The Benilde-St. Margaret’s football team started the season at the new BSM stadium with a 41-12 win against Robbinsdale Cooper on Friday September 2. Both the fans and the players were excited to kick off the season with a win. To start, senior running-back Kyle McCarthy rushed for three touchdowns while senior quarterback Tommy Nelson passed for three more.

The Red Knight offense lost their first three possessions on downs, a punt, and a fumble, but the tough defense kept the team going. During the first half, they forced the Hawks to punt on four drives, and turn the ball over on downs three times. Defensively, junior Dominic Burg led the team with eleven tackles, junior Breion Creer had nine, and senior Zach Silvestri added eight.

At the beginning of the second quarter, BSM took possession of the ball at the Hawks’ 31-yard line. McCarthy led the Red Knights to a touchdown by rushing for 31 yards in three plays. Scoring two additional touchdowns on scoring drives of 7-yards and 48-yards, McCarthy acted as a vital player throughout the game.

Nelson completed three touchdown passes in the game, the first was a 10-yard scoring pass to senior receiver Myles Barnes. The final two scoring plays came from the combination of Nelson and junior receiver Joe Sutton, on plays of 25 and 41-yard scoring passes, putting the Red Knights into the fourth quarter with a 41-6 lead.

Overall, Nelson completed 16 of 24 passes for 205 yards. “We played really well as a team against Cooper,” said Nelson, “we need to use this first game to set our season off on the right track.”

On the receiving end, Barnes caught six passes for 66 yards, McCarthy had five passes for 58 yards, and Sutton finished with four receptions for 77 yards. McCarthy ended the game with 17 carries for 141 yards, making his total yardage 199. “We started off slow but once we got the ball rolling there was no stopping us,” said McCarthy. “Joe Sutton came up with a couple of key plays and our defense played strong all night.”

Benilde-St. Margaret’s will face conference rivals and the defending state champion the Totino-Grace Eagles next week. “We should be ready [for] next week against Totino after a good week of practice,” said Barnes. The teams will face-off at the Totino-Grace stadium on Friday September 10, at 7 pm.