SOUTH WESTERN MUSTANGS GRIDIRON 2005-6

By Bill Engelhardt
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Last Friday evening, September 30, the Mustangs of South Western hosted the Wildcats of Dallastown and galloped to a 33-0 shut out at the Mustang Corral on Homecoming Night. The Mustangs run defense was stellar as they held the Wildcats to 51-yards on 29 carries and star running back Kyle O’Donnell, who rang up 289-yards last week, was held to no gain on 14 carries.

An 80-yard drive; featuring a 19-yard pass from J. C. Laughlin to Rob Barnett, a 22-yard run by Cody Smith, and a run of 13-yards by Joe Ault, led to Ault’s 5-yard touchdown jaunt to open the scoring. A 65-yard drive; featuring a 17-yard pass from Laughlin to Drew Snyder, a 22-yard pass to Jeremy Renoll and a 13-yard run by Joe Ault, led to Ault’s one yard plunge for the second score, giving them a 14-0 lead at the half.

Aaron Repman’s 26-yard punt return gave the Mustangs the ball at the Wildcats 27-yard line. Four plays later Cody Smith rammed it in from the 12-yard line for a 20-0 lead. Soon thereafter the Mustangs began a drive at their 46-yard line. A fake punt at the Wildcats 38-yard line saw Jason Gigous advance to the 26 and the drive ended with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Gigous for a 27-0 lead. The Mustangs then fielded a punt at the Wildcats 43-yard line, from which Aaron Repman ripped off a very nifty 43-yard touchdown run to close out the scoring. The Mustangs so dominated the offensive side of the game that all the scoring was sandwiched around their missed field goals of 37, 45, 42 and 38-yards, which had the distance and just missed left or right.

Robert Barnett returned the only kickoff the Mustangs received 25-yards and Aaron Repman returned 5 punts for 63-yards, with the longest going for 26-yards. Drew Snyder punted only one time, for a whopping 57-yards, and kicked off 6 times for 324-yards, including 2 touchbacks, for the Mustangs.

Jeremy Renoll led the swarming Mustangs defense with 13 tackles and 2 quarterback hurries. Mark Bittinger rang in with 9 tackles and a sack. Matt Bosley racked up 6 tackles, a quarterback hurry and a drive ending interception. Jessie Smith, with 6 tackles, Drew Snyder with 5, Robert Barnett with 4, Jason Gigous with 4, Tim Smith with 4, and Chad La Gore, Eric Updegrove and Max Wagaman with 3 each, all contributed heavily to the great defensive showing of the Mustangs.

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, Cody Smith, Tim Smith and Max Wagaman patrolled the secondary.

The Mustangs gained 281-yards rushing and 80-yards passing for a total of 361 yards of offense. J. C. Laughlin completed 6 of 13 passes for the 80-yards. Robert Barnett caught 3 for 39-yards Jeremy Renoll caught 1 for 22-yards, Drew Snyder caught 1 for 17-yards and Jason Gigous caught 1 for 2-yards. Joe Ault led the rushing attack with 15 carries for 102-yards, followed by Cody Smith with 6 for 57, Aaron Repman with 5 for 49, Robert Barnett with 9 for 41, Jason Gigous with 5 for 20, Donnie Brady with 3 for 16, Eric Updegrove with 2 for 1-yard and J. C. Laughlin with 3 for minus 5-yards.

The Wildcats were held to 51-yards and 66-yards passing for a total of 117-yards of offense. Zach Shue completed 4 passes for the 45-yards and Kevin Frisby completed 2 for 21-yards. Jason Huska caught 2 passes for 21-yards, Kyle O’Donnell caught 2 for 17-yards, Matt Rae caught 1 for 14-yards, and Alex Deetz caught with 1 for 14-yards. Nick Bentz led the rushing attack with 4 carries for 24-yards, followed by Zach Shue with 5 for 18-yards, Keegan McAuliffe with 3 for 5, Matt Rue with 2 for 4, Andy Debs with 1 for no gain and Kyle O’Donnell with 14 carries for no gain.

The South Western Mustang Marching Band and the 22-member Mustang Cheer Leading squad (expanded to 46 for the third quarter with the JV and Junior High cheer leaders on Homecoming night) and 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 post-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 213 member strong Wildcats Marching Band thrilled the halftime crowd with music from the Broadway musical “Wicked,” including “Over the Rainbow,” “No one Mourns the Wicked,” “Dancing Through Life,” “Defying Gravity,” “For Good,” and a reprise of “No One Mourns the Wicked.”

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

Don Seidenstricker has a 151-60-1 (.716) record as coach of the Mustangs, who have a career record of 292-178-8. The results of the 478 games played in the history of the South Western Mustangs are a career .621 winning percentage and a .628 non-losing percentage.

Next week the Mustangs travel to the beautiful newly renovated Smalls Athletic Field to take on the Bearcats of William Penn of York (3-2 overall, 1-0 YAIAA Division I). The Bearcats are coming off of a 28-21 victory over the Lions of Red Lion. From here it looks like the Mustangs are back in stride and ready to gallop, and their stingy run defense should help them to stay on the winning track. GO MUSTANGS GO.