SOUTH WESTERN MUSTANGS GRIDIRON 2009-13

By Bill Engelhardt
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Last Friday evening, November 20, as the 4th seed in District 3, class AAAA, the Mustangs of South Western hosted the 5th seeded Comets of Penn Manor, of the Lancaster-Lebanon League Division 1, at the Mustang Corral in the semifinal round of the playoffs and were defeated 34-12, ending a very successful and very fan pleasing 50th season of Mustang football. The South Western Mustangs began and ended the game on high notes; Jake Myers intercepted a pass on the Comets first possession and returned it for 16-yards, and backup senior quarterback Bobby Porter threw a 16-yard touchdown pass as the clock ran out.

On the 5th play of the game Jake Myers intercepted P. J. Rehm’s pass for the Mustangs. But the Mustangs ended up punting and the Comets launched a 9 play 59-yard drive, featuring a 34-yard pass from Rehm to Aaron Frederick. That set up Garrett Young’s 1-yard touchdown plunge and Keith Eshleman’s extra point kick put the Comets up 7-0 with 5:11 left in the first quarter.

The Mustangs and the Comets exchanged punts, the Mustangs punted again and the Comets got the ball at the Mustangs 44-yard line. An 8 play drive, featuring a 17-yard pass to Demetrius Dixon, set the Comets up for Young’s second 1-yard touchdown plunge, and Eshleman’s extra point kick upped the score to 14-0 with 8:08 left in the second quarter.

The Mustangs punted again and the Comets drove 73-yards in 8 plays, ending with a 35-yard touchdown pass from Rehm to Dixon. The score went to 20-0 with 2:44 left in the first half.

The Mustangs punted again and Rehm completed a 56-yard pass to Dixon. That set up a 9-yard touchdown pass from Rehm to Jared Shearer and Eshleman’s extra point kick made it 27-0 with 1:06 left in the first half.

The Mustangs drove from their own 36-yard line to the Comets 7-yard line in a drive that included a 17-yard gain by J. R. Mummert on a fake punt. The half ended with 2 incomplete passes.

The Mustangs opened the second half with a 7 play 64-yard drive, featuring passes of 15 and 27-yards from Ian Smith to Kyle Mahorney. They turned the ball over on down at the Comets 7-yard line.

The Comets went up 34-0 with a 24-yard touchdown pass from Rehm to Aaron Frederick and Eshleman’s extra point kick with 7:49 left in the game.

The Mustangs then drove 62-yards in 5 plays, featuring passes of 11 and 13-yards from Smith to Jimmy Nicklas. Smith ended the drive with a 38-yard touchdown strike to Mike Felton with 6:55 left in the game.

Senior Bobby Porter took over the quarterback duties for the Mustangs and they drove 71-yards in 13 plays, featuring a 10-yard pass to Tyrell McCleary, an 11-yard pass to Jimmy Nicklas and a 6-yard pass to Mike Felton by Porter. Porter ended the drive with a beautiful 16-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Mahorney as the clock ran out in the game, making the final score 34-12.

Jake Myers led the Mustangs defense with 20 tackles, followed by Cody Fricke with 12, Colby Fuhrman and Jake Shaffer with 10 tackles each, Jimmy Nicklas with 9, Kyle Mahorney with 7, Billy Utz with 6, Tyrell McCleary and Levi Sager with 5 tackles each, Kyle King and Dan Laird with 4 tackles each, Mike Felton with 3, Aaron Bosley with 2 tackles, and Matt Funk, Tommy Nicklas and Ryan Sexton with 1 tackle each. Fuhrman was credited with a sack, and Bosley, Felton, Fricke and King were each credited with a pass defense, for the Mustangs.

Levi Sager and Tyrell McCleary fair caught a punt for the Mustangs. Sager returned 3 kickoffs for 52-yards, with the longest going for 22-yards, and Mike Felton returned 2 kickoffs for 23-yards, with the longest going for 12-yards, for the Mustangs. Norton Redding kicked off 2 times for 55-yards, with the longest going for 30-yards for the Mustangs. Mike Felton punted 6 times for 223-yards for a 37.17-yard average, with the longest going for 41-yards, for the Mustangs.

