Despite the win, Cardinals coach Mike Pavlansky still knows his team has plenty of work to do, saying it was a “typical” opening game.

“I thought our kids played hard and I thought Howland played hard,” Pavlansky said. “It was a typical first ballgame. There’s a lot of mistakes we’ve got to clean up, but I’m certainly very pleased with the win. A great game from our defense. I’m very pleased in our defense to get the shutout.”

Canfield got on the board on a deep touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Broc Lowry to Logan Torok on a 56-yard play to put the Cardinals up by seven after the extra point.

Not long after, senior kicker Jonathan Schmidt hit a 22-yard field goal to extend the lead going into the break.

Correspondent photo / Michael Taylor Canfield's Ethan Fletcher (9) stiff arms his way to a first down Thursday against Howland.

Going into the locker room at the half with a 10-0 lead, Pavlansky wanted to get his team focused, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

“We felt we were our own worst enemy,” Pavlansky said. “Defensively we were playing well, we needed to attack a little bit better. Offensively we had two fumbles and a dropped touchdown pass. Those mistakes, you can’t make if you want to be a really good football team.”

The team came out with a higher intensity in the second half that led to two rushing touchdowns. First, Ethan Fletcher broke loose for a 59-yard rush at the end of the third quarter after a Howland drive stalled and ended with a missed field goal.

Early in the fourth, Ryan Schneider scored a nine-yard touchdown to put the game away for the Cardinals.

The Canfield defense kept the Howland offense scattered, forcing an interception to end a second-half drive by the Tigers that approached the red zone.

CANFIELD, OHIO- August 27, 2020: Howland Tigers vs Canfield Cardinals at Canfield High School Stadium- Howland's Nicolas Leasure (9) pass interfers with Canfield's Logan Torok (29) in the 2nd qtr. MICHAEL G. TAYLOR | TRIBUNE CHRONICLE

With all the uncertainty surrounding the season, getting week one to happen was a huge weight off everyone’s shoulders.

Pavlansky is mainly happy for his kids who get to play after all that’s happened between the cancellation of spring sports to now.

“It’s great,” Pavlansky said. “God bless our kids. What they’ve been through since March. Missing the spring season, and going along through summertime and not knowing if you were going to play or not. To be out here on Bob Dove Field is just special.”

Howland looks to recover against Chaney, while Canfield aims to get revenge on Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin who got a huge win over the Cardinals last season.

“Well, I haven’t seen anything of them yet, but they beat us 38-0 last year so we’ve got to have a great week of preparation,” Pavlansky said.

When asked what they needed to do to get a win this time around, Pavlansky kept it simple.

“We’ve got to play a lot better than last year,” he said.