In what would become a half in which each team dominated for a quarter, the Mustangs scored a pair of touchdowns on their first two possessions, the first being a Landon Spaulding 7 yard pass play to Landon Ketron with a Ryan Eldridge PAT, giving the Mustangs a very early game 7-0 lead that was set up by ball-snapping miscues by the Jackets.  After going 3 and out on successive possessions, the Mustangs again had great field position at the Nicholas County 35 yard line, and made easy work of that challenge, picking up one first-down enroute to a Bentley McKinzie 2-yard run to paydirt.  The Eldridge PAT attempt was not successful, giving the Mustangs a 13-0 advantage heading to the 2nd Quarter, when Big Mo jumped into a Nicholas County uniform that would see them take the lead by halftme.

In that stanza, Senior Hayden Watkins, who leads the state in rushing yards (unclassified) carried the ball twice into the endzone, once from 51 yards out, and the other from 45 yards away.  It wasn’t as though the Mustangs didn’t have our chance to be in front at intermission, as we moved the ball to the 1 yard line where we were stopped on a Spaulding rushing atempt and then Landon was intercepted with merely seconds remaining in the half as the Mustangs left points on the field, trailing 14-13. 

The Jackets would kick off to the Mustangs to begin the second half, and we wasted no time in gobbling up yards and clock, marching 70 yards while picking up a trio of first downs, culminated with a Tommy Busby 3 Yard touchdown plunge, giving the Mustangs the lead at 21-14 when Spaulding strolled into the endzone for the 2-point conversion.  The Mustangs had prevously snuffed out a Nicholas County threat when Landon Ketron intercepted a Ty Simons pass deep in Mustangs territory.

The fourth quarter began with our faking a punt on 4th and long, which saw Tripp Wilson carry the piggy to the Nicholas County 34 yard line picking up a first down, before turning it over on downs.  This was the last time the Mustangs would touch the football until the waning seconds of the 4th quarter, as Nicholas County orchesrated a 71 yard drive that was finished off by the Jackets Dakota Sparks scoring on a fumble recovery in their endzone with 1:38 remaining in the game.  Trailing 21-20, they elected to go for two, and it all came down to this (reminicent of a game played at Cincinnati Aiken about a decade earlier).   Knowing that their blue-chipper, Watkins would get the call, the Mustangs loaded  the box and denied the Jackets the two-point conversion, giving the Mustangs the win when we picked up a single first down and took a knee to secure the quality win in Carlisle.  Running back Bentley McKinzie was named the BMustangs.com Player of the Game.

Our Mustangs played without the services of wide receiver Brady Boruske, Spauding’s primary target, forcing Coach Jake Martin to go to  Plan B, which would test our capabilities of running the football, and having confidence that our defense could contain Watkins and limit their scoring output,  a glaring shortcoming just two weeks ago versus St. Henry.  Mission Accomplished.  We showed in this one that we are not a “One-Trick Pony” and that we can overcome adversity.  The win knocked Nicholas County from the ranks of the undefeated, now 4-1, as the Mustangs improve to 3-2 on the campaign.   We will return home next Friday night as we host Desales High School out of Louisville.  I do not have the results of their encounter with Louisville Southern (God, I miss Riherds), where they were looking for their first victory after an 0-4 start to their season.  Don’t be fooled by their record, they are a quality progaram as evidenced by their 35-7 demolition of our Mustangs a year ago in the Derby City.  Our JV team will be in action at 10am Saturday morning at Dayton.

GAME STATS::

First Downs:  BB-18, NCo 11

Total Yards  –  BB 265, NCo 232

Rushing Yards  –  BB 161,  NCo 180

Rushing Attempts:  BB 32- NCo 45

Time of Possession:  BB – 16:12,  NCo 21:23

INDIVIDUALS:

Spaulding Passing – 12/23 104 Yards,  1 TD,  1 INT

Rushing:  McKinzie 11/72 – 1 TD,   Busby 8/56  1 TD,  Spaulding 12/30,   Wilson 1/23