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SARTELL — The Willmar football team made the most of its limited chances with the ball.

Running only 37 plays to Sartell’s 64, the Cardinals improved to 3-1 with a 14-6 North Central District cross-over victory on a soggy Friday night at Riverview Intermediate School.

Willmar head coach Jon Konold was pleased with the growth of his team Friday despite the “miserable” conditions.

“We played a really good football team tonight,” Konold said. “I told the kids it wasn’t about the rushing yards, passing yards, touchdowns, sacks, all that stuff. It was about finding a way to win and grind it out and play as a team.”

The Cardinals opened the scoring with an 11-yard run by junior Ramero Trevino. He finished with 68 yards on 12 carries. Holding a 7-6 lead with 54 seconds to play, quarterback Cullen Gregory broke off a 32-yard run for an insurance score.

“Those guys ran extremely hard tonight,” Konold said of Trevino and Gregory. “They’re physical runners. The big thing to me is they didn’t put the ball on the ground, which was huge.”

On defense, the Cardinals were able to bottle up Sabres quarterback Cole Hentges after he scored on a 9-yard run with 15 seconds to go before halftime.

“He’s really a complete quarterback,” Konold said of Hentges.

In the second half, Willmar sent a linebacker on Hentges’ side to help with contain. He finished with 79 rushing yards and was 5 of 21 passing for 45 yards.

Willmar has its homecoming game at 7 p.m. next Friday against Delano at Hodapp Field. The Tigers took on Big Lake on Friday, winning 27-0.

Willmar (3-1)    0   7   0   7 — 14 Sartell (1-4)      0   6   0   0 — 6 Scoring Plays W – Ramero Trevino 11 run (Ezra May kick) S – Cole Hentges 9 run (run failed) W – Cullen Gregory 32 run (May kick) Willmar First downs: 6 … Penalties: 2-10 … Rushing (Individual and team): Cullen Gregory 17-102, Ramero Trevino 12-68. Total: 29-170 … Passing (Individual and team): Gregory 2-8-0 13 ... Receiving: Justuce Gee 2-13 … Interceptions: None … Fumble recoveries: 1 … Tackles (solo-assist): n/a … QB sacks: n/a Sartell First downs: 12 … Penalties: 3-25 … Rushing (Individual and team): Donovan Lund 26-113, Cole Hentges 15-79, Gavan Schulte 2-2. Total: 43-194 … Passing (Individual and team): Hentges 5-21-0 45 ... Receiving: Parker Knutson 2-14, Aiden Lang 1-11, Schulte 2-20 … Interceptions: None … Fumble recoveries: None … Tackles (solo-assist): n/a … QB sacks: n/a