By Joe Cress

sports@joplinglobe.com

Mack Kyle’s first career start at quarterback wasn’t off to a good start, and his coach was letting him know about it.

Midway through the second quarter of Friday’s season opener, Kyle’s Webb City Cardinals and the host Kickapoo Chiefs were locked in a scoreless battle with neither team doing much on offense.

Kyle had yet to lead his team to a first down on its first three possessions and the Webb City faithful — not accustomed to many such scoring droughts in the past — had to be getting restless.

Cardinals coach John Roderique was getting frustrated with his junior quarterback, who was missing reads.

But it all clicked on one play. Kyle hit Alan Pink on a slant pass, and Pink took it all the way to the end zone for a 53-yard touchdown with 3:24 left in the first half. That finally got the defending Class 4 state champions rolling, and the Cardinals went on to claim a 27-0 win against the Chiefs at a packed Pottenger Stadium.

“That was a big play by Alan,” Kyle said. “He broke a tackle and (kept going).”

The play certainly lit a spark under Kyle, too, who was a different player the rest of the way. He completed 6-of-10 passes for 119 yards and three touchdowns, and gained 132 yards on six carries, the final 98 on a touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

Kyle’s run came one play after the Cardinals stopped the Chiefs at the 2-yard line on a fourth-and-goal from the 4, halting a 14-play, 61-yard drive.

The quarterback didn’t miss his read this time, faking a pitch, then tucking it and running untouched down the sidelines.

Roderique said he had to remind himself not to be too hard on Kyle early on.

“Mack brings a strong, fast athlete to that position,” Roderique said. “We want our quarterback to be a third running back out there, and he did a good job.”

New Kickapoo coach Don Knock said there were positives to take from the game, namely the effort his team put out.

“We hung in as long as we could,” Knock said. “Our kids were fighting. We’ll keep getting better on offense. (Senior quarterback) Nick Jackson is a tremendous leader ... but we have to get better up front and not keep our defense on the field as long as we did.”