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Mustangs Football: Malta slays the Wolves in the second half

With playoffs on the line, Malta must repeat recent history against Wolf Point

Tonight Malta will take on the Wolf Point Wolves at Mustang Field, with hopes of making the playoffs. If they don't win, they won't get in.

"We need to defeat our next two opponents to get into the playoffs," said Mustang Head Coach Nick Oxarart. "We control our own destiny, that's the famous cliché."

The Mustangs will have their hands tied, with the Wolves running a spread offense, loaded with talent.

The team runs their spread out of Wing and Shotgun sets.

"They're wanting to spread it out a little bit and distribute the ball both passing and running," Coach Oxarart said." "They'll run a zone read offense."

According to Oxarart, the Wolves have strong, physical runners at the running back and quarterback position.

"We're going to have to tackle them well to get them down," said Coach Oxarart. "They're big, big guys."

They also feature a big offensive/defensive line, that is easily bigger than Malta's linemen.

"It's pretty typical of this year, everyone's bigger than we are," Coach Oxarart said. "We'll just have to play faster and harder than they do."

The Wolf Point defense features an attacking 4-3 front seven, with the defensive backs playing a cover three zone.

"They all play pretty well and they all hustle to the football and tackle well," Coach Oxarart said. "They are real active with their linebackers. They like to blitz their backers."

Malta will have to keep their eyes open against their attacks.

Malta had a short week to prepare for Wolf Point, having only Monday and Tuesday to game plan for the Wolves.

The Freshman-Sophomore team had their hands full against Havre's Freshman –Sophomore team, which gave them even less time to study for Wolf Point.

The Wolves were beaten pretty bad at home last year 58-7. Truth be told Mustangs have owned the Wolves in recent history dating back to 2006. Malta has outscored Wolf Point 399 to 19. Only giving up three scores in the series, so Wolf Point will want to not only score but win tonight.

In Friday's win against Cut Bank, Malta started off slow, scoring it's first touchdown in the second quarter, and trailing Cut Bank 15-6 at half time. They ended up winning 32-15.

"We had trouble getting anything established," said Coach Oxarart. "We had a lot of penalties and some mental lapses in the first half, that we got cleaned up in the second half."

Malta found success stopping the Wolves' rushing attack, after they lined up eight players in the box.

"That helped a little bit too," said Oxarart.

Malta gave up 12 first downs in the first half and only three in the second.

"We shored up a few problems and played with a little more intensity and got after it a little more," Coach Oxarart said.

It was Cut Bank's home game and Coach Oxarart gave the team credit for playing hard against Malta.

"They played hard against us and Hugo Anderson had a great game plan against us and they were executing well," he said.

That was until Malta started forcing turnovers.

Malta had already forced a fumble in the first quarter, while having their backs against their own goalline.

The fumble came compliments of Tyson Carney, who had a heads up play forcing and recovering a fumble to stop the charging Wolves.

Later in the game, Cole Brown forced a fumble, which was recovered by Devon Raybon.

Jase Galt made a play to pick off a pass late in the game.

Galt has been having a good year at the quarterback position and that continued against the Wolves.

He was 14 of 19 for 140 yards and two touchdowns. He also had 31 yards on seven rushes and one touchddown.

Quintan Boos had a great game, racking up 148 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carraies.

Carney had four receptions for 67 yards and two touchdowns.

Collin Holman had five receptions for 34 yards.

Allen Williamson had two receptions for 32 yards.

Ostin Welch had one catch for 12 yards.

 

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