Cardinal Gibbons holds off feisty Northeast: 3 takeaways

Chiefs overcome a litany of turnovers on the road against a pesky Vikings squad

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA- Playing from the friendly confines of Fort Lauderdale, the around 4-hour ride couldn’t have gone better for Cardinal Gibbons (Florida). 

A stop in Bradenton area for lunch just before crossing the Skyway Bridge and heading to John M. Sexton Field. Once the ball kicked off on Thursday evening, the nice experience ended for the Chiefs. 

Cardinal Gibbons had to pull it together in the second half in edging out a feisty Northeast Vikings team 38-16. The Chiefs improved to 3-1 on the season as they head into a bye week before facing Plantation American Heritage. 

It was a disastrous start for Cardinal Gibbons as North Carolina commitment Michael Merdinger (17-of-34, 203 yards), with the quarterback throwing two first half interceptions. One of the picks ended up getting taken back to the house 72 yards by Keontae Williams. 

Trailing 13-7 in the first half, the Chiefs (3-1) could've easily started to unravel a bit more, but stayed resilient throughout the rest of the first half. Cardinal Gibbons would take its first lead of the half when running back Patrick Anderson scored on a 4-yard plunge to give the Chiefs a 14-13 lead. 

Matt DeBuc's crew wouldn't look back after that as they out-scored the Vikings 24-3 in the second half. Able to pull away with a big win heading into the bye week, we give you three takeaways from this contest. 

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Win is a win, but the Chiefs will have to play better 

DeBuc has been around the block a time or two. Won some state championships in his time and knows his Chiefs have some cleaning up to do in the bye week before playing Plantation American Heritage on Sep. 29th.

In order to beat a team like the Patriots, turnovers like the ones they had on Thursday night can have to be limited immensely. Merdinger ended the game with three interceptions, as one ended in a pick six to the house. That just can't happen against the elite teams in South Florida. 

Merdinger wasn't alone when it came to miscues. Dropped passes and missed blocked assignments hindered the offense to seeing its full potential on the road. It wasn't a hostile environment at Northeast High School, with a sparse crowd on hand. There will be a crowd in a couple weeks when the Chiefs and Patriots meet. Cardinal Gibbons will have to play better, but a win is a win.

Cardinal Gibbons' first time on natural grass this season 

Everyone knows when you play on artificial surfaces, it makes you a bit faster. Then when you get used to that and then end up on natural grass, things begin to change a little bit. 

There was a little bit of getting used to the grass playing conditions for the Chiefs and you could tell between the tale of the two halves. The Chiefs started to find their groove in the latter half of play and that's when some of the consistency began. 

Might've taken Cardinal Gibbons a bit after they got off the charter buses they took around four hours to reach St. Petersburg, but they can enjoy win No. 3 knowing they overcame a change when it came from turf-to-grass. 

Northeast the new best team in St. Petersburg?

We've got to give this Vikings (2-2) team some credit: They came to play on Thursday night. 

Players like quarterback Trey Whirley and cornerback Keontae Williams really showed out against likely the best team they will see all season. There's a lot to like about the Vikings the rest of the way as they already own wins over Lakewood and Gibbs. 

They should defeat St. Petersburg-area teams like Boca Ciega, Hollins and St. Petersburg along the way, making them 5-0 versus other teams down in the 'Burg. Does this mean Northeast is the new top team down in St. Petersburg? Well, we certainly think so and they could easily be 6-2 looking ahead before their final two games against Pinellas Park and Largo.

-- Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @sblivefl