SOUTH WESTERN MUSTANGS GRIDIRON 2008-7

By Bill Engelhardt
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Last Friday evening, October 3, the Mustangs of South Western hosted the Rockets of Spring Grove at the Mustang Corral and galloped to a convincing 48-7 victory. Talented junior fullback J. R. Mummert led the way with 163-yards rushing and 3 touchdowns. He has gone over the 100-yard marker in 5 if his 6 games and has amassed 714-yards rushing and scored 7 touchdowns to date.

The Mustangs started off with a fizzle as they fumbled on the second play of the game and Jered Marshall recovered for the Rockets. However, the Rockets soon turned the ball back to the Mustangs on downs and the Mustangs launched an 8 play 69-yard drive, featuring a 7-yard pass to Chris Helwig and a 19-yard pass to Drew Sneeringer by quarterback Ian Smith. Mummert’s 29-yard touchdown jaunt and Zak Kruger’s extra point kick put the Mustangs up 7-0 with 6:32 left in the first quarter.

The Rockets responded with a 5 play 65-yard drive, featuring a 30-yard pass from Ian Smith (yes the starting quarterbacks for both teams were named Ian Smith) to Josh Nell and Smith’s 44-yard touchdown run. Bobby Bailey’s extra point kick tied the score at 7 with 4:44 left in the first quarter.

The Mustangs countered with an 8-play 63-yard touchdown drive, featuring a 10-yard pass from Ian Smith to Jimmy Nicklas, and several Mummert runs. Zac Scott scored on a 1-yard plunge and Kruger’s extra point kick upped the score to 14-7 in favor of the Mustangs with 1:12 left in the third quarter.

It was all Mustangs after that. After a Rockets punt, the Mustangs launched a 3 play 69-yard drive, featuring Smith’s 19-yard run and Mummert’s 52-yard touchdown scamper. Kruger’s extra point kick upped the score to 21-7 with 10 minutes left in the second quarter.

After another Rockets punt, the Mustangs started at the Rockets 38-yard line. An incomplete pass, a 9-yard run by Jeb Shipley, and Mummert’s 29-yard touchdown run, coupled with Kruger’s extra point kick, upped the score to 28-7 with 7 minutes left in the half.

Jake Myers intercepted a Rockets pass and the Mustangs were in business again at the Rockets 26-yard line. A penalty moved the ball back to the 35 and 4 plays later the drive, featuring a 27-yard pass from Smith to Kyle Mahorney, culminated in Helwig’s 4-yard touchdown run. Kruger’s extra point kick made the score 35-7 with 3:13 left in the half.

The third quarter passed with no additional scoring. After a Rockets punt, the Mustangs took over on the Rockets 35-yard line. A penalty moved them back to the 45, Mike Brant ran for 3-yards and backup quarterback Bobby Porter launched a beautiful 42-yard touchdown pass to Levi Sager. Kruger’s extra point kick upped the score to 42-7 with 9:10 left in the game and the Mustangs began massive substitutions.

Chris Helwig returned a Rockets punt for 54-yards to the Rockets 16-yard line for the Mustangs. Ryan Sexton ran for 2-yards, Kyle King added 9-yards, and Tyrell McCleary scored the Mustang’s last touchdown on a 5-yard run with 2:29 left in the game, making the final score 48-7 in favor of the Mustangs.

Jake Shaffer led the Mustangs defense with 6 tackles, followed by Colby Fuhrman, Chris Helwig, Jake Myers and Derek Supel with 5 each, Alex Berwager, Adam Day, Tyler Frederick, Dan Laird, Andrew Sells, and Drew Sneeringer with 4 each, Chris Houser, Kyle Mahorney, Brandon Nicastro, Jimmy Nicklas, Levi Sager, Zac Scott, and Jeb Shipley with 3 each, Curvin Boehler, Brandon Myers and Ryan Sexton with 2 each, and Jeff Hacker, Kyle King, and Mike Pugh with 1 tackle each. Mike Brant, Jake Myers and Scott each recovered a fumble and Jake Myers intercepted a pass for the Mustangs. Mahorney recorded 2 sacks and Shaffer recorded a sack, Nicklas was credited with 3 pass defenses, Scott was credited with 2, and McCleary and Sexton were each credited with a pass defense, and Day, Mahorney, and Supel each were credited with a pass hurry for the Mustangs.

