SOUTH WESTERN MUSTANGS GRIDIRON 2009-4

By Bill Engelhardt
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Last Friday evening, September 18, the Mustangs of South Western visited the Eagles of Bermudian Springs and galloped to a 34-3 victory. Ian Smith’s 130-yards and a touchdown passing, Bobby Porter’s 35-yards passing, and a bevy of runners racking up 283-yards and 4 touchdowns rushing sealed the win.

The Eagles went 3 and out and punted to start the game and the Mustangs marched 69-yards in 8 plays, featuring an 11-yard pass from Ian Smith to Mike Felton, and a beautiful 35-yard pass from Smith to Kyle Mahorney. The drive ended with J. R. Mummert’s 1-yard touchdown plunge at 6:42 in the first quarter, putting the Mustangs up 6-0.

Jimmy Nicklas intercepted an Eagles pass on the next play from scrimmage. The Mustangs ended up punting and then Dan Laird recovered an Eagles fumble for the Mustangs on the next play from scrimmage, on the Eagles 10-yard line. Jeb Shipley plunged in for the touchdown from 4-yards out and Ian Smith ran in for a 2-point conversion at 3:50 in the first quarter, putting the Mustangs up 14-0.

The Eagles then mounted a 52-yard, 9 play drive to the Mustangs 8-yard line. Jeremy Nease kicked a 25-yard field goal for the Eagles at 11:53 in the second quarter for a 14-3 score.

It then took only 53 seconds for the Mustangs to go 77-yards. Levi Sager ripped off a nifty 54-yard run, J. R. Mummert tacked on another 15-yard run and then Mummert scored a touchdown on an 8-yard run. Smith’s extra point upped the score to 21-3 at 11:00 in the second quarter.

The Mustangs mounted a 63-yard, 7 play drive, featuring a 14-yard pass from Ian Smith to Jimmy Nicklas. Levi Sager scored from 8-yards out making the score 27-3 with 2:24 left in the half.

The Mustangs opened the second half with an 84-yard, 7 play drive, featuring a beautiful 53-yard touchdown pass from Ian Smith to Kyle Mahorney. Smith’s extra point kick closed out the scoring at 34-3 in favor of the Mustangs at the 7:58 point in the third quarter.

Jake Shaffer led the defense with 11 tackles, followed by Ryan Sexton with 9, Jake Myers with 8, Levi Sager with 7, Colby Fuhrman and Billy Utz with 6 each, Aaron Bosley, Kyle Mahorney and Jimmy Nicklas with 5 each, Tyler Frederick and Matt Funk with 4, Jeb Shipley with 3, Marty Deal and Casey Froehlich with 2 each, and Cody Fricke, Jeff Hacker, Cody Kephart, Tyrell McCleary, J. R. Mummert, and Bobby Porter with 1 tackle each. Jimmy Nicklas recorded 2 pass defenses and intercepted a pass, Dan Laird recovered a fumble, Myers and Utz each recorded a sack, and Sexton and Fricke each recorded a pass defense for the Mustangs.

Tyrell McCleary returned a kickoff for 18-yards and Levi Sager returned a kickoff for 12-yards for the Mustangs. Sager also fair caught 2 punts and returned 2 for 12-yards, with the longest going for 10-yards, for the Mustangs. Ian Smith kicked off 6 times for 260-yards, with the longest going for 49-yards. Jake Myers punted 2 times for 71-yards, with the longest going for 40-yards, and Mike Felton punted 1 time for 41-yards, for the Mustangs.

Aaron Bosley, Mason Brady, Colby Fuhrman, Tyler Frederick, Dan Laird, Kyle Mahorney, Jake Myers, Ryan Sexton, Jake Shaffer, Billy Utz, and Anthony Wildasin manned the offensive and defensive line and linebacker positions, with help from Brady Conroy, Cody Fricke, Jeff Hacker, Cody Kephart, and Matt Funk. Jimmy Nicklas, Levi Sager, and Jeb Shipley, with help from Casey Froehlich, Marty Deal and Tyrell McCleary, patrolled the secondary for the Mustangs.

The Mustangs gained 283-yards rushing and 165-yards passing for a total of 448- yards of offense. J. R. Mummert led the Mustangs rushing attack with 17 carries for 83-yards (including touchdowns of 1 and 8-yards), followed by Levi Sager with 5 for 75 (including an 8-yard touchdown), Jeb Shipley with 7 for 33 (including a 4-yard touchdown), Bobby Porter with 1 for 28, Marty Deal with 6 for 24, Jeff Hacker with 4 for 19, Ryan Sexton with 1 for 14-yards, and Tyrell McCleary with 3 for minus 4-yards. Quarterback Ian Smith completed 6 of 10 passes for 130-yards and a touchdown and quarterback Bobby Porter completed 3 of 5 passes for 35-yards, for the Mustangs. Kyle Mahorney caught 2 passes for 88-yards (including a 53-yard touchdown), followed by Tommy Nicklas with 1 for 27-yards, Jimmy Nicklas with 2 for 22-yards, Mike Felton with 1 for 11-yards, Cody Kephart with 1 for 10-yards, Jeb Shipley with 1 for 9-yards, and Marty Deal with 1 for minus 2-yards, for the Mustangs.

The Eagles gained 125-yards rushing and 45-yards passing for a total of 170-yards of offense. Ben Goldhammer led the Eagles rushing attack with 11 carries for 71-yards, followed by Jeisson Lloret with 14 for 60, Austin Keller with 1 for 4, Austin Brumfield with 1 for 2-yards, Michael Thoman with minus 5-yards, and Michael Moore with minus 7-yards. Quarterback Thoman completed 4 of 9 passes for 45-yards, 3 for 32-yards to Lloret and 1 for 13-yards to Goldhammer, for the Eagles.

The 85 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 2009 edition of the Band, under the guidance of second year Director Ethan Clark, is titled “Horsing Around in the Mustang Corral” and is a 50th anniversary musical celebration featuring the school “Alma Mater,” “Magnificent 7,” a lullaby of “All The Pretty Little Horses,” and “The Red Pony.” The Bermudian Springs Eagles Marching Band entertained the crowd with a pre-game performance entitled “Mutiny in 3 Parts;” At Port, featuring Leonard Bernstein’s “On the Waterfront,” Departure from the Port, featuring Enyas “Watermark,” and On the High Seas, featuring Hans Zimmers “To the Pirates Cave.” The 22 members strong Mustangs Cheer Leading squad roused the faithful.

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

Don Seidenstricker has a 176-77-1 (.696) record as coach of the Mustangs, who have a career record of 317-195-8. The results of the 520 games played in the history of the South Western Mustangs are a career .619 winning percentage and a .625 non-losing percentage.

Next week the Mustangs begin league action and visit the Eagles of Dover. Dover is coming off of a 40-0 loss to the Squires of Delone Catholic. From here it looks like the Mustangs will continue their winning ways. GO MUSTANGS GO.