SOUTH WESTERN MUSTANGS GRIDIRON 2008-3

By Bill Engelhardt
________

Last Friday evening, September 5, the Mustangs of South Western visited the Mountain – Seven Mountains League’s Golden Tigers of Hollidaysburg and were edged 28-19 in a cliffhanger. It wasn’t decided until the Golden Tigers scored a clinching touchdown with 1:19 left on the game clock.

The Mustangs launched an impressive five-play 80-yard touchdown drive to open the game. David Sager’s 38-yard pass to Chris Helwig started the drive and his 31-yard touchdown pass to Drew Sneeringer ended it at the 9:31 point in the first quarter, putting the Mustangs up 6-0.

The Golden Tigers came right back with a nine play 61-yard touchdown drive. Quarterback Brandyn Ott kept the ball for runs on 4 of the plays and Luke Rhodes capped off the drive with a 32-yard touchdown run. Jason Boland’s extra point kick put the Golden Tigers up 7-6 at 6:16 in the first quarter.

The Mustangs responded again with a nine-play 80-yard touchdown drive. This one opened with a 15-yard pass from David Sager to Kyle Mahorney, featured another pass to Mahorney for 4-yards and five flashy runs by J. R. Mummert, and ended with Mummert’s nifty 27-yard touchdown jaunt, putting the Mustangs up 12-7 at 2:54 in the first quarter.

After each team punted twice, the Golden Tigers launched an eight-play 66-yard touchdown drive. A 9-yard run by Ott started things off and this followed by a 32-yard pass from Ott to Justin Gildea. The drive also featured a 10-yard pass from Ott to Scott Hammond and ended with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Gildea, putting the Golden Tigers up 13-12 with 16 seconds left in the first half.

The Golden Tigers opened the second half with a nine 90-yard touchdown drive. Ott’s 59-yard pass to Ben Pramuk was the featured play of the drive, which ended with a 4-yad touchdown run by Rhodes. Ott’s 2-point conversion pass to Boland put the Golden Tigers up 21-12 at 6:32 in the third quarter.

Each team punted once and then the Mustangs launched an eleven-play 70-yard touchdown drive. The drive featured a 6-yard pass from David Sager to Sneeringer, a 12-yard pass from Sager to Jeb Shipley, 4 runs for 27-yards by J. R. Mummert, 3 runs for 17-yards by Chris Helwig, and ended with the 9-yard touchdown run by Shipley. Zak Kruger’s extra point kick closed the gap to 21-19 in favor of the Golden Tigers at 11:07 in the 4th quarter.

The Golden Tigers then marched 66-yards in 18 plays to score the clinching touchdown. The drive opened with a 4-yard pass from Ott to Boland and ended with a 5-yard touchdown jaunt by Rhodes. Boland’s extra point kick made the final score 28-19 in favor of the Golden Tigers.

The game ended shortly thereafter with Jacob Bickley’s interception of a pass for the Golden Tigers.

Chris Helwig returned a kickoff for 30-yards, Tyrell McCleary returned a kickoff for 16-yards, and Levi Sager returned 2 punts for 17-yards, with the longest going for 10-yards, for the Mustangs. Zak Kruger kicked off 4 times for 193-yards, with the longest going for 60-yards and a touchback. Jake Myers punted 3 times for 114-yards, for a 38-yard average, with the longest going for 42-yards, for the Mustangs.

Jake Meyers, who had 18 tackles and a pass hurry for the night, led the Mustangs defense; followed by Chris Helwig with 12 tackles, Brandon Nicastro with 10, Adam Day with 9, Andrew Sells with 8, Zac Scott, Derek Supel and Drew Sneeringer with 7 tackles each, Jimmy Nicklas and Alex Berwager with 6 tackles each, Jake Shaffer with 4, Levi Sager and Dan Laird with 3 tackles each, Ryan Sexton and Jordan Gall with 2 tackles each, and Ben Shultz, Colby Fuhrman, and Chris Houser with one tackle each. Supel also registered a sack and Sells also was credited with a pass defense for the Mustangs.

Zac Scott, Adam Day, Jordan Gall, Chris Helwig, Jake Myers, Brandon Nicastro, Andrew Sells, Jake Shaffer, Drew Sneeringer, Derek Supel, and Wes Trostle manned the offensive and defensive line and linebacker positions, with plenty of help from Colby Fuhrman, and Dan Laird. Alex Berwager, Kyle King, Jimmy Nicklas, and Levi Sager, patrolled the secondary.

The Mustangs gained 197-yards rushing and 144-yards passing for a total of 341-yards of offense. Quarterback David Sager completed 9 of 19 passes for the 144-yards, including 2 for 40-yards to Alex Berwager, 1 for 38-yards to Chris Helwig, 2 for 37-yards to Drew Sneeringer (who scored the touchdown on a 31-yard reception), 3 for 17-yards to Kyle Mahorney, and 1 for 12-yards to Jeb Shipley for the Mustangs. J. R. Mummert led the Mustangs rushing attack with 18 carries for 122-yards and the 27-yard touchdown, followed by Helwig with 6 for 41-yards, Shipley with 4 for 16-yards and the 9-yard touchdown, David Sager with 3 for 11-yards, and Zac Scott with 3 for 7-yards.

The Hollidaysburg Golden Tigers rang up 199-yards rushing and 115 yards passing for a total of 314 yards gained. Quarterback Brandyn Ott completed 7 of 11 passes for 115-yards and a touchdown, including 2 for 66-yards to Ben Pramuk, 2 for 34-yards to Justin Gildea, 1 for 10-yards to Scott Hammond, 1 for 4-yards to Jason Boland, and 1 for 1-yard to Luke Rhodes. Rhodes led the rushing attack with 21 carries for 91-yards, followed by Ott with 20 for 85, Scott Hammond with 6 for 14, and Gildea with 3 for 9-yards. Jacob Bickley had an interception and Joseph Hargis and Colt Edwards each had a sack for the Golden Tigers.

The 93 member 9-time Cavalcade of Bands Champions, Tournament of Bands Group IV Champion and US Scholastic Band Champion South Western Mustangs Marching Band put on a stirring half time performance. The field production of the 2008 edition of the Band, under the guidance of first year Director Ethan Clark, is titled “B-Classical” and features the energetic rhythms of Bernstein, passionate melodies of Borodini, and empowering harmony of Bizet. The Hollidaysburg Golden Tigers Marching Band also put on a rousing half game show. The 23 member strong Mustangs Cheer Leading squad was very impressive as they stirred the loyal Mustangs supporters.

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

Don Seidenstricker has a 170-72-1 (.702) record as coach of the Mustangs, who have a career record of 311-190-8. The results of the 509 games played in the history of the South Western Mustangs are a career .621 winning percentage and a .627 non-losing percentage.

Next week the Mustangs host the Eagles of Bermudian Springs. The Eagles were defeated 30-13 by Northern York in their opener and are coming off of a 30-20 victory over Dover this week. From here it looks like the Mustangs are due to get back on the winning track. GO MUSTANGS GO.