Mustangs Have Best Season Since 2003
CARL JUNCTION ENDS FOOTBALL TEAM’S REBUILDING YEAR
Carl Junction handed the McDonald County Mustangs a seasonending 49-13 loss on Oct. 20 at Carl Junction
High School. Coach Kellen Hoover can count his first season as the best in years for the
Mustangs.
Carl Junction scored seven touchdowns in the first half — three coming on one-yard touchdown runs after the Bulldogs purposely ran out of bounds on big plays — to hand the McDonald County Mustangs a season-ending 49-13 loss on Oct. 20 at Carl Junction High School.
“Hats off to them,” said coach Kellen Hoover. “They are a good team, plain and simple. They were a much better team than we were on Friday night. That’s kind of a good gauge. Once you reflect on the season – we have come a long way — but especially for our district, that is a place we need to get to. It was a good reality check for us. That’s our goal is to get to that place where we are competing for a district championship at some point in this process.”
Carl Junction took the opening kickoff and marched 65 yards in five plays to take a 7-0 lead. Quarterback Joe Kennedy had a chance to score the Bulldogs’ first touchdown from the 36-yard line, but after he got behind the Mustangs’ secondary, Kennedy ran out of bounds on the one. Levi Duley crashed in on the next play before Kennedy kicked the extra point.
Carl Junction made it 14-0 on its next possession. Kennedy hit Kobe Maxwell with a 10-yard touchdown pass to cap off a 71-yard drive.
Zeke Wall scored from a yard out on the Bulldogs’ next possession to make it 21-0 midway through the first period. Wall’s TD run was set up when Kennedy again ran out of bounds on the one after clearing the Mustangs’ defense.
Carl Junction closed out the first half with a one-yard touchdown run by Caden Cristy to give the Bulldogs a 28-0 lead. An 84-yard pass from Kennedy to Rayquion Weston keyed the drive. Weston was clear of the Mustangs’ secondary when he too ran out of bounds on purpose at the one.
Carl Junction coach Doug Buckmaster said the reason for running out of bounds on the one was to give seniors who hadn’t scored, a chance to record a touchdown.
“I have seen a lot of thoughts from people on social media about it,” Hoover said. “In a way it could be taken as a slap in the face. I am going to look at it as an opportunity for us to stop them and keep them out of the end zone. We couldn’t do that on Friday and there were a lot of things we couldn’t do on Friday. That was just one of them. It is what it is and there is not a lot you can
do about it.”
Carl Junction added three scores in the second quarter to take a 49-0 lead at halftime. Weston carried eight times for 52 yards, including a two-yard touchdown for the first score of the period.
Kennedy then hit Aaron Ludders with a 71-yard touchdown pass before Alex Baker threw to Sam Repsher for a 42-yard touchdown to close out the scoring for the Bulldogs.
McDonald County got on the scoreboard in the third quarter on a fiveyard touchdown pass from Peyton Barton to Marshall Foreman to cap off a 73-yard drive. Dylan Allison kicked the extra point to make the score 49-7 at the end of the third quarter.
The Mustangs’ final score came on a 17-yard run by Isrrael De Santiago late in the fourth quarter. The run also lifted De Santiago over the 1,000-yard mark for the season, at 1,003 yards.
McDonald County finished with 235 total yards. Barton ran for 71 yards on 13 carries, while De Santiago finished with 50 yards on 14 carries. Barton added 95 yards through the air, completing 10 of 21 passes. Oakley Roessler had four catches for 52 yards, while Cole DelosSantos and Foreman each had two catches and De Santiago and Kennedy Hodson had one each.
McDonald County finishes 5-5 overall in Hoover’s first year to lead the Mustangs — the first time McDonald County won five games in a season since 2003, when the Mustangs finished 5-4-1.
“We can reflect now on where we have come since that first day when we met in summer weights,” Hoover said. “We have come a long ways. While Friday left a bad taste in our mouth, we are still able to reflect on what we have accomplished. Early on we knew we had some talent in some places. It was a matter of whether we could get the kids to buy in to what we were selling. A couple of early wins validated what we were preaching and kids did kind of buy in. Not only that, but they started to buy in to the togetherness that we were preaching, and that showed throughout the season. I don’t think anybody expected this kind of a season out of us. It was just great to see how our group of seniors and everyone on down came together.”
The game was the final game of the high school careers for 16 McDonald County players.
“We had a great group of seniors,” Hoover said. “I couldn’t imagine stepping into a better group of seniors as a first-year coach. It is a group that has a ton of leadership — and in a variety of ways. Some do it by example and just do the right thing all the time. Others do it by holding everyone accountable and being vocal about it. A group of seniors that helps us in so many ways – whether it’s willing to be on the scout team and take a beating or whether it’s being a leader at their position. We just had such a great group of seniors that decided they are going to be the step in the right direction – they are going to be the turnaround. They are going to be able to look back on our career at McDonald County and look at the program and say ‘that is our senior year and that’s our mark.’ And they have left their mark. They have shown the younger grades what it means to work hard. They started this in the off-season. This wasn’t started on day one of football practice.”
Hoover said the seniors’ attitudes and success rubbed off on numerous others.
“It was cool how the seniors and the rest of the team breathed life into everything around them,” Hoover said. “It was great to see how the school just jumped on them. The support was incredible from the student section, the cheerleaders, the band — I mean every student organization showed us so much support. That trickled out into the community and, if you went to a home game this season, it was just a sea of red. It was incredible to see the support that this community and the school has for this group of guys, and I know they appreciated every bit of it.”