Mane Event

McDonald County might have been a surprise last season, emerging as a conference title contender and winning a playoff game for the first time.

But with 15 starters returning, the Mustangs stand in a spotlight now. Optimism and expectations are high. The team looks to build on 2020's breakthrough and make success the rule, not the exception.

That quest starts Friday when McDonald County plays host to the Aurora Houn Dawgs in the season opener. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Mustang Stadium.

"We want to exceed the things we accomplished last season," said coach Kellen Hoover, who is entering his fifth season. "We won a playoff game. That was a really big deal for our kids. We got to see our kids get a sense of that. We want more success than we had last year."

The Mustangs experienced a preview of game speed during a jamboree with Bolivar, Mount Vernon and Neosho last week.

"The speed is always kind of a surprise," Hoover said. "You feel like you're a step slow early. As it goes along, you feel you're kind of picking it up. I feel like we might have had some jitters. It's kind of hard to prepare for that speed going against our own guys. You feel kind of the same after a jamboree. There's lots of things you can get better at."

The most important takeaway from the jamboree is that McDonald County avoided any major injuries and appears healthy heading into the Aurora matchup, Hoover said.

With the Mustangs in the Big 8 West and the Houn Dawgs in the Big 8 East, the two don't meet every season. But that doesn't mean the players are strangers.

"It's two teams that have a lot of respect for each other," Hoover said.

Aurora finished 6-4 last season.

With the anticipation of a game, practices are more spirited. The big prize awaits at the end of the week, and that provides extra motivation for the players.

"Now we're preparing for Friday night," Hoover said. "There's a little bit of that chess match involved. It's exciting."

Aurora's offense brings a strategic twist to the chess match. The Houn Dawgs will show split backs and a pro formation, Hoover said, then unleash option action.

"They're going to be really physical," Hoover said. "They make you play assignment football against their offense. They run some option. They do some old-school stuff, inside veer, gap-scheme stuff as well. They're going to make us do our job defensively."

When McDonald County has the football, senior quarterback Cole Martin engineers the spread attack. Martin threw 16 touchdown passes last year and has started since he was a sophomore. What else could get the Mustangs hoofing their way into the end zone?

"We've got to be physical, too. We've got to run the football," Hoover said.

Any nerves felt during the jamboree will likely be magnified in the opener.

"It's a different intensity, a different level of excitement," Hoover said. "You wish you could say something that would work [to reduce the jitters]. This time of year is always exciting. Everybody is 0-0. Everybody has extremely high expectations. We're no different. We've got goals we want to attain. It's an exciting time."

All teams want to win every night they take field. But Hoover is keeping an eye on more than the numbers glowing on the scoreboard after the final whistle.

"I want to see us play fast and physical," Hoover said. "You want to see really great effort and energy. We're going to focus on things we can control."

The game plan has been studied, memorized and set into motion. The practices are complete. The preliminaries are over. Hoover, the coaching staff and the players have worked together to pull this program from the depths of defeat. The Mustangs took a big step with last season's 5-5 record and played twice with a share of the league championship at stake. They want more in 2021, starting with Aurora.

"It's a testament to our kids and just how hard they've worked," Hoover said of the turnaround. "It comes down to the kids buying into what we're selling. They've bought in and worked extremely hard."