Cole Martin and Levi Malone will long remember their first touchdown pass as members of the McDonald County Mustang football team. So will a lot of others from McDonald County, as well as East Newton.
The two sophomores connected on a seven-yard touchdown on the game's last play to lift McDonald County to a 25-22 win over East Newton on Sept. 13 at MCHS. The last-play win is believed a first in the 50-year-plus history of Mustang football.
Martin took the snap out of the shotgun on the left hash mark with Malone lined up on the right. Martin at first looked left while Malone cut to the inside before breaking to the outside. Martin then turned and lofted a pass that Malone caught about a yard past the goal line for the winning TD. Jared Mora kicked the extra point due to the tie-breaking system used for the playoffs.
McDonald County fell behind 16-0 to start the game and trailed 22-6 at halftime and 22-12 to start the fourth quarter before the late-game heroics.
McDonald County began the winning drive on its own 22-yard line with 2:39 left in the game trailing 22-18. Martin led the two-minute drill by completing seven of 13 passes (three incompletions were spikes for stopping the clock) for 51 yards. He also scrambled once for 17 yards to give the Mustangs a first and goal from just inside the East Newton 10-yard line.
Jack Teague caught two passes, both screens, for 25 yards on the drive, one coming on a fourth and one at the East Newton 41. Teague also gained a yard and a half on fourth and one after he was initially hit behind the line of scrimmage early in the drive.
In addition to his touchdown catch, Malone caught a pass for six yards, while Keegan Driscoll had two catches for seven yards and John Howard had a catch for five yards.
"Our kids grew up tonight," said coach Kellen Hoover. "We did a lot of things where we could have just said 'nope' and turned it in and said 'we just made too many mistakes tonight and we'll try again next week.' But they dug down in the second half and they just believed. They believed as long as they stayed the course and did their job we would be there in the end. That last drive was just a gritty drive by a lot of our kids just having to go make a play and they made just enough."
East Newton took the opening kickoff and marched 80 yards in 13 plays to take an 8-0 lead with 4:38 left in the first quarter. Ryan Millett scored from a yard to cap the drive. The senior running back carried eight times for 20 yards, while quarterback Jeremiah Stewart completed both of his pass attempts for 18 yards. The big play on the drive was a 40-yard run by Wyatt Moore.
After forcing a McDonald County punt in the Mustangs' first possession, East Newton marched 70 yards in eight plays to take a 16-0 lead with 10:09 left in the first half. Stewart hit Jackson Schriever for a 16-yard touchdown for the score. Stewart completed four passes on the drive for 41 yards, including the touchdown.
McDonald County answered with a 45-yard-drive set up by a 43-yard kickoff return by Trent Alik. Teague carried three times for 17 yards, but the big play was a Martin to Michael Williams pass for 34 yards that helped the Mustangs overcome a sack and an illegal procedure penalty. Martin capped the drive with a one-yard run with 5:42 left in the half, but the try for a two-point conversion came up short, leaving East Newton with a 16-6 lead.
The Mustang defense held for the first time in the game on the Patriot's ensuing possession, giving McDonald County the ball on its own 47-yard line.
McDonald County drove inside the Patriot 20, but on first down, a deflected pass was intercepted by East Newton, giving the Patriots the ball on the McDonald County 43-yard line after a personal foul penalty was marked off against the Mustangs.
Stewart hit Schriever for 35 yards on the first play before connecting with Austin Brewster for an eight-yard touchdown with 19.9 seconds left in the half to give East Newton a 22-6 lead at intermission.
The second half was all McDonald County. The Mustangs held the Patriots to 48 of their 243 total yards in the second half while McDonald County gained 280 of its 388 total yards in the final two quarters.
But mistakes, including a blocked punt and a pair of key penalties, kept East Newton in the game until the final play.
McDonald County closed to 22-12 with 3:44 left in the third quarter by taking a second-half kickoff and marching 59 yards in eight plays. Teague ran for a nine-yard touchdown with 8:51 left in the third quarter and added another carry for 15 yards to key the drive, while Martin hit Alik for 19 yards and carried once for nine yards.
The teams traded on consecutive possessions before McDonald County took over on its own two-yard line with 6:51 left in the game. Martin's second one-yard sneak of the game cut the lead to 22-18 with 3:44 left in the game to cap the 98-yard drive highlighted by Martin's 63-yard pass to Malone and a pair of Junior Teriek runs for 24 yards.
After East Newton recovered an onside kick, the Mustang defense forced East Newton to go three and out on the Patriots attempt to run out the clock, setting up the dramatic final-play win in front of a packed homecoming crowd.
"We're still growing up as a team," Hoover said. "We did a lot of things tonight that they really made us -- they put us in a bad position all night. It felt like we would drive, drive, drive, drive and we couldn't finish. We are still not consistent, but you just have to be proud of how hard they fought and how gritty of a win that was for them when things weren't going right for them."
Martin finished by completing 18 of 30 passes for 206 yards. Malone (77 yards), Williams (49 yards) and Teriek (nine yards) all caught three passes, while Alik (28 yards), Teague (26 Yards), Driscoll (seven yards) and Junior Eliam (five yards) caught two passes each.
Teriek added 85 yards on 13 carries. Teague had 55 yards on 10 carries.
McDonald County, 1-2 on the season, faces Hollister on Sept. 20 at MCHS. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Sports on 09/19/2019