SOUTH WESTERN MUSTANGS GRIDIRON 2011-12

By Bill Engelhardt
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Last Friday evening, November 11, the 9th seeded York Adams Interscholastic Athletic Association (YAIAA) Division I Mustangs of South Western (9-2 overall, 5-0 league) visited the 8th seeded Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 1 Blue Streaks of Manheim Township (8-3 overall, 6-1 league) and edged the Blue Streaks 42-35 in a thriller that saw the winning touchdown scored with 15 seconds left in the game. The Mustangs will next visit the 1st seeded Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division Eagles of Cumberland Valley (10-1 overall, 5-1 league) in the quarterfinal round.

The Mustangs and the Blue Streaks started off feeling each other out and each ended up punting twice in their first 2 possessions. The Mustangs drew first blood as they drove 57-yards in eight plays, featuring a 15-yard run by Mike Felton and ending with a 6-yard touchdown plunge by Zach Gross. The extra point kick by Jake Tracy put the Mustangs up 7-0 with 10:32 to go in the second quarter.

The Blue Streaks then drove 93-yards in eight plays, featuring pinpoint passing by Brennan Scott, 25-yards to Chase Miller, 12-yards to Tyler Karpinski, 7-yards to Miller, 6-yards to Karpinski, and a 33-yard touchdown strike to Kyle Bushong. Alex Woolley kicked the extra point to tie the score at 7 with 6:59 to go in the half.

The Mustangs then drove 60-yards in three plays, Felton’s 14-yard run, Dillon Thomas’ 15-yard run, and Felton’s 31-yard touchdown jaunt. Tracy’s extra point kick put the Mustangs up 14-7 with 5:56 to go in the half.

The Blue Streaks came right back with a 55-yard drive, after Miller returned the kickoff 34-yards. The drive featured a 28-yard pass from Brennan to Miller and ended with a 20-yard touchdown strike to Bushong. Woolley’s extra point kick tied the score at 14 with 3:55 to go in the half.

The Mustangs and the Blue Streaks exchanged punts and then the Mustangs drove 53-yards in six plays, ending with a 31-yard touchdown strike from Gross to Felton. This put the Mustangs up 20-14 with 41 seconds to go in the first half.

The Blue Streaks opened the second half by gaining 6-yards and, in a gutsy move turning the ball over on downs at their own 44-yard line. The Mustangs then drove the 44-yards in ten plays, featuring a 16-yard run by Reid Cruz, and ending with a 5-yard touchdown plunge by Thomas. Gross threw a 2-point conversion pass to Felton and the Mustangs were up 28-14 with 6:57 to go in the third quarter.

The Blue Streaks stormed back with a 51-yard drive ending with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Brennan to Bushong. Woolley’s extra point kick closed the gap to 28-21 in favor of the Mustangs.

The Mustangs had a short-lived drive end in a fumble that was recovered by Matt Sallade for the Blue Streaks at the Mustangs 45-yard line. Three passing plays later saw the Blue Streaks tie the score at 28 with a 32-yard touchdown pass to Miller and Woolley’s extra point kick, with 2:28 to go in the third quarter.

The Mustang then drove 65-yards in twelve plays, ending with a 5-yard touchdown run by Thomas. Tracy kicked the extra point and the Mustangs were up 35-28 with 9:25 to go in the fourth quarter.

The Blue Streaks then drove 48-yards to the Mustangs 17-yard line, only to have Mike Duffy intercept a pass in the end zone for the Mustangs, giving them the ball at their 20-yard line. The Mustangs then drove 40-yards and punted, and Miller returned the punt 38-yards for the Blue Streaks.

The Blue Streaks then drove 33-yards in four plays, featuring a 15-yard pass to Bushong and ending with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Brennan to Miller. Woolley’s extra point kick tied the score at 35 with 2:35 left in the game.

The Mustangs then drove 66-yards in nine plays, featuring a 24-yard pass from Gross to Felton, a beautiful 28-yard pass from Gross to a wide open Keith Pappas to the Blue Streaks 17-yard line, and a 5-yard touchdown run by Thomas with 15 seconds left in the game. Tracy’s extra point kick closed out the scoring with a thrilling 42-35 victory for the Mustangs.

Mike Felton kicked off 5 times for 194-yards, with the longest going for 57-yards, and punted 4 times for 149-yards, with the longest going for 44-yards. Dillon Langenfeld returned 2 kickoffs for 39-yards, with the longest going for 22-yards, Felton returned 1 kickoff for 20-yards, and Dakotah Moses returned 1 kickoff for 10-yards. Jaelen Langenfeld returned 2 punts for 17-yards, with the longest going for 9-yards, and Dillon Langenfeld returned 1 punt for no yards, for the Mustangs.

