What looked like it was going to be a quick start for the McDonald County High School football team turned into a less than stellar first quarter before the Mustangs righted the ship to take a 38-8 win over East Newton on Sept. 7 at East Newton High School.
The start of the game was delayed for almost 30 minutes while teams waited for a torrential downpour to slow to a light rain for most of the first quarter. The wet conditions did not slow McDonald County's Oakley Roessler, who carried the ball 30 times for 352 yards and five touchdowns. The 352 yards is believed to be a school record. Both Bruce Stancell and Jantsen Lynn topped 300 yards, but it is believed they were under the 350 mark.
"Obviously Oakley had a great night," coach Kellen Hoover said. "The line made a ton of space for him. The number of pancakes we had was incredible. They have bought into being an aggressive offensive line that puts people on their back. Joe Brown (fullback) was sticking his nose in there every single play. We asked him to go block a linebacker on the play side and he did it very well. All of those guys blocking for Oakley deserve a ton of credit. But so does Oakley. He did run extremely hard and was not easy to bring down."
It took McDonald County just its second play on offense to get on the scoreboard. After forcing a Patriot punt, the Mustangs took over on the East Newton 47-yard line. Roessler carried for four yards on first down before getting loose on his second carry for a 43-yard touchdown. Dylan Allison's kick was no good, leaving McDonald County with a 6-0 lead with 9:37 left in the first quarter.
But the rest of the quarter was all East Newton.
Two McDonald County fumbles led to a 19-yard touchdown run by Jackson Schriever on the second play of the second quarter. Quarterback Brett Pendergraft ran the conversion to give the Patriots an 8-7 lead with 11:17 left in the first half.
"That's on me," Hoover said of the first quarter struggles. "One of our spread offense plays worked early and so I was like, 'Yeah, we can run our stuff. It's not raining right now. The field is just a little wet so we're good.' Sure enough, we follow that up with two possessions fumbling the football. So at that point, we are like, 'Okay, we need to dig in and use our two 300-pound guys (Elliott Wolfe and Trystan Leach) we have on the right side. Let's just run behind them.'"
McDonald County answered with a 10-play, 77-yard touchdown drive to put the Mustangs ahead for good. Allison's kick put McDonald County on top 13-8 with 6:52 left in the half.
Roessler carried nine times on the drive, including a nine-yard touchdown.
East Newton drove to the McDonald County 15-yard line, but an illegal procedure penalty on fourth and two backed the Patriots to fourth and seven, which they failed to convert.
Taking over on its own 20-yard line, it took the Mustangs just one play to stretch their lead. Roessler went around right end and outran the Patriot defense all the way to the end zone for an 80-yard touchdown to give McDonald County a 19-6 halftime lead.
It took the Mustangs less than five minutes into the second half to nearly double its lead. McDonald County took the second half kickoff and drove 64 yards in five plays. Roessler carried four times including a 32-yard touchdown run with 9:48 left in the third quarter to give McDonald County a 25-8 lead.
The Patriots then fumbled on their first play at the line of scrimmage, giving the Mustangs the ball on the East Newton 25-yard line.
Four Roessler carries covered the 25 yards capped by a 13-yard touchdown run with 7:45 left in the quarter to stretch the lead to 31-8.
McDonald County scored the final points of the game on its next drive. Starting on their own 40-yard line, the Mustangs marched 60 yards in nine plays. Joe Brown scored from the one to cap the drive with 2:40 left in the quarter. Allison's extra point made the final score 38-8.
"Our entire offensive line (Tanner Harner, Kaiden Campbell and Will Gordon, in addition to Wolfe and Leach) played well," Hoover said. "Rendon Lane stepped into a big role. A guy who hasn't worked much at tight end really all year stepped in and did a great job."
McDonald County finished the game with 363 total yards, including 28 rushing yards by Brown. Brown also had McDonald County's only pass reception, good for two yards.
East Newton finished with 177 total yards, 176 on the ground led by Schriever, who finished with 70 yards on 14 carries.
Brown led the defense with eight solo tackles and two assists, while Trent Alik had six solo tackles and two assists.
"Joe Brown also played a great game on defense," Hoover said. "We were ball hawks tonight. We got some turnovers (4) that made a big difference in the game."
McDonald County improves to 2-1 for the season. The Mustangs next travel to Hollister on Sept. 14. Game time is 7 p.m.
Sports on 09/13/2018