Turnovers Hurt Mustangs in 38-16 loss to No. 2 Ponca
By Greg Hansen
September 20, 2009
The Stanton Mustangs traveled North to Ponca to face the No.2 Indians on Friday night. It was the marque matchup in Class C2. Unfortunately for the Mustangs turnovers, missed tackles and assignments miscues led to an un-marque performance. "I feel like we played right with one of the top teams in the state, at times. But we had too many things go wrong to pull out the upset", said Coach Hansen. Stanton's first drive was a sign of the game as they turned the ball over on downs when Freshmen Jeb Nordby was stacked up on a 4th and one play. The Indians methodically marched down the field and punched in their first TD making the score 7-0. The Mustangs put together a promising drive of their own on their next drive, moving the ball down to the Ponca 12 yard line before they lost the ball on downs again when a pass fell incomplete. The Mustangs then held the Indians their next drive to force a punt. The Mustangs again moved the ball well on a Senior Paul Cheyney sweep play and a Senior Tate Erbst off-tackle play to move to the Ponca 17 yardline. Unfortunately for the Mustangs the ball was intercepted by the Indians on the next play as Ponca put tremendous pressure on the quarterback. The Indians drove down and punched in another TD late in the second quarter to extend their lead to 14-0. On the Mustangs next drive the turnover bug would strike again on a center/QB exchange where Stanton was trying to kill the clock after a nice gain. Ponca then moved the ball inside the Stanton 20 yardline. The Mustangs defense held strong, forcing a field goal, holding the damage to a 17-0 lead. "At halftime, we talked about how we needed to keep fighting no matter what the score was", said Hansen. Ponca took their first drive of the second half and again methodically marched the ball, converting two fourth down conversions on the drive and scored again, making the score 24-0. The Mustangs then found the scoreboard on an Erbst 54 yard TD run. Sophomore Spencer Nickolite found Sophomore Michael Eberly on a dump pass, two point conversion to cut the lead to 24-8. The Mustangs then successfully converted a surprise onside kick (kicked by Sophomore Blake Heppner) and were back in business. "I felt like we really the momentum after the onside kick, but unfortunately for us, we couldn't convert it into points", said Hansen. The Mustangs successfully converted two first downs before a third interception killed the drive. Ponca, after stealing the momentum back, scored two more TDs on long runs to extend the score to 38-8. The Mustangs proved that they would fight to the end as they put together an 85 yard drive, culmentated by a Nordby 14 yard TD reception from Nickolite. Nickolite added the conversion run to end the scoring at 38-16. "There's no doubt in my mind that we are a better team than we showed tonight", said Hansen. "Give credit to Ponca as they are a very fine team." "We hope to see them again down the road." The Mustangs host the undefeated Oakland-Craig Knights for homecoming this Friday night. Please come and positively support your Mustangs.