Aaron Bosley, Mason Brady, Mike Felton, Matt Funk, Cody Fricke, Colby Fuhrman, Dan Laird, Kyle Mahorney, David Messinger, Jake Myers, Ryan Sexton, Jake Shaffer, and Billy Utz manned the offensive and defensive line and linebacker positions. Kyle King, Tyrell McCleary, Jimmy Nicklas, and Levi Sager patrolled the secondary for the Mustangs.

The Mustangs gained 96-yards rushing and 206-yards passing for a total of 302- yards of offense. J. R. Mummert led the Mustangs rushing attack with 10 carries for 52-yards, followed by Levi Sager with 5 carries for 24-yards, Bobby Porter with 4 carries for 11-yards, Kyle King with 1 carry for 5-yards, and Mike Felton with 1 carry for 4-yards. Quarterback Smith completed 10 of 24 passes for 155-yards and a touchdown and quarterback Bobby Porter completed 5 of 8 passes for 51-yards and a touchdown, for the Mustangs. Kyle Mahorney caught 4 passes for 62-yards (including a 16-yard touchdown from Porter) followed by Mike Felton with 4 passes for 57-yards (including a 38-yard touchdown from Smith), Jimmy Nicklas with 3 passes for 33-yards, Levi Sager with 1 pass for 31-yards, Tyrell McCleary with 1 pass for 10-yards, Kyle King with 1 pass for 8-yards, and HJ. R. Mummert with 1 pass for 5-yards, for the Mustangs. Jake Myers intercepted a pass and returned it 16-yards for the Mustangs.

The Comets gained 141-yards rushing and 325-yards passing for a total offense of 466-yards. Jared Shearer led the Comets rushing attack with 10 carries for 50-yards, followed by P. J. Rehm with 11 carries for 41-yards, LaRonn Lee with 6 carries for 40-yards, Garrett Young with 6 carries for 13-yards (including 2 touchdowns of 1-yard each), Aaron Frederick with 1 carry for 1-yard, Adam Sahd with 1 carry for no yards, and Darius Howard with 2 carries for minus 4-yards. Quarterback Rehm completed 17 of 24 passes for 325-yards and 3 touchdowns, 6 passes for 156-yards to Demetrius Dixon (including a 35-yard touchdown), 5 passes for 116-yards to Aaron Frederick (including a 24-yard touchdown), 2 passes for 18-yards to LaRonn Lee, 2 passes for 17-yards to Darius Howard, 1 pass for 10-yards and a touchdown to Jared Shearer, and 1 pass for 8-yards to Austin Sahd, for the Comets. Keith Eshleman kicked 4 extra points for the Comets.

The 83 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 pre-game show. 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 20 member strong Mustangs Cheer Leading squad, plus the Mustangs Mascot, and the Comets Cheer Leaders were very good at rousing the excited crowd in the playoff atmosphere.

The Mustangs of South Western have a record of 10-2-0 overall and 6-1-0 in York Adams Interscholastic Athletic Association (YAIAA) Division I league play.

Don Seidenstricker has a 183-79-1 (.698) record as coach of the Mustangs, who have a career record of 324-197-8. The results of the 529 games played in the history of the South Western Mustangs are a career .622 winning percentage and a .628 non-losing percentage.

I want to say a very special thank you to Richard Lupro for faithfully compiling the official Offensive, Special Teams and Scoring statistics for the Mustangs, and for inputting them, and the Defensive statistics, at the Max Preps web site very quickly each week so that they were always available for my use. He was instrumental in coming up with most of the records that will be mentioned below. And a very special thank you also goes to longtime Mustangs line coach Chuck Seidenstricker for providing vital Defensive statistics to me, and to Dick Lupro, for input to the web site, after reviewing game films on very short notice.

The 2009 edition of the Mustangs of South Western gave their fans lots of excitement and thrills. They shared the YAIAA Division I title with the Panthers of Central York, won the Division I Hanover City Cup for the second year in a row, had a 10-1 regular season record, and got to the second round of the District 3 playoffs in a very tough AAAA classification. The team set a new record for total offense in a season with 4,132-yards, surpassing the record of 4,071-yards set in 2006. The team also set a new record for passing yards in a season with 1,583-yards (1,483 by Ian Smith and 100 by Bobby Porter), surpassing the record of 1,276 set in 2006.

Ian Smith set a new school record for yards passing in a season with 1,483, surpassing J. C. Laughlin’s record of 1,259-yards in 2006. Smith also came in second all time for touchdown passes in a season with 16, just 4 behind Laughlin’s record of 20 in 2006.

