 2-point conversion and the teams headed into the intermission tied 14-14.

Fairmont held BEA scoreless in the third quarter while putting 13 points on the board to take a 27-14 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Bucs’ final touchdown of the game came with 11:14 left in the contest when Meyers crossed the goal line standing up for a two-yard touchdown run. The extra-point attempt was not good and Fairmont’s lead was 27-20.

It took Fairmont less than two minutes to strike again when Schmidtke’s TD run gave the Cards a 34-20 lead with 9:46 left in the game.

Both teams end their regular seasons with 6-2 records. BEA will open their Section 2AA postseason play on Tuesday, Oct. 25, with a game at Wilson Field in Blue Earth, beginning at 7 p.m.