They say that first impressions are important.  And although it's just one game, the Miller Cardinals made a very strong impression in their season-opener at Marionville in showing that they are deserving of their number six state ranking in Class 1.  The battle of two teams expected to contend for one of the top three spots in District 2 didn't look like a one-sided affair early after Marionville took the opening kick-off and marched from their own 41 down to the Miller eight yeard line.  From there the drive stalled, and the Comets settled for a 25 yard field goal and a quick 3-0 lead.

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Miller, though, was non-threatened.  After a long kick-off return to the Marionville 41 yard-line, it took the Cardinals just four plays to scored a touchdown with Brenden Richardson going the final yard for a 7-3 lead that Miller never gave up.  In fact, the Cardinals would score again just over two minutes later after Chance Taylor intercepted a Comet pass at the Marionville 30 and three plays later, a 33-yard pass from Dalton Gulick to Derrick Estell put Miller ahead 14-3.

Afer Marionville went three plays and out, the Cardinals took just five plays to go 76 yards with Gulick and Estell again hooking-up from nine yards out to make it 20-3.  And after a mishandled Comet punt gave Miller the ball on the Marionville 34, Gulick took it to paydirt on the first play (fumbling the ball and picking it back up in mid-stride) to make it 26-3.  Gulick's third TD toss of the night to Estell, this one for 25 yards, made it 33-10.  And in the final minute before the intermission, Gulick went over from 16 yards out to put Miller ahead 39-10 at the break.

From there the Cardinals coasted to a 53-10 final as Estell finished with four touchdowns and Gulick, who accounted for almost 3,000 yards rushing and passing last season, had another good start this year.  He carried eight times for 130 yards (16 yards per carry) with two touchdowns, and through the air he completed 9 of 15 passes for 153 yards and three TD's. 

"i'd give us a B-plus," Miller head coach Dustin Baldwin said with a smile after the game.  "You can always find something wrong.  But really, we responded really well and did all the little things tonight it took to win."

 As to the Cardinals strong response after Marionville's early score, Baldwin remarked "it was really important that we held them to a field goal.  That had to be their game plan to keep us off the field with long drives.  But we really kept our foot on the gas pedal offensively and did a lot of good things.  We didn't turn the ball over and we ran the ball well and made a lot of good throws. "

Quarterback Dalton Gulick said there was no panic with the early deficit.  "We've seen it all," he said.  "We're an experienced team with 11 starters back on offense and 10 on defense. We have a lot of players that know how to do their job and we believe in one another." 

And even though it's one game, the Cardinals are making believers out of a lot of fans.