SOUTH WESTERN MUSTANGS GRIDIRON 2005-11

By Bill Engelhardt
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Last Friday evening, November 4, the Mustangs of South Western hosted the Squires of Delone Catholic (5-5 overall, 4-2 YAIAA Division I) and earned a convincing 24-7 victory to end their 2005 season on a high note. The first quarter saw the ball exchanged several times on punts, including a Mustangs punt that hit a Mustangs player and was recovered by the Squires. The Mustangs started their third possession on the Squires 44-yard line and Robert Barnett immediately ripped off a neat 28-yard run to the 16. Cody Smith then scored on a 16-yard dash and Drew Snyder’s kick put the Mustangs on top 7-0 one play into the second quarter.

Snyder’s kickoff was a touchback and the Squires drive stalled. They punted at their 40-yard line and Jeremy Renoll blocked it, chased it down at the Squires 15-yard line, scooped it up and took it in for the score. Snyder’s extra point upped the score to 14-0.

The Mustangs muffed a punt that was recovered by Jacob Hockensmith for the Squires at the Mustangs 39-yard line. The Squires were not able to take advantage and the ball exchanged hands a couple more times. The Squires had the ball at the Mustangs 38 and again were unable to capitalize. Robert Barnett intercepted a Squires pass at the 3-yard line to preserve the shut out as the half came to an end.

The third quarter saw multiple exchanges of the ball with no score. The Squires finally came to life and backup quarterback Christopher Burton completed three passes, 19-yards to Tyler Hagarman, 45-yards to Nate Bennett and 17-yards to Hagarman, setting up a 2-yard touchdown scamper by Joe Sorice. Bennett’s kick made the score 14-7 and things looked interesting.

But not for long, as Aaron Repman returned the ensuing kickoff 85-yards. This led to a 20-yard field goal by Drew Snyder for the Mustangs, who, as a junior, has already set a new school record for field goals in a career with 12. The home crowd breathed a little easier with the 17-7 lead.

The Squires were unable to move the ball on their next possession and punted. Dustin Shaw blocked it and Jason Sneeringer recovered it for the Mustangs at the Squires 40-yard line. The Squires almost immediately returned the favor as Gareth Hissong recovered a Mustangs fumble at the Squires 39-yard line. And the Mustangs almost immediately turned the tables again as Drew Snyder intercepted a pass and returned it 30-yards to the Squires 16-yard line. Repman moved the ball to the 15 and J. C. Laughlin lofted a beautiful 15-yard touchdown pass to Snyder, who then kicked the extra point to close out the scoring at 24-7.

Aaron Repman returned a kickoff for 85-yards and Robert Barnett returned one for 21-yards for the Mustangs. Repman also returned 3 punts for 34-yards, with the longest going for 32-yards, and Jason Gigous returned a punt for 10-yards. Drew Snyder kicked off 5 times for 257-yards, with the longest going for 60-yards, and he had 2 touchbacks. He punted 4 times for 119-yards, for a 29.75-yard average, with the longest going for 38-yards. His 43 punts for 1,713-yards gives him a season average of 39.8-yards, qualifying him for the “Keystone Club” at the Pennsylvania Football News web site.

Matt Bosley led the Mustangs swarming defense with 12 tackles, followed by Drew Snyder with 9 and Mark Bittinger, Jeremy Renoll and Tim Smith with 8 each. Bosley’s 12 tackles gave him 101 for the season, qualifying him for the “Keystone Club.” Bittinger, Renoll and Dustin Shaw each registered a quarterback sack. Renoll had 10 sacks for the season, qualifying him for the “Keystone Club,” and 21 for his career, coming in second to the school career record of 23 set by Zack Topper. Shaw also had that blocked punt that was recovered by Jason Sneeringer for the Mustangs and do everything Renoll had that blocked punt that he recovered and ran in for the score. The interceptions by Barnett and Snyder were huge. Barnett, Bosley and Max Wagaman broke up passes and Bittinger tipped a pass to thwart Squires drives.

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

The Mustangs gained 118-yards rushing and 29-yards passing for a total of 149 yards of offense. J. C. Laughlin completed 4 of 8 passes for the 29-yards. Drew Snyder caught 1 for 15-yards and the touchdown, Jason Gigous caught 1 for 12-yards, Cody Smith caught 1 for 4-yards and Jeremy Renoll caught 1 for minus 2-yards. Robert Barnett led the rushing attack with 4 carries for 44-yards, followed by Aaron Repman with 10 for 33, Cody Smith with 4 for 24 and the touchdown, Tim Smith with 4 for 16, Shawn Rider with 1 for 8, Jason Gigous with 3 for 2 and J. C. Laughlin with 5 for minus 9-yards.

The Squires gained 30-yards rushing and 177-yards passing for a total of 212-yards of offense. Backup quarterback Christopher Burton completed 8 of 29 passes for 161-yards and starter Seth Grim completed 2 of 5 passes for 21-yards. Tyler Hagarman caught 6 passes for 93-yards, followed by Nate Bennett with 1 for 45, Trevor Morley with 1 for 18, Jacob Hockensmith with 1 for 13, and Fred Gouker with 1 for 8-yards. Joe Sorice led the rushing attack with 21 carries for 18-yards, including the touchdown, followed by Jacob Hockensmith with 3 for 17, Nate Bennett with 4 for 10, Michael Kale with 1 for 6. Logan Kwedar with 2 for minus 2 and Christopher Burton with 3 for minus 19-yards.

The South Western Mustang Marching Band and the 22-member Mustang Cheer Leading squad both entertained the crowd. The 7-time Cavalcade of Bands Champion, 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 Squires Marching Band put on a spirited half-time show for the crowd.

The Mustangs of South Western are 4-6-0 overall and 3-3-0 in York Area Interscholastic Athletic Association (YAIAA) Division I league play.

Don Seidenstricker has a 154-62-1 (.713) record as coach of the Mustangs, who have a career record of 295-180-8. The results of the 483 games played in the history of the South Western Mustangs are a career .621 winning percentage and a .627 non-losing percentage.

I want to say a special thank you to Richard Lupro for faithfully providing the official Offensive, Special Teams and Scoring statistics for the Mustangs to me, and for inputting them, and the Defensive statistics, at the Max Preps web site each and every week. And thanks again go to longtime Mustangs line coach Chuck Seidenstricker for providing vital Defensive statistics to me, and to Dick for input to the web site, after reviewing game films on very short notice.

The 2005 edition of the Mustangs of South Western gave their fans a host of excitement and thrills. They set a new school record for field goals for a career, set a new second place record for career quarterback sacks, had a player meet the lofty goal of 100 tackles, and had players meet the criteria for the Pennsylvania Football News “Keystone Club” for tackles, for punting average and for quarterback sacks for the season. They represented their school and league very well, played hard all season, never gave up, and certainly ended the season upholding the Mustangs wining tradition. They have a great nucleus of returning players from the junior varsity and solid players coming up within the ranks. I can’t wait for next season to begin. Until then, GO MUSTANGS GO.