Mustangs fall to Panthers

The Malta Mustangs are now 0-2 after falling 56-32 to the Roundup Panthers on Friday, August 31. The team will suit up to face Wolf Point this Friday, September 7, at Mustang Field.

"Roundup has good experience and they had good guys at key positions," Malta Head Coach Jim Benn told the PCN. "Their quarterback is a great athlete. So they were able to do some things they haven't traditionally done. They tend to be a run heavy team and they came out in some formations that caused us some alignment issues."

According to 406mtsports.com, Roundup was led by Brody Grebe who had four passing touchdowns and 173 yards, as well as three rushing touchdowns and 176 yards on the ground. Tanner Rae rushed for 156 yards and a touchdown and Makale Kembel had four touchdowns and 138 yards on the ground.

In the loss to Roundup, Malta was led by sophomore quarterback Kooper Oxarart who threw for 176 yards, had two touchdowns and one interception, while going 11-for-25 through the air.

"Koopes is growing," Coach Benn said. "He is a sophomore and there is a lot to the quarterback position. He is showing poise, he is a tough hardnosed kid who has got a really good arm. It's just getting all of the pieces of the puzzle together so that he knows where to go with the ball in specific situations."

Coach Benn admitted that learning the quarterback position at varsity is tough, but he is encouraged by what he is seeing in Oxarart.

"He is well ahead of the curve for being the age that he is," Coach Benn said. "He made some great throws at some really important parts of the game and that's going to help him as the season goes on."

Andres Lopez had one receiving and one rushing touchdown. Lopez had 74 yards off of three catches and 62 yards on the ground off of nine carries (6.89 YPC).

"He started hitting the hole where he needs to hit the hole," Coach Benn said.

Cormac Benn had one touchdown and 66 yards receiving on three catches. C. Benn also had 28 rushing yards on five carries.

Tanner Smith had 33 yards on five carries and one reception for seven yards. Kevin Henry had 23 receiving yards on three catches.

Henry also made an impact on special teams, returning four kickoffs for 105 yards, which included an opening 60-yard return.

Roundup would turn things around in a hurry responding with a 70-yard touchdown run that would kick off a run of 36 unanswered points.

Malta's Andres Lopez broke free on a 45 yard touchdown in the third quarter, and later caught a 15 yarder from Oxarart for a touchdown.

Roundup would respond with three more touchdowns but C. Benn would catch the last touchdown, a 45-yarder from Oxarart.

Lopez had a team-leading 16 tackles. Callan Mears had 11 tackles, C. Benn had eight tackles and Tanner Smith had seven.

Oxarart and Henry each recorded an interception.

"They were within a series of each other," Coach Benn said of his team's forced turnovers. "They just tried to push the ball down the field and as the game went on we did a better job aligning to their formations and defense being so young, they are literally improving in leaps and bounds through the course of the game."

This Friday's game will mark Wolf Point's first action of the season, given the team didn't have enough players to warrant playing their first game against Colstrip on Friday, August 24.

The Wolves then observed their bye week last weekend.

Last year Malta defeated the Wolves 50-0. In the past three seasons, Malta has only given up one touchdown to the Wolves, defeating them 41-0 in 2016 and 47-8 in 2015.