TURF TALK.
Play-by-Play by Carson Spoonts of Valley Heights Football versus the Onaga Buffaloes
TOUCHDOWN!!! The Valley Heights Mustangs take on the Onaga Buffaloes at their first home game of the year. Both Valley Heights and Onaga started off the season 0-1 with the Mustangs falling to the Centralia Panthers 18-16 and Onaga losing to McLouth with a last minute score to bring McLouth up 30-26.
The Mustangs roll out of the locker room with the motorcycles revving their engines. Walking out to the field with the grade school football team, the Colts. During warmups you could tell the Mustangs were locked in and ready to play and Coach Trimble gave a pregame speech to get the Mustangs fired up!
On the coin toss, the Mustangs wanted the ball badly. Captains Kaison Bigham, Tyrel Wagner, Drake Slifer, and Carson Spoonts walked up to mid-field knowing what they wanted to do. The visiting team got to pick whether to choose heads or tails, and lost the toss. Mustangs got the ball for the first home kickoff of the 23’-24’ season.
The first drive was rough for the Mustangs with a couple of mistakes in the opening drive but after a long push down the field they scored with a rushing touchdown by Carson Spoonts. Score is 6-0, with the 2pt conversion, Jayden DeWalt, walked in and the score became 8-0. On kickoff, Mustangs decided to on-side kick hoping to get the ball back, but that didn’t happen and the Buffaloes got good field position on their drive. In the process, sophomore Gavin Crowder got a stick of the week on the play. The Buffaloes put together a good drive going all the way to the 7-yard line. Mustang defense put together a great goal line stop on 3rd down giving the Buffaloes one last play to got a touchdown. Jackson Kolterman, Buffaloes Quarterback, dropped back going for a pass when he got blitzed by Spoonts leading to a tipped ball with Bigham almost resulting in an interception. Turnover on downs, Mustang ball. With the first quarter coming to an end, the Mustangs took it from the seven yard line out to the Buffaloes 27 yard line.
With the first play of the 2nd quarter, Mustangs came out with a BANG!!!! On a bubble screen, Spoonts threw it to Gray scoring on the Mustangs longest touchdown of the season, 73 yards. DeWalt rushed in on the 2pt. Conversion: The Mustangs take it to 16-0 over the Buffaloes. On the next kickoff, Spoonts pooch kicked the ball right over the first row of Buffaloes with Jayden DeWalt getting a great hit in during the play causing the Buffaloes to fumble the ball with Cayden Dummermuth recovering on the Mustang 40-yard line. Mustangs had a hard time moving the ball for a couple of plays, then on 3rd and short, Spoonts took a Quarterback sneak for 20-yards into the endzone. Spoonts rolled out wide, throwing it to Gray for the 2pt. Conversion: Advancing the score to 24-0 Mustangs up.
After kickoff the Buffaloes got stopped and punt, a 10-yard reception by Bigham brings the Mustangs to the 29-yard line. A hand-off to DeWalt brought him to the end zone after a nasty juke carrying it in. The 2pt. Conversion ran in by Spoonts: the score 32-0. The Mustangs kickoff again, with a good kick by Spoonts putting the Buffaloes to the 10-yard line. On the first play, the Buffaloes went for a long ball by Kolterman and got picked off by Royce Ekstrum. Ekstrum brought the ball all the way down to the 1-yard line. With an easy push by the line, Bigham gets in for the touchdown, and the 2pt conversion made good by DeWalt, the Mustangs went up 40-0 right before half. The Mustangs kickoff yet again, and the Buffaloes just couldn’t get anything started in the first half getting stopped at the 30-yard line. With a punt of 4th down, the Mustangs got the ball at the 50-yard line. On a last second effort, Spoonts attempted to get a score before half, and was stopped after a 29 yard gain getting tackled at the end of the first half.
Starting the second half, the Buffaloes had the ball. The kickoff went all the way down to the 10-yard line, giving the Mustangs good field position to start the drive. The Buffaloes lit a spark at half time when they drove all the way down the field for the entire 3rd quarter and scored a goal line touchdown by Rayce Fisher, and a 2pt conversion by Kolterman. The score was 40-8. The Buffaloes tried an on-side kick trying to get the ball back, but the Mustangs got the ball and started the drive on the 50-yard line. The third quarter ended with the Mustangs in possession.
With the 4th quarter starting, the Mustangs came out with a new offensive look with Mack Shanks in at QB. The drive starts off shaky at times, but after a big gain by Gray the Mustangs move the ball to the 10-yard line, inside the redzone. On 3rd down, DeWalt ran it in from the 3-yard line. With the 2pt conversion, by DeWalt, the score advances to 48-8. With the Mustangs' kick off, the Buffaloes recovered on their 40-yard line. JV players and freshmen came out on the field to give the Mustangs an all new look on defense. Buffalo's varsity drove the ball on the Mustangs and Kolterman scored on a scramble. With the 2pt conversion, the Buffaloes made the score 48-16. The Buffaloes tried an on-side kick again and the Mustangs recovered giving themselves another chance. A couple of minutes to run a few plays all the way up to the end of regulation. The Final score, 48-16 Mustangs for the win.
The Mustangs will play the Troy Trojans on September 15th at 7pm.
Article By: Carson Spoonts