With 6 touchdown receptions, Mike Felton tied with Tim Rill (1990) and Phil Null (1973) for third place in school history. Drew Snyder leads the list with 10 touchdown receptions in 2006.

Ian Smith kicked 36 extra points for the season, putting him in 3rd place in school history. Ryan Wickline has the record with 44 extra points in 1994.

Kyle Mahorney is tied with Steve McConnell for 4th place in school history for touchdown receptions in a career with 8. Drew Snyder leads the list with 14. Mahorney has 589-yards in pass receptions for his career, placing him just 3 behind Steve McConnell’s 5th place finish in school history. Tim Rill leads the list with 992-yards.

J. R. Mummert has 2,034-yards rushing for his career, placing him just 54-yards from 5th place in school history. Bob Barthold is in 5th place with 2,088-yards and Allen Bittinger leads the list with 2,871-yards.

Jake Myers, who had 20 tackles in this game, had 139 tackles for the season and 266 for his career. He takes over third place in the school record book in both categories. Jason Gigous leads the list for tackles in a season with 151 in 2006 and Brian Hart leads the list for tackles in a career with 290.

Levi Sager had 105 carries for 806 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns for the season, followed by .J. R. Mummert with 183 for 793-yards and 8 touchdowns, Jeb Shipley with 43 for 269-yards and 2 touchdowns, Kyle King with 46 for 268-yards and 4 touchdowns, Mike Felton with 4 for 116-yards and 1 touchdown, Marty Deal with 11 for 56-yards and 1 touchdown, Ian Smith with 39 for 51-yards and 2 touchdowns, Bobby Porter with 9 for 53-yards, Ryan Sexton with 2 for 45-yards and 1 touchdown, Tyrell McCleary with 11 for 27-yards, Jeff Hacker with 7 for 26-yards, Mike Pugh with 4 for 23-yards, Jake Myers with 8 for 22-yards, Matt Stroda with 1 for 8-yards, Ben Fogle with 2 for 2-yards, Reid Cruz with 1 for 1-yard, Carnie Fryfogle with 1 for minus 4-yards, and a team loss of 13-yards, for a net of 2,549 rushing yards and 32 touchdowns for the season.

Ian Smith completed 94 of 192 passes for 1,483-yards and 16 touchdowns and Bobby Porter completed 9 of 17 passes for 100-yards and a touchdown. The season reception leaders were Kyle Mahorney with 17 receptions for 421-yards and 5 touchdowns, followed by Mike Felton with 24 for 369-yards and 6 touchdowns, Jimmy Nicklas with 22 for 320-yards and 2 touchdowns, Jeb Shipley with 9 for 117-yards and 1 touchdown, Levi Sager with 10 for 115-yards and 2 touchdowns, Kyle King with 8 for 102-yards, J. R. Mummert with 6 for 69-yards, Tommy Nicklas with 1 for 27-yards, Cody Kephart with 2 for 24-yards, Kyle Conaboy with 2 for 11-yards and 1 touchdown, Tyrell McCleary with 1 for 10-yards, and Marty Deal with 1 for minus 2-yards, for a net of 1,583-yards and 17 touchdowns passing for the season.

Jake Myers led the defense with 139 tackles for the season. Other players with at least 50 tackles for the season were: Jake Shaffer with 86, Kyle Mahorney with 72, and Jake Myers with 55.

Jake Myers led the team in sacks with 5, followed by Kyle Mahorney with 4, David Messinger and Ryan Sexton with 3 sacks each, Cody Fricke and Billy Utz with 2 sacks each, and Aaron Bosley, Colby Fuhrman, Dan Laird and Jake Shaffer with 1 sack each. Jake Myers and Jimmy Nicklas each had 4 interceptions, Mike Felton had 3, Kyle King and Levi Sager each had 12 interceptions, and Jake Shaffer and Jeb Shipley each has 1 interception, for the season. Matt Funk, Dan Laird, Jimmy Nicklas and Ryan Sexton each recovered 2 fumbles, and Kyle Conaby, Colby Fuhrman, Marty Deal, Tyler Frederick, Jeff Hacker, Kyle King, David Messinger, Levi Sager, Jake Shaffer, and Leonard Sturgis each recovered 1 fumble for the season.

The 2009 Mustangs represented their school and league honorably, played hard, never gave up, set a host of school records and was clearly one of the very best teams in the 50-year history of the program. 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.