Arlington's senior defensive end Curtis Price (4) beats the block of Castlewood running back Ryan Tillma (26) to bring down quarterback Alex Fodness in the first quarter of the Cardinals' 56-6 quarterfinal win over the Warriors on Monday in Arlington. The Cardinals advance to play at Avon in Saturday?s semifinal round. Troy Maroney/Register

ARLINGTON The Arlington Cardinal football team has been playing state championship-type football as of late. The Cardinals overcame another hurdle in their path to the Dakota Dome Monday night in Arlington.

Arlington (9-1 ) scored on all but one of its possessions en route to a 56-6 win over Castlewood (6-4 ).

"We made plays offensively ," said Arlington head coach Steve Gilbertson. "Darrik Bunker and Terran Chapin made some big plays and that broke it open."

Cardinal running back Christian DeCurtins, who finished with 165 yards on 21 carries including a pair of touchdowns , led a drive that covered 70 yards on their first possession . Quarterback Austin King hit receiver Terran Chapin on a 17-yard strike amidst a trio of Castlewood defenders.

That play pretty much summed up the game as the Cardinals were able to break through the Warriors' defense whereas Castlewood faced a different fate against Arlington.

In a prime example, after a lost DeCurtins' fumble, Arlington forced the Warriors to turn the ball over. A pair of false starts gave the Cardinals a fourth and 20. But King found Darrik Bunker on a 23-yard strike through the Warrior defense that set up the Cardinals third score.

"A fantastic catch is about all I can say," said Gilbertson. "We tell the kids if you want to win big games, you got to make big plays. That's what we did tonight."

King finished the game 4-of-5 passing for 115 yards with two of those passes for touchdowns. Chapin had three catches for 92 yards, including a 57-yard touchdown catch while Bunkers had six carries for 45 yards and a touchdown to go along with the big fourth down catch.

"We had an overall team effort," said Gilbertson. "A great effort by our kids and I'm proud of them. We've come a long way and gotten better every week. That's what we've wanted to do and we'll go see we can game."

Castlewood's Alex Fodness was 6-of-15 passing for 95 yards and a pair of interceptions. Ryan Tillma ran nine times for 23 yards and Matt Hupf had two catches for 33 yards to lead the Warriors.

Arlington travels to Class 9A No. 1 Avon on Saturday with a spot in the state championship on the line.



ARLINGTON 56, CASTLEWOOD 6

Castlewood 6 0 0 0 6

Arlington 14 14 21 6 56



SCORING SUMMARY 1st Quarter A Terran Chapin 17 yd pass from Austin King (Tom-Lukas Metz kick fail), 8:07 C Alex Fodness 7 yd run (2-point fail), 4:46 A King 1 yd run (Christian DeCurtins run), 3:15 2nd Quarter A DeCurtins 8 yd run (Metz kick), 5:23 A Chapin 57 yd pass from King (Metz kick), 1:59 3rd Quarter A DeCurtins 9 yd run (Metz kick), 9:54 A Darrik Bunker 5 yd run (Metz kick), 7:48 A Drew Kjellsen 1 yd run (Kjellsen run), 2:01 4th Quarter A Matthew Josephsen 27 yd run (no attempt), 9:00 Team/Individual Statistics Rushing Arlington: 39-279 (Christian DeCurtins 21-165 , Darrik Bunker 6-45 , Drew Kjellsen 6-21 , Matt Josephsen 1-22 ); Castlewood: 20-20 (Ryan Tillma 10-27 ). Passing Arlington: Austin King 4-5-115 ; Castlewood: Alex Fodness 5-14-68 . Receiving Arlington: Terran Chapin 3-92 ; Castlewood: Matt Hupf 3-43 .