Kyle Mahorney returned 2 kickoffs for 22-yards, with the longest going for 12-yards for the Mustangs. Chris Helwig returned 3 punts for 74-yards, with the longest going for 54-yards, and Levi Sager returned a punt for 15-yards for the Mustangs. Zak Kruger kicked off 6 times for 330-yards (including 2 touchbacks) Mahorney kicked off 2 times for 96-yards, with the longest going for 51-yards, and Jake Myers punted 2 times for 74-yards, for a 37-yard average, for the Mustangs.

Adam Day, Colby Fuhrman, Jordan Gall, Chris Helwig, Dan Laird, Kyle Mahorney, Jake Myers, Brandon Nicastro, Zac Scott, Andrew Sells, Jake Shaffer, Drew Sneeringer, Derek Supel, and Wes Trostle manned the offensive and defensive line and linebacker positions, with assistance from Curvin Boehler, Jeff Hacker, Chris Houser, Brandon Myers, and Ben Shultz . Alex Berwager, Kyle King, Jimmy Nicklas and Levi Sager patrolled the secondary, with assistance from Tyler Frederick, Tyrell McCleary, Mike Pugh, Ryan Sexton and Jeb Shipley.

The Mustangs gained 255-yards rushing and 114-yards passing for a total of 369- yards of offense. J. R, Mummert led the Mustang rushing attack with 14 carries for 163-yards (including touchdowns of 29, 52 and 29-yards), followed by Ian Smith with 3 for 24, Chris Helwig with 7 for 21 (including a 4-yard touchdown), Mike Brant with 4 for 19, Levi Sager with 3 for 14, Kyle King with 1 for 9, Tyrell McCleary with 1 for a 5-yard touchdown, Ryan Sexton with 1 for 3, Zac Scott with 2 for 2-yards (including a 1-yard touchdown), Jeb Shipley with 3 for minus 2, and Jake Myers with 1 for minus 3-yards. Quarterback Smith completed 5 of 9 passes for 72-yards, 1 for 27-yards to Kyle Mahorney, 1 for 19-yards to Drew Sneeringer, 1 for 10-yards to Jimmy Nicklas, 1 for 9-yards to Shipley, and 1 for 7-yards to Helwig, an backup quarterback Bobby Porter completed 1 pass for a 42-yard touchdown to Levi Sager, for the Mustangs.

The Rockets gained 45-yards rushing and 46-yards passing for a total offense of 91-yards. Ian Smith led the Rockets rushing attack with 10 carries for 25-yards, followed by Bobby Bailey with 14 for 16, Joseph Slate with 1 for 3-yards, and Dillon Durst with 3 for 1-yard. Quarterback Ian Smith completed 5 of 20 passes for 40-yards, 1 for 30-yards to Josh Nell, 3 for 16-yards to Matthew Brookhart, and 1 for minus 6-yards to Bailey, and backup quarterback Jacob Hoover completed 1 of 2 passes for 6-yards to Tyler Kerchner for the Rockets.

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 rousing post-game show entitled “B-Classical” and featuring the energetic rhythms of Bernstein, passionate melodies of Borodini, and empowering harmony of Bizet. The 74 member Spring Grove Rockets Band put on a half-time show under the theme “Flight,” featuring “Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine,” “To Tame the Perilous Skies,” “In Heaven’s Air,” and “Countless Halls of Air.” The 26 member strong Mustangs Cheer Leading squad, and the Rockets Cheer Leaders were very impressive in rousing their fandom.

The Mustangs of South Western are 3-3-0 overall and 2-1-0 in York Area Interscholastic Athletic Association (YAIAA) Division I league play.

Don Seidenstricker has a 172-74-1 (.699) record as coach of the Mustangs, who have a career record of 313-192-8. The results of the 513 games played in the history of the South Western Mustangs are a career .620 winning percentage and a .626 non-losing percentage.

Next week the Mustangs continue league play and visit the Lions of Red Lion. The Lions are coming off of a 44-7 victory over the winless Eagles of Dover. From here it looks like the Mustangs are ready to continue galloping along the winning track. GO MUSTANGS GO.