SOUTH WESTERN MUSTANGS GRIDIRON 2006-5

By Bill Engelhardt
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Last Friday evening, September 22, the Mustangs of South Western hosted the Wildcats of Dallastown and galloped to a 69-0 shutout, surpassing the previous school record of 68 points scored in a game. The return of injured running back Tim Smith to the Mustangs lineup had an immediate impact as he recovered a Wildcats fumble at the Wildcats 35-yard line on the second play of the game. He then galloped 9-yards to the 26, Jason Gigous scampered for 21-yards to the 5, Smith took it to the 3, Eric Updegrove took it to the 2 and Smith plunged in for the score.

The Wildcats then went three and out and punted to the Mustangs 33-yard line. Donnie Brady scampered to the Wildcats 42-yard line and Mustangs quarterback J. C. Laughman lofted a perfect 42-yard touchdown pass to Kory Yelton. Jason Gigous then recovered a Wildcats fumble at their 37 and Laughman immediately lofted a beautiful touchdown pass to Drew Snyder. The Wildcats garnered a first down and then punted to the Mustangs 32-yard line. A 13-play drive, featuring a 14-yard run by Gigous and an 11-yard run by Aaron Repman, ended in a 5-yard touchdown run by Updegrove. Dan Brenneman passed to Jesse Smith for a 2-point conversion to overcome an earlier missed extra point and the Mustangs led 28-0 in the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter Jesse Smith intercepted a Wildcats pass and returned it 24-yards to the Wildcats 23-yard line. Brady scampered to the 10 and Tim Smith scored from there to up the score to 35-0. The Mustangs started another drive on their 37-yard line after a Wildcats punt and 5 plays later John Bingham scored on a 15-yard run and the score at the half was 42-0.

The Wildcats kickoff for the second half failed to go 10-yards and the Mustangs took over on the Wildcats 49-yard line. Six plays later Seth Barnes scored on a 2-yard run. Shortly thereafter Drew Snyder recovered a Wildcats fumble and returned it 33-yards to the Wildcats 2-yard line, and Chris Helwig punched it in to up the score to 56-0. Lybrant Polk then intercepted a Wildcats pass and returned it 33-yards for a Mustangs touchdown and the score after three quarters was 62-0.

By this time the Mustangs had already emptied their bench. 73 players were dressed for the game and all of them got in at one time or another. Josh Smarowsky recovered a Wildcats fumble and an 8 play 36-yard drive led to a 7-yard touchdown run by Pete Kudla to close out the scoring for the Mustangs.

Jason Gigous and Tim Smith led the Mustangs with 6 tackles each, followed by John Bingham, Chad LaGore and Josh Smarowsky with 5 each, Jesse Smith and Jason Sneeringer with 4 each and Donnie Brady, Chris Helwig, John Neiderer, Brandon Nicastro, Duane Rowlette and Chris Wilson with 3 each. A host of Mustangs registered 1 or 2 tackles.

Snyder registered the fumble recovery and had a pass breakup and a pass hurry, Gigous had the fumble recovery, Tim Smith had the fumble recovery and 2 pass breakups, and Smarowsky had a fumble recovery. Lybrant, and Jesse Smith had the interceptions. Seth Barnes had a pass breakup, and John Bingham, Chad LaGore and Jason Sneeringer each registered a sack for the Mustangs.

Chris Helwig returned a punt for 12-yards and Jason Gigous returned one for 12-yards. Drew Snyder kicked off 7 times for 346-yards, including a touchback, and Ryan Laughman kicked off 3 times for 120-yards, with the longest going for 44-yards. Snyder punted once for 38-yards.

Bryan Bosley, Donnie Brady, Dan Dukes, Jason Gigous, Corwyn Gordon, Chad LaGore, Dale Mills, Cody Shue, Jesse Smith, Jason Sneeringer, Drew Snyder, Eric Updegrove and Chris Wilson manned the offensive and defensive line and linebacker positions. Seth Barnes, Duane Rowlette, Tim Smith, Mike Stremmel and Kory Yelton patrolled the secondary.

The Mustangs gained 292-yards rushing and 116-yards passing for a total of 408 yards of offense. J. C. Laughlin completed 5 of 12 passes for the 116-yards and 2 touchdowns, including 2 for 53-yards and a touchdown to Drew Snyder, 1 for 42-yards and a touchdown to Kory Yelton, 1 for 18-yards to Jesse Smith and 1 for 3-yards to Eric Updegrove. John Bingham led the rushing attack with 4 carries for 48-yards and a touchdown, followed by Aaron Repman with 6 for 38, Donnie Brady with 2 for 38, Eric Updegrove with 8 for 37 and a touchdown, Jason Gigous with 3 for 37, Tim Smith with 5 for 26 and 2 touchdowns, Travis Scott with 3 for 26, Pete Kudla with 2 for 16 and a touchdown, Ryan Laughman with 2 for 8, J. C. Laughlin with 1 for 7, Chris Helwig with 2 for 6 and a touchdown, Seth Barnes with 2 for 5 and a touchdown, Justin Barnes with 2 for 4 and Mike Brant with 1 for 2-yards. Dan Brenneman and Zac Scott each rushed for minus yardage.

The Dallastown Wildcats gained 27-yards rushing as Keegan McAuliffe had 5 carries for 19-yards, followed by Cory Witmer with 5 for 11, Zack Huff with 3 for 7, Mike Baker with 1 for 3, Revoyca Haynes with 1 for 3, Cleve Glass with 1 for 1-yards, and Kole Kraut and Kevin Frisby each ran for minus yardage. Frisby completed 8 passes for 52-yards and Gary Prum completed 1 for 15-yards. Andrew Le led the Wildcats receivers with 4 catches for 31-yards, followed by McAuliffe with 2 for 14, Craig Ricks with 1 for 15 and Prum with 1 for 10-yards.

The 120 member strong South Western Mustang Marching Band and the 18-member Mustang Cheer Leading squad were both very impressive crowd pleasers. The 9-time Cavalcade of Bands Champion, a 2000 Tournament of Bands Champion and US Scholastic Band Champion Mustang Marching Band provided the post-game entertainment with the 2006 musical program entitled “Colourful Rythms,” which featured musical themes from the Millennium Celebration at Epcot Center, including “Time Prologue,” “Chaos,” “Life” and “Celebration.” Then followed the main theme from the Cirque du Soleil production, “Journey of Man” and “Tribal Mustang.” Band Night also saw the 125 member strong 7th and 8th grade Marching Band perform several numbers before the game, and they were joined by the Mustangs Marching Band for a stirring salute to all of the branches of the Armed Services. The over 200 member strong Wildcats Marching Band also entertained the halftime crowd with a rousing performance with the theme “Phantom of the Piano Studio.”

The Mustangs of South Western are 3-1-0 overall and 1-0-0 in York Area Interscholastic Athletic Association (YAIAA) Division I league play.

Don Seidenstricker has a 157-63-1 (.714) record as coach of the Mustangs, who have a career record of 298-181-8. The results of the 487 games played in the history of the South Western Mustangs are a career .622 winning percentage and a .628 non-losing percentage.

Next week the Mustangs continue league play and visit the Rockets of Spring Grove. The Rockets are coming off of a 27-14 loss to the Lions of Red Lion. From here it looks like the Mustangs have found the groove and should continue galloping along on the winning track. GO MUSTANGS GO.