Ludlow Positions Themselves To Repeat As District Champions with 46-35 Win Over Our Mustangs

I really thought that we would win Friday night.  I thought that our defense would be able to limit the point production of the Panthers, who had been putting up big numbers in establishing a 5-2 record prior to coming to Alexandria.  If I’d have known that we would put 35 points on the board I would have been sure of it.

However, a funny thing happened on the way to the win column.  Ludlow delivered the proverbial “punch in  the mouth” in the first six minutes of the game when they opened a 14-0 early game lead.

After watching Ludlow junior, Dameyn Anness, ramble 64 yards for a touchdown, Cam Mandel one-upped his Panther counterpart going on a 66-yards trophy run of his own.  Max Runge hit the PAT, and with just over 7 minutes remaining in the first quarter the Mustangs had cut the Panther lead to 14-7, and the Brossart faithful breathed a collective sigh of relief.  Ludlow struck again with 2:25 remaining in the period when Jackson Mays hit Carson Evans on a 25 yard touchdown connection, and when the PAT was good, the visitors had re-established a 14 point advantage at 21-7.

At the onset of the second period, we would once again narrow the gap to seven points at 21-14 when Cam Mandel finished off a 61 yard drive with a one-yard plunge, and a Runge PAT.  With 4:43 left in the half, what was to be a 40 yard Max Runge Field-goal attempt, which would make the score 21-17, basically neutralizing the early game surge by the Panthers, went south.  The plan came up snake-eyes when the kick was blocked, ending up in the hands of Panther Gabe Payne who carried the football 70 yards for a Ludlow touchdown and doubling the score to 28-14 in what felt like a doomsday reversal of fortunes, that might be irreversible.  BUT WAIT – hold the phone.  Almost miraculously and on the merits of an Isaac Amin interception, we would score a pair of touchdowns in the final 2:34 of the half – a Holtz to Nick Cozzi 13 yard touchdown pass, and a 21 yard scamper by Mandel, his third of the half. With the Runge tack-ons, somehow, the game was knotted up at 28s at the half, and we were receiving the ball to start the second half.

In the third period the pendulum would swing back in favor of the visitors.  While the Mustangs failed to generate meaningful offense, the Panthers scored on three occasions opening up a seemingly insurmountable 46-28 lead, which would hold up until the waning minutes of the game, Tyler Holtz hit Landon Geyer on an 8-yard touchdown aerial making the final score 46-35 when Max Runge hit his fifth successful PAT of the night, bringing his season PATs total to 33, four short of the school record for Most PATs in a Single Season.  The current mark is held by Jake Sendelbach, who hit 37 of them during the 2016 campaign.

Looking in to my sometimes foggy Crystal Ball, I think that Ludlow will prevail over Holy Cross next Friday night and expect our Mustangs to return to the win column versus Trimble County.  This would award Ludlow the Number One seed in District 4.  It would pit them against Dayton in the first round of the playoffs, and will send the Bellevue Tigers to the MAC on Friday, November 8th.

Cam Mandel scored three Brossart touchdowns in the contest, upping his season total to 10.  For the game Mandel carried the ball on 22 occasions and collected 210 yards, with 3 touchdowns, and gained 34 more yards on a pair of pass receptions..  For his efforts Cam is Named the Offensive Player of the Game. Sophomore Quinten Tischner, had 13 tackles on the night, and continues to factor on a regular basis, both offensive and defensively.  He is our Defensive Player of the Game.