Clutch kick

By Brody Feldmann

Staff Writer

On Friday night in front of a raucous home crowd the Mustang Broncos “upset” the Southmoore Sabercats 22-21 on a last second field goal.

By looking at the records Southmoore 5-4 and Mustang 7-2 it doesn’t look like an upset. But, the rankings have had the Sabercats in front of Mustang all season long.

“This was probably as completed team win as I’ve had in many, many years where all three phases had to make a big play. I’m just super proud of them,” head coach Jeremy Dombek said.

Southmoore is a team loaded with division one talent and a team that likes to turn games into track meets but, Mustang did a good job keeping them bottled up.

Both teams drove down the field with ease on the first series of the game to put the score at seven a piece. It looked like it was about to be a high scoring ball game.

The Sabercats scored on a 41 yard run by Rae’Quan Wicks and just a minute and a half later Brayden Garrett hit Damian Close for a 30 yard touchdown connection.

After the first two touchdowns the Broncos didn’t allow Southmoore to score again in the first half. But, the Broncos would put 10 more points on the board.

Garrett got in the end zone himself on a seven yard run to take a 14-7 lead in the second quarter. Then on the last play of the half Eric Carreon hit a 25 yard field goal to give the Broncos a 17-7 lead.

On the first drive of the second half the Broncos drove 78 yards down to the Southmoore two yard line but got stopped four plays in a row. The bright side of the drive was the drive took eight minutes and 13 seconds off of the clock.

“It was an unbelievable job on all three phases. Offense comes out and they were running the football at will. They had a drive in the third quarter, I don’t know how long it was but 8 or 9 minutes I know,” defensive coordinator Adam Gaylor said.

It took Southmoore 3:54 to drive 98 yards and watch Satayven Chaves run 13 yards into the end zone to close the lead to 17-14 early in the fourth quarter.

On the next drive Garrett threw an interception and Southmoore had the ball at midfield. It took Southmoore only 1:08 to take a 21-17 lead on a 16 yard touchdown pass from Casey Thompson to Quindon Lewis.

With 6:06 left in the fourth quarter Mustang got pinned on their own seven yard line. The offense went three and out before punter Dillon Dean got off a booming 78 yard punt to flip the field position.

On the next Mustang drive Garrett threw his second interception this one pinned Southmoore at their own two yard line. With 2:05 to go the Broncos defense came up with a huge play. The Broncos caught the Southmoore running back in the end zone for a safety.

“Man I just love my team, I don’t know what to say right now it was just crazy,” Senior Deontre Thomas said.

The safety lead to a 21-19 Southmoore lead with 2:05 to go in the game and Southmoore now had to kick off to the Broncos.

Mustang’s offense pounded the ball down to the Sabercats 12 yard line before calling a timeout with 0:07.8 to go in the game. That’s when Carreon on came onto the field to attempt the game winning field goal.

After a timeout from Southmoore trying to ice the kicker and four penalties, two on Mustang and two on Southmoore, Carreon nailed the 26 yard field goal to win the game 22-21.

“I knew what I had to do, I had to do my job and help out my teammates. I got the job done and it was easy as that,” Carreon said. “Oh yeah I wanted that opportunity, I knew I had it in me.”

Mustang clinched a third seed with the victory and will now host Tulsa Union on Senior Night, Friday at 7:00 P.M. at Broncos Stadium. (photo by Ron Lane)