The Fond du Lac football team simply had too many starters to replace and stats to replenish. Even for a program like the Cardinals, who are coming off a Valley Football Association South championship last fall, throwing in a bunch of new players to fill holes at quarterback, running back, the offensive line and multiple spots on defense is a tall order.

But in the end, the Cards pulled themselves together and notched a hard-earned win.

Jack Cole threw for 161 yards in his first game as starting quarterback and Fond du Lac rallied from a 10-7 deficit in the third quarter as the Cardinals defeated Appleton West 21-10 in their nonconference season opener Friday at Fruth Field.

“We knew it was going to be a grind,” Fond du Lac coach Mike Gnewuch said. “We knew they (Appleton West) were very skilled. Coach (Brent) Engen has done a heck of a job with those guys and turning that thing around, playoff team last year. They’re going to win a lot of football games this year. They’re a good football team. We knew it was going to be a Week 1 test.”

Following a season that saw Fond du Lac win the VFA South and advance to Level 3 of the WIAA Division 1 playoffs, many expected the Cards to once again be an elite team in 2016. But there were question marks. When a team loses the kind of talent Fond du Lac did, there’s no way around it. 14 All-VFA South performers don’t appear out of thin air.

However, things couldn’t have gotten out to a better start for Fond du Lac (1-0) on Friday as defensive lineman Donte Johnson recorded an interception on Appleton West’s opening drive to put the Cardinals in great field position at the Terrors’ 30-yard line.

Five plays later, Cole found Devon Krzanowski for a five-yard touchdown pass and the Cardinals led 7-0 just like that.

But neither team was able to get much going for the rest of the first half. The Fond du Lac offense, which for the past two years rode the legs of now-graduated and program all-time leading rusher Justin Maratik, was stagnant.

Appleton West (0-1) tied up the game midway through the third quarter when Alec Goffard found Joey Reader for a 4-yard touchdown pass. The Terrors then took the lead on a 30-yard field goal from Andrew Barry with 1:26 left in the third.

Then the Cards found their rhythm. Cole led an eight-play, 64-yard drive to begin the fourth quarter that included a 25-yard strike to Krzanowski and 31-yard screen pass to running back Keon Jefferson. Jefferson scored on a 1-yard plunge to give Fond du Lac a 14-10 lead early in the fourth.

On the Terrors’ following drive, Trenton Murtha intercepted Goffard at the Appleton West 27-yard line and Cole found Reggie Hernandez for a 22-yard score four plays later.

At 21-10, the Cardinals’ defense dug in and didn’t allow the Terrors to challenge after that, with Ben Viau intercepting Goffard to end Appleton West’s chances.

“We just kept saying that right here, right now we’re not going to get rattled,” Gnewuch said. “We’re going to take advantage of the opportunities we have in front of us and we’re going to move forward. We’ve been preaching it all year. We’re three weeks in. We’ve said ‘Hey, it’s always going to be a roller coaster, just focus on the next play.’ The kids have bought in and they did a great job and they responded like warriors do.”

Added Krzanowski: “We just picked up our focus and our energy. We knew we had to score and we all came together as a group.”

Cole finished 14-of-28 passing on the night, a solid performance in a game that saw him struggle a bit to start out.

“When you’re the quarterback of the Fond du Lac Cardinals, you’re going to get eight or nine guys in the box that are bringing heat every single play,” Gnewuch said. “You’re not going to have a whole lot of time to make decisions. It’s not like he was rattled initially, but he didn’t see the whole field. As the game became a little bit slower, he caught his groove and he’s only going to get better.”

Jefferson led the way rushing with 106 yards on 28 carries for Fond du Lac, while Krzanowski had four catches for 61 yards. Fond du Lac outgained Appleton West 328-220 and forced Goffard into just a 4-of-23 passing performance with three interceptions.

Fond du Lac travels to Appleton North next Friday.

Appleton West 0 0 10 0 — 10

Fond du Lac 7 0 0 14 — 21

Scoring summary:

FDL— Devon Krzanowski, 5 pass from Jack Cole (Jared Scheberl kick), 7:41.

AW— Joey Reader, 4 pass from Alec Goffard (Andrew Barry kick), 5:52.

AW— Barry, 31 field goal, 1:26.

FDL— Keon Jefferson, 1 run (Scheberl kick), 10:01.

FDL— Reggie Hernandez, 22 pass from Cole (Sheberl kick), 7:30.

Team stats

AW FDL

First downs 11 15

Total yards 220 328

Rushing 30-161 43-167

Passes (C-A-I) 4-23-3 14-28-0

Passing yards 59 161

Fumbles 1-1 1-1

Individual leaders

Rushing: Appleton West— Alec Goffard, 13-103. Fond du Lac— Keon Jefferson, 28-106.

Passing: Appleton West— Alec Goffard, 4-23-3-59. Fond du Lac— Jack Cole, 14-28-0-161.

Receiving: Appleton West— Joey Reader, 2-52. Fond du Lac— Devon Krzanowski, 4-61.