The Florala High School Wildcats played, as they would say, “real” football Friday night as they demolished the St. Michael Catholic High School Cardinals, 51-9.

The Wildcats came out of the gates strong as Logan West returned the opening kick for almost 60 yards, all the way to the Cardinals nine-yard line, but was brought back 10 yards by a holding call on the Wildcats.

The Wildcats then went on to put the first touchdown on the board when Jacob Hammac ran a quarterback sneak for a yard to put the Wildcats up. With the extra point, the Wildcats went up 7-0, with 10:53 left in the first quarter.

After receiving the kickoff on the 25-yard line, the Cardinals went four downs without getting a first down and then punted.

The Wildcats kept driving up the score in the first quarter when Hammac sent a pass to West for a touchdown to make it 14-0 after the extra point.

The Cardinals then took a knee at the one yard line on the kickoff and then the Wildcats put on the pressure as they sacked the quarterback in the end zone for a safety which put the Wildcats up 16-0 with 7:44 left in the first quarter.

After receiving the ball from the safety kickoff, the Wildcats drove down the field.

Hammac connected with West again for another touchdown pass to put the Wildcats up 23-0 with 4:40 left in the first quarter.

After an unsuccessful drive by the Cardinals they had to punt, but as the ball came down it bobbled in the Wildcat receiver’s hands and the Cardinals jumped on it.

The Cardinals then looked to move down the field, but their effort was ended by an interception by Caleb Wood who ran to the Cardinals’ 37-yard line.

The Wildcats then moved the ball down the field and had hopes of scoring another touchdown, but after a touchdown by Leroy Mitchell was reversed because of holding on the Wildcats, Hammac threw an interception in the end zone with 7.3 seconds left in the first quarter.

At the start of the second quarter, the Cardinals looked to put some points on the board but after a failed field goal attempt, they did not.

After going back and forth for a couple of minutes the Wildcats pulled a trick from their sleeves to earn their next touchdown.

With two minutes to go in the half, the Wildcats set up to take a field goal, but at the last second, the kicker and quarterback, Hammac, faked the kick and threw the ball to Shun White who took it in for the touchdown, making it 30-0 at the half.

The start of the second half was all Cardinals as they received the ball and then threw a pass to score their only touchdown of the night, making it 30-7 with 11:35 to go in the third quarter.

With 5:40 left in the third quarter, the Cardinals got a second wind and sacked Hammac in the end zone to make the score 30-9, ending their scoring for the night.

It took a couple of minutes for the Wildcats to find their groove again, but with 1:40 seconds to go in the third quarter, Vinson Flowers turned on the fire as he drove to the Cardinal five yard line and then ran another five yards to make the score 36-9 with 1:06 to go in the third quarter.

The Cardinals tried to push down the field again before the end of the third quarter, but were unsuccessful.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Cardinals had to punt, but the ball did not go 10 yards before White picked it up and ran it all the way to the end zone for a touchdown. Hammac then connected with White again for the two point conversion to make the score 44-9 with 11:40 to go in the fourth quarter.

After receiving a punt on their own 24-yard line, the Wildcats put the nail in the coffin to end the game.

White caught a pass and broke several tackles before running 76 yards for the final touchdown of the night, making it 51-9.

“I think we played well at times for sure,” Head coach Scott Mason said. “We are learning a new defensive system so there are some things that we have to work on there, but offensively I think we did pretty well.”

Mason said that there were some key mistakes that the team made that they will work on next week before their next game.

“We made a lot of mistakes that ended up causing a couple of points being scored on us,” Mason said. “But it just goes to show that in those key situations we can’t melt.”

Mason said that he is very pleased with the way that his players stepped up on Friday night.

“We had several guys step up and I am proud of that,” Mason said. “Our offensive line protected our quarterback so he could make some good passes and our running backs ran hard. I’m not pleased with the way we played, but I am happy.”

The Wildcats will take on Houston Academy next Friday at 7 p.m., in Florala.