Wellsville ? The Eudora High football squad does have more than one wide receiver, but the Cardinals seem to need just one – Matthew Abel.

“Very few teams will be able to cover him in single coverage on the edge,” said Eudora coach Gregg Webb of Abel, following Friday night’s 71-19 rout of Wellsville. “They might bracket him over the top or something. And then if you’re only playing with nine on the rest of the field that really helps us with our offensive line and our running backs are good enough to take advantage of that.”

That’s exactly what happened against the Eagles (0-3). Whenever Kent Swanson completed a pass, it was in the hands of Abel. Eudora’s quarterback completed all six of his throws directed at Abel for 198 yards, his only misfire being a pass to Mike Ortega on the first play from scrimmage.

“Me and Kent have a lot of chemistry through baseball and football and everything,” Abel said. “He knows that if he throws it I’ll go get it.”

Whenever the Cardinals (3-0) kept it on the ground they picked up yardage in bunches, running for 474 yards and averaging a little over 10 yards per carry. The main contributors were Ryan Fisher (111 yards) and Travis Clarke, who averaged 13 yards per carry while amassing 183 yards.

But despite giving up 71 points and 672 yards of offense – while his team only tallied 279 yards of offense – Wellsville coach Bill Oshel said the game wasn’t a complete loss.

“We’re better than we have been and we’re getting better,” Oshel said. “We’re going to be there in a few more weeks. Normally, your offense should never be ahead of your defense. Right now, offensively, we might be a little bit ahead of that. And it’s only because our defense is playing a very, very poor kind of football – and that’s the bottom line.”

The Eagle offense, which took only nine minutes to end Eudora’s shutout streak to start the season, was powered by quarterback Scott Thompson, who threw two touchdown passes to Scott Samsel – one of 63 yards and the other a 66-yard bomb – and ran in the only other Wellsville touchdown.

Thompson was able to pick apart a young Eudora secondary for 170 yards, but Webb doesn’t seem too concerned about any ill-effects from their play.

“It’s not the first time we’ve seen those mistakes,” Webb said. “If a kid gave up a touchdown and he was just saying, ‘Oh well. We won 71-19,’ that would upset me. But these kids take every yard that they give up, and especially every touchdown, personally.”

Eudora 71, Wellsville 19

Eudora 24 27 7 13 – 71

Wellsville 7 6 6 0 – 19

E – Travis Clarke 11 run (Loni Ogden run)

E – Matthew Abel 55 pass from Kent Swanson (Ogden run)

W – Scott Samsel 63 pass from Scott Thompson (Thompson kick)

E – Abel 56 pass from Swanson (Mike Ortega pass from Swanson)

E – Austin Hoover 2 run (Swanson run)

W – Thompson 8 run (kick failed)

E – Clarke 37 run (pass failed)

E – Ryan Fisher 23 run (kick failed)

E – Abel 44 pass from Swanson (Joel Lauer kick)

E – Michael Whitten 1 run (Lauer kick)

W – Samsel 66 pass from Thompson (pass failed)

E – Brynnen Webb 3 run (Lauer kick)

E – Fisher 16 run (kick failed)