Mustangs answer Panthers

The Mustangs traveled to Roundup On Friday night on the Panther's homecoming night and came home with a 28-22, come from behind win to run their season record to 2-1 with conference foe Poplar coming to town this Friday.

Mustang's head coach Nick Oxarart said Roundup came out with a great game plan against Malta, adding the Panthers used their size to their advantage and were pushing the Mustangs around pretty good the first quarter or so.

The Mustangs trailed early and coach Oxarart said the team was sort of flat, weren't very physical and weren't reading plays very good.

"We finally dropped our pad level and started playing lower than them and were able to get a few stops here and there," coach said. "Our defense came up with a few stops when we needed to. Our offense made big play after big play and kept us in the game."

Coach Oxarart said many teams may have given up after being down 14-0. I'm very proud of our guys for continuing to play hard and battle back and come up with the win.

"They showed a lot of perseverance," coach Oxarart said.

Senior quarterback Jase Galt rushed for two touchdowns on the night and threw one to Ostin Welch which gave Malta the lead they would hold on to.

Coach said the Mustang supporters were in heavy attendance at the road game and many parents stuck around after the M-ette volleyball game to support the boys in blue.

"When Roundup was first and goal from the two-yard line, our crowd created some noise and kept our guys pumped to step up and make some big stops," coach Oxarart added.

Next up for the Mustangs Poplar for the first conference game which marks the midway point of the regular season. Coach Oxarart said the team needs to work on reading plays and keeping the pad levels low against the conference foe.

"Most teams are bigger than us so we really have to work being more physical," he said.

As far as the rest of season, coach Oxarart said the first goal is to qualify for the playoffs and a win over Poplar this week will be the first step into realizing that goal. We need to work on eliminating small mistakes that end up costing us big in close games.

"We are doing many things very well but we can always get better in every facet of the game," he added. "We have a long ways to go before we reach our potential and our coaching staff is very excited about that."