Mustangs Shred Nicholas County Defense – Score on Drives of 79, 81, 67, 40, and 99 Yards, Win Our First District Title, Advance to Elite Eight

After playing three contentious contests leading up to Friday night’s district championship game with Nicholas County there was no indication that this game would not be another close encounter of the first kind, but it was certainly not to be.

On our first offensive possession Jacob Leicht orchestrated a 79 yard drive that included a trio of first-downs before Jed Martin finished it off with his first of three touchdown runs, this one from 4 yards out.  When a Nicholas County infraction permitted us to go for two, we obliged them when David Gavan converted the 2 point conversion, the home team led 8-0 before the crowd were settled into their seats.

Leicht would improve on that effort marching his team 81 yards as Jed Martin again scored on another 4 yard scamper and when Andrew Schwartz split the uprights, the green-clads led 15-0.

The beat continued when, on our third offensive series, this one a 67 yard drive, Jacob Leicht executed a bootleg to perfection picking up the last 6 yards for the touchdown that would tie him with Jacob Elbert for most rushing touchdowns in a season.  Schwartz made easy work of the PAT, and we now led 22-0 at the onset of the second quarter. 

A fumble recovery by Evan Orth set up a 40 yard.drive that would be culminated by a 4 yard David Govan plunge.  The PAT was wide right, and the Mustangs settled for a 28-0 lead with 9:43 still remaining prior to halftime. 

We would send the game to a running clock when Jacob Leicht took his team the length of the field (99 1/2 yards), picking up six first downs en-route to a third Jed Martin rushing score, this one from 8 yards out.  A fake PAT attempt resulted in Freshman quarterback, the holder, Keegan Gulley pass complete to Eli Twehues for the unmolested 2-point conversion, making it 36-0 and the Mustang twos would play out the second half, to win the contest, and capture our first-ever District Championship.  Meanwhile the Blue Jackets were restricted to only two first-downs in the first half..   

Our JVs took care of business in the second half and preserved the shutout.   The highlight of the second half was Braden Ketron, the son of Frank Ketron, who passed away earlier in the week, intercepting the Nicholas County final pass of the game and returned it 37 yards to mid-field, running out the clock and securing the Mustang victory.    

With the win, our Mustangs win-out over our “local competition,” sweeping our regular season schedule, and taking down both of our district playoff opponents, improving our overall record to 12-0, while winning our 13th consecutive played game, dating back to the 2020 season when we defeated Pendleton County in what would be our final game of that campaign.