McDonald County could not overcome a slow start, falling behind 14-0 just three minutes into the game, before finally falling to the Aurora Houn' Dawgs 42-32 on Oct. 13 at Aurora High School -- despite outscoring their opponent over the final 45 minutes of the game.
"It was kind of if a story where just a few plays here and there made the difference in the game," said coach Kellen Hoover. "But I think that is probably always the case. They made plays when they needed to and we made too many mistakes for us to win the game."
Aurora took the opening kickoff and marched 70 yards in seven plays, including a 19-yard touchdown pass on a halfback pass from Clayton Dunning to Kaden Clark for a 6-0 lead.
The Houn' Dawgs went again into its bag of tricks on the ensuing kickoff, recovering an onside kick at the McDonald County 45-yard line.
It took just two plays for Aurora to add to its lead. Dunning ran for 42 yards on the first play from scrimmage and then the senior running back crashed in from the three-yard line. Dunning added the conversion run to make the score 14-0 with 8:43 left in the first quarter.
"They surprised with the pooch onside kick and that got it started to where we were always coming back from two touchdowns down," Hoover said. "It seemed like anytime we would get some momentum, they would make a big play and that is a testament to them. They have some good players and all the credit in the world goes to those guys."
McDonald County started its first offensive possession from its own 45-yard line. Facing a fourth and one from the Aurora 46, the Mustangs were stopped short, giving Aurora the ball back in good field position.
But the Mustangs defense held and on fourth down, Isrrael De Santiago blocked a punt that was fielded by lineman Payton McKee who returned it to the Aurora 39-yard line.
Facing its second fourth down and short yardage, Peyton Barton hit Cole DelosSantos with a quick slant for a 13-yard gain to move the ball to the 19-yard line. De Santiago carried twice for eight yards before Barton hit Timber Teague for nine more to give the Mustangs a first and goal at the two-yard line.
Barton scored on a quarterback sneak on the next play before Dylan Allison booted the extra point to cut the Aurora lead to 14-7 with 2:11 left in the first quarter.
Aurora took the ensuing kickoff and marched 65 yards in six plays behind the passing and running of John Dakota Lee. Lee hit Logan Lauffer for 32 yards and Clark for nine more and also ran four times for 28 yards, including a one-yard touchdown. Dunning ran the conversion to give Aurora a 22-7 lead with 11:09 left in the first half.
McDonald County answered on its next possession, marching 59 yards in 10 plays. Barton ran for 27 yards on five carries, capped by a two-yard touchdown with 6:28 left in the half. Allison's kick was short, leaving Aurora with a 22-13 lead.
Aurora was pinned on its own 21-yard line on the ensuing kickoff when Bucky Harrell made a big hit, but, on the first play from scrimmage, Lee hit Dunning for a 75-yard pass and run that put the ball on the McDonald County four-yard line.
From what appeared to an Aurora touchdown that came up four yards short, the Mustangs defense pushed Aurora back seven yards on the next three plays, but Lee found Lauffer open in the middle of the end zone on fourth down to stretch the lead to 28-13 with 4:30 left in the half.
McDonald County again answered, marching 56 yards in nine plays, capped by Barton's nine-yard touchdown pass to Teague. Barton kicked the extra point to cut the lead to 28-20 with just 55.4 seconds left before halftime.
But it took Aurora less than 20 seconds to add to its lead. Dylan Clayton fielded a Barton kick on the left side of the field on the 29-yard line, broke to the center of the field and went untouched for a 74-yard touchdown. Dunning's conversion run gave Aurora a 36-20 lead at intermission.
McDonald County took the opening kickoff of the second half and put together a 13-play drive that covered 79 yards, capped by Barton's six-yard touchdown run. A try for a two-point conversion failed, leaving Aurora with a 36-26 lead with 5:37 left in the third quarter.
The teams traded possessions on their next two chances. Oakley Roessler stopped an Aurora drive with an interception in the Mustangs end zone before Barton pinned the Houn' Dawgs back to their own 22-yard line with a 59-yard punt.
Aurora then marched 78 yards in seven plays to make the score 42-26 with 9:23 left in the fourth quarter.
McDonald County answered again, using 11 plays to move 51 yards to cut the lead to 42-32 with 4:47 left in the game. Barton hit Reece Cooper three times to key the drive, including a 13-yard touchdown pass with 4:47 left.
McDonald County had a chance to cut into the 10-point lead after the Mustangs defense stopped Aurora on fourth and short on the McDonald County 41-yard line.
But after moving inside the Aurora 20, the drive stalled. Aurora took over on downs and ran out the clock.
"At no time can I question our effort," Hoover said. "We gave it all we had. We just made too many mistakes and that is not going to get the job done against a good team like Aurora."
Barton finished with 104 yards on the ground on 23 attempts and added 131 yards through the air on 15 of 22 passing. De Santiago ran for 86 yards on 20 carries. Roessler caught four passes for 43 yards while Cooper, Teague and De Santiago all had three catches.
"I thought Peyton played a great game," Hoover said. "We saw some things that we wanted to open up the quarterback run game a little bit. Peyton responded and ran hard all night and same thing with Isrrael. He ran his usual tough game, but this might have been the hardest he has run and that is saying something because he runs hard every play."
DelosSantos led the defense with nine tackles while David Roark had seven, Marshall Foreman five and De Santiago, Roessler and Kennedy Hodson had four each.
"One thing that stood out to me was our demeanor after the game," Hoover said. "I saw a lot of faces -- whether it was mad, upset or whatever -- but it was encouraging because it shows how much our kids have invested into this team and each other. You never want to lose, you always the loss but seeing the looks on our kids faces, there was something about that look that showed it hurt. It shows a lot of investment on their part. This is a great group of kids and they have worked their butts off to get to where they are."
McDonald County falls to 5-4 overall, 3-4 in the Big 8 Conference, heading into the first round of district play. The Mustangs earned the seventh seed and will travel to Carl Junction to face the number two Bulldogs on Oct. 20. Game time is 7 p.m.
Sports on 10/19/2017