SOUTH WESTERN MUSTANGS GRIDIRON 2005-5

By Bill Engelhardt
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Last Friday evening, September 23, the Mustangs of South Western hosted the Panthers of Central York and were shut out 21-0. The Mustangs run defense was stellar as they held the Panthers to 45-yards on 26 carries, but Eric Schwartz completed 8 passes for 169-yards, including an 18-yard touchdown to Ryan Ortyl to open the scoring.

The teams jostled back and forth until midway through the second quarter when Ortyl scored. The Mustangs roared back and drove from their own 33-yard line to the Panthers 30-yard line, where a sack by John Pickerill resulted in a 47-yard field goal attempt that went wide right. The Mustangs held the Panthers and then started a drive on their own 42-yard line. Joe Ault gained 4-yards and Shawn Rider ripped off a nifty 28-yard jaunt to the Panthers 26. J. C. Laughlin threw a picture perfect 26-yard touchdown strike to Jeremy Renoll but it was negated by a penalty. Ryan Tribue sacked Laughlin shortly thereafter and then a hurried snap resulted in a blocked 37-yard field goal attempt, leaving the Mustangs trailing 7-0 at the half. Shawn Rider was a real spark plug for the Mustangs until an injury forced him from the game.

The Panthers scored twice in the second half, once on a 1-yard run by Ryan Brumner and again on his 3-yard run. Pat Strine intercepted a Mustangs pass from the 10 and returned it to the 3 to set up the final score.

The never say die Mustangs drove to the Panthers 1-yard line and then turned the ball over on downs at the 4, held the Panthers and regained the ball at the 26 after a short punt. David Abror sacked Laughlin at the 36 but the Mustangs drove to the 9 (partly on the strength of a 13-yard pass from Laughlin to Drew Snyder), where Abror ended the drive with the recovery of a Mustangs fumble.

Joe Ault with 1 for 9-yards, Robert Barnett with 1 for 21-yards and Aaron Repman with 1 for 34-yards accounted for 3 kickoff returns for 64-yards for the Mustangs. Jason Gigous returned a punt for 2-yards and Repman returned one for 14-yards. Drew Snyder punted 5 times for 198-yards, for a 39.6-yard average, and kicked off once for 51-yards.

Matt Bosley with 10 tackles and Tim Smith with 9 tackles for the night, led the Mustangs defense, followed by Jeremy Renoll who seemed to be all over the field as he had 7 tackles (including 2 sacks), blocked a pass and caused 2 incompletions with hurries. Eric Updegrove and Jessie Smith each had a sack as well.

Joe Ault, Mark Bittinger, Seth Bolte, Matt Bosley, Jason Gigous, Chad La Gore, Jeremy Renoll, Aaron Repman, Clint Shaffer, Dustin Shaw, Cody Shue, Jesse Smith, Jason Sneeringer, Drew Snyder, Mike Stremmel, Eric Updegrove, Chris Wilson and Ben Yelton manned the offensive and defensive line and linebacker positions. Justin Barnes, Robert Barnett, Matt Ferguson, Adam Hartman, Curtis Maphis, Shawn Rider, Cody Smith, Tim Smith and Max Wagaman patrolled the secondary.

The Mustangs gained 152-yards rushing and 53-yards passing for a total of 205 yards of offense. J. C. Laughlin completed 4 of 8 passes for the 53-yards. Jason Gigous caught 2 for 30-yards, Robert Barnett caught 1 for 10-yards and Drew Snyder caught 1 for 13-yards. Jason Gigous led the rushing attack with 11 carries for 78-yards, followed by Shawn Rider with 2 for 30, Joe Ault with 9 for 18, Tim Smith with 1 for 14, Robert Barnett with 6 for 7, Aaron Repman with 5 for 7 and Cody Smith with 2 for 7-yards.

The Panthers only garnered 45-yards rushing but gained 169-yards passing for a total of 214-yards of offense. Eric Schwartz completed 8 passes for the 169-yards and a touchdown. Derrick Bender led the rushing attack with 3 carries for 18-yards, followed by Ryan Brumner with 6 for 16-yards and 2 touchdowns, Matt Nugent with 5 for 8, Shane Gilbert with 5 for 3-yards and Eric Schwartz with 5 carries for no gain. Ryan Ortyl caught 2 passes for 152-yards and a touchdown, Anjelo Kellum caught 3 for 45-yards, and they were followed by Shane Gilbert with 1 for 36-yards, Matt Nugent with 1 for 18-yards and Garyon Johnson with 1 for 18-yards.

The South Western Mustang Marching Band and the 22-member Mustang Cheer Leading squad were both very impressive crowd pleasers. The 7-time Cavalcade of Bands Champion, a 2000 Tournament of Bands Champion and US Scholastic Band Champion Mustang Marching Band provided the pre-game entertainment with the 2005 musical program entitled “Festive Overtures: A Holiday Collage,” which featured the majestic fanfare of Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture,” Russian Sailors’ Dance from the ballet, “Red Poppy,” “Russian Easter” and “Russian Christmas.” The Panthers Marching Band also entertained the halftime crowd with a rousing performance of military music in support of the troops.

The Mustangs of South Western are 0-4-0 overall and 0-1-0 in York Area Interscholastic Athletic Association (YAIAA) Division I league play.

Don Seidenstricker has a 150-60-1 (.714) record as coach of the Mustangs, who have a career record of 291-178-8. The results of the 477 games played in the history of the South Western Mustangs are a career .620 winning percentage and a .627 non-losing percentage.

Next week the Mustangs host the Wildcats of Dallastown (1-3 overall, 1-0 YAIAA Division I) on Homecoming Night at the Mustang Corral. Dallastown is coming off of a 42-21 victory over the Rockets of Spring Grove, mostly on the strength of a strong running game. From here it looks like the scrappy Mustangs are ready to roll and their stingy run defense should help them to get back on the winning track. GO MUSTANGS GO.