Mike Felton led the Mustangs defense with 11 tackles and 4 passes defended, followed by Carnie Fryfogle with 11 tackles (giving him a team leading 147 for the season and putting him in second place in school history, only 4 behind the 151 tackles recorded by Jason Gigous in a 14 game season in 2006), Chad Kolper with 8 tackles, 2 sacks and a pass defense, Keith Pappas with 6 tackles, Mike Duffy with 5 tackles, 1 interception and a pass defense, Reid Cruz and Rich Delea with 4 tackles each, Jeremy Loughlin with 3 tackles and 1 sack, Jerome Robinson with 2 tackles and 3 passes defended, Dillon Langenfeld, Jaelen Langenfeld, and Brandon Stremmel with 2 tackles each, and Devon Ackerman, Ryan Dotson, and Dakotah Moses with 1 tackle each.

Devon Ackerman, Alex Baugher, Logan Bowman, Reid Cruz, Rich Delea, Ryan Dotson, Carnie Fryfogle, Matt Hawn, Chad Kolper, Jeremy Loughlin, Dakotah Moses, Keith Pappas, Brandon Stremmel, Dillon Thomas, and Zach Townsend, manned the offensive and defensive line and linebacker positions. Mike Duffy, Mike Felton, and Jerome Robinson patrolled the secondary for the Mustangs, with help from Brandon Krise and the Langenfeld twins, Dillon and Jaelen.

The Mustangs gained 344-yards rushing and 88-yards passing for a total of 432-yards of offense. Mike Felton led the Mustangs rushing attack with 26 carries for 164-yards (including a 31-yard touchdown), followed by Dillon Thomas with 26 for 140 yards (including 3 touchdowns, of 5, 5. and 5-yards), Reid Cruz with 4 for 33-yards, and Zach Gross with 2 carries for 7-yards (including a 6-yard touchdown). Thomas has 967-yards and 15 touchdowns rushing and Felton has 915-yards and 13 touchdowns rushing (as well as 5 receiving and 5 special teams touchdowns for a total of 23 touchdowns). Quarterback Gross completed 4 of 12 passes for 88-yards and 1 touchdown (giving him a season record to date of 66 completions in 115 attempts for 1,037-yards, putting him in 5th place in school history, and 11 touchdowns), 3 for 60-yards to Felton (including a 31-yard touchdown), and 1 for 28-yards to Keith Pappas that spearheaded the winning touchdown drive. Jake Tracy kicked 4 extra points, Gross threw a 2-point conversion pass to Felton, Mike Duffy intercepted a pass, Chad Kolper recorded 2 sacks, and Jeremy Loughlin recorded 1 sack, for the Mustangs.

The Blue Streaks gained 54-yards rushing and 391-yards passing for a total of 445-yards gained. Dillon O’Dell led the Blue Streaks rushing attack with 8 carries for 33-yards, followed by Brennan Scott with 4 for 19-yards, and Scott Sallade with 1 carry for 2-yards. Quarterback Scott completed 26 of 46 passes for 391-yards and 5 touchdowns, 11 for 151-yards to Tyler Karpinski, 8 for 118-yards to Chase Miller (including touchdowns of 32 and 7-yards), 5 for 103-yards to Kyle Bushong (including touchdowns of 33, 20, and 13-yards), 1 for 11-yards to Ryan Morgan, and 1 for 8-yards to Andrew Dissinger, for the Blue Streaks. Alex Woolley kicked 5 extra points and Matt Sallade recovered a fumble for the Blue Streaks.

The 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, presenting their 2011 field show “The Colors of Dreams.” The relaxing mallet introduction led to the haunting sound of “The Dream is Collapsing” from Inception, followed by “Zooster’s Rebellion” from Madagascar, the sorrowful longing of “Hummel Gets the Rockets,” from the Rock, and the show closed with “The Burning Bush,” from Prince of Egypt.

The Manheim Township Blue Streaks Marching Band put on a great pre-game performance with their show “Blue,” featuring tunes related to the color. The Mustangs and Blue Streaks Cheer Leading squads were very impressive as they roused the faithful in the cold night air.

The Mustangs of South Western are 9-2-0 overall and 5-0-0 in York Adams Interscholastic Athletic Association (YAIAA) Division I league play.

Don Seidenstricker has a 196-87-1 (.693) record as coach of the Mustangs, who have a career record of 337-205-8. The results of the 550 games played in the history of the South Western Mustangs are a career .622 winning percentage and a .627 non-losing percentage.

The 9th seeded Mustangs will next visit the 1st seeded Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division Eagles of Cumberland Valley (10-1 overall, 5-1 league) in the quarterfinal round of the District 3 Playoffs. GO MUSTANGS GO.