Rick Peck
Special To McDonald County Press
McDonald County football knew going into its homecoming game on Sept. 15 against Mount Vernon that they would have to stop --or at least slow down -- Mountaineers wide receiver Andrew Montemayor.
Instead, Montemayor, a 170-pound senior, finished the game with more than 250 total yards to lead Mount Vernon to a 43-21 win over McDonald County.
"Hats off to Mount Vernon," said Kellen Hoover, McDonald County head coach. "Tom (Mount Vernon coach Tom Cox) does a great job spreading it around and utilizing his best playmaker and that is obviously 21 (Montemayor). He got loose on us a couple times. The fourth-down touchdown just shows how important that kid is. You can make some great plays and put yourself in good position and then all of a sudden he is by you. He can run and is a good athlete. He is just a good football player. That was kind of the story of it."
The teams traded punts to open the game before Mount Vernon forced a second straight three and out to give the Mountaineers the ball on their own 24-yard line. Mount Vernon then marched 76 yards in 13 plays for the game's first score, a five-yard touchdown pass from Ty Boswell to Treston Shipman. Jayden Buttram missed the extra point, leaving the Mountaineers with a 6-0 lead with 11:16 left in the second quarter.
McDonald County then moved into Mount Vernon territory on first down runs by Isrrael De Santiago and Peyton Barton, but Mount Vernon defensive back Will Boswell stepped in front of a middle screen pass and returned it 61 yards for a touchdown. Ty Bosell hit Chance Fenton for the two-point conversion to give Mount Vernon a 14-0 lead with 8:37 left in the half.
McDonald County answered with an impressive 19-play drive that used all but 9.6 seconds of the second quarter. Barton went 15 yards for the score after the senior quarterback was flushed from the pocket when he couldn't find an open receiver.
The first of three extra points by Dylan Allison cut the lead to 14-7 at halftime.
The opening four possessions of the third quarter were in stark contrast to the opening of the first quarter, with each team scoring two touchdowns.
Ty Boswell hit Montemayor with a 30-yard touchdown pass on fourth and nine for the first score. Buttram's extra point gave Mount Vernon a 21-7 lead with 9:34 left in the third quarter.
McDonald County then promptly marched 50 yards in six plays, capped by Barton's 10-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 21-14 with 5:41 left in the quarter. The short field was set up by a 30-yard kickoff return by Oakley Roessler.
But Montemayor one-upped Roessler's return, taking the ensuing kickoff on his own seven yard line and returning it to the McDonald county 43.
It took the Mountaineers just four plays to score -- a 12-yard pass from Ty Boswell to Fenton that made the score 27-14.
Again McDonald County answered right back. Starting on their own 42, the Mustangs covered the 58 yards in seven plays, with Barton running it in from eight yards out to make the score 27-21 with 1:49 left in the third.
Mount Vernon stretched its lead to 33-21 on its next possession, with Ty Boswell hitting Montemayor with a 43-yard touchdown on the last play of the third quarter.
McDonald County failed to move the ball on its next possession, giving the Mountaineers the ball on the McDonald County 27-yard line after an intentional grounding penalty forced the Mustangs to punt from their own end zone.
The Mustang defense held, but Buttram bailed out the Mountaineers with a 37-yard field goal to give Mount Vernon a 36-21 lead with 8:44 left.
The Mountaineers added an insurance touchdown when Ty Boswell hit Montemayor with a 65-yard touchdown pass with 2:18 left in the game to make the final score 43-21.
"Offensively we have to do a better job early in the game," Hoover said. "We have to get something going. We didn't even get a first down on our first two possessions. That's not acceptable on our part. As coaches, we have to be ahead of the game more than we were. They showed us a different look than what we have seen and we took some time to get our schemes adjusted to that. By the time we did we were in a back and forth battle."
De Santiago finished with 95 yards on 22 carries, while Barton added 19 yards on 13 carries and three touchdowns to lead the Mustangs rushing attack. Barton finished with 11 completions in 21 attempts for 113 yards in the air. Cole DelosSantos caught six passes for 57 yards, while Kennedy Hodson had four catches for 30 yards and Roessler had one catch for 30 yards.
Ty Boswell ran for 58 yards on nine carries and threw for 228 yards on 15 for 22 accuracy. Montemayor ran three times for 51 yards and caught 8 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns to lead Mount Vernon.
"We competed very hard," Hoover said. "The kids fought and there was no time where they cashed it in. That is something we are continuing to work on every day -- practice and games. We are getting there -- it is a process. There are still some positives from the game even thought the score didn't work out the way we wanted."
McDonald County falls to 3-2 overall, 1-2 in the Big 8 Conference, heading into its Sept. 22 game at Lamar. The six-time defending state champ Tigers are undefeated this year and are ranked first in state Class 2. Game time is 7 p.m.
Sports on 09/21/2017