Brossart and Newport squared off in Week Two of both teams’ seasons Thursday night at the MAC. The game started with the Mustangs fumbling away the kick-off giving the Newport Wildcats good field position, but as we would come to find out, neither team would be able to seriously threaten, or capitalize on each other’s mistakes throughout the entire first half. In that half we saw seven punts and five Brossart first downs, while the Wildcats managed to move the sticks on only three occasions.
The second half saw our Mustangs presented with great field position on our only two possessions of the third quarter, but a pair of pass interceptions short-circuited our drives. Newport found themselves pinned at their own 11, 15 and 20 yard lines and went 3 and out on those possessions. In the fourth quarter our guys marched the piggy from our own 37 yard line to the Newport 25, but again came up empty.
As the game wound down to the final minutes, Newport made two big plays that set up the game-winner. A pass over the middle to mid-field and a completed heave versus double coverage that was caught and carried to the shadow of the goal line by Adonaje Thompson. With 52 seconds remaining in the game, and 47 minutes and 8 second of scoreless football under their belts, big Mykell Martin (6-0, 225) dove into the end zone giving the visitors a 7-0 lead when the PAT was good. This culminated a Newport 69 yard drive, and would be good enough to shut out our Mustangs for only the second time since October 3rd of 2013 when Newport accomplished the feat. The second came at the hands of Paris back on October 12th, 2018.
Tim Cooper was in the house photographing this game, and between his contributions and those of Patty Goering we should have plenty of good stuff to display over the next couple of days.
The Mustangs will get a full week of preparation for the Class 1A Independent rival Bellevue, who will invade the SyDome for our second Thursday Night Football Game at the MAC. Game time is 7pm and the broadcast will start at 6:40pm.