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Mustangs hold off Scotties, head to playoffs

With a 33-24 win last Friday night, the Malta Mustangs will host a playoff game against Huntley Project this Saturday afternoon, but the rival Glasgow Scotties didn’t make it easy for Big Blue during the final regular season home game of the 2018 season.

Friday night was Senior Night at the football game and senior Malta Cheerleaders honored on the night were Bethany Holm, Shelby Jones, Erika Nagy, and Chayana Stolem, and football players Kevin Henry, Rhett Simanton, Kolter Schipman, Andres Lopez, Payton Clausen, and Miles Bunk.

Captains for the night’s contest were Henry, Schipman, and Tanner Smith and Malta received the ball to open the game with a 7-play drive which ended with a failed fourth down attempt.

Malta’s defense, which played stoutly all evening, pushed the Scotties offense off the field in eight plays following a failed fourth and 1 attempt which ended with a Glasgow fumble recovered by a pile of Mustangs.

The ensuing Malta drive resulted in the first score of the night following a 6-play drive which was highlighted by a 47-yard scamper by Lopez and punctuated with a 14-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Kooper Oxarart to Schipman, a pretty pass which was just out of reach for the Scottie DB before finding paydirt.

“That was pretty sweet,” Oxarart said of the play. “It was just a little lob-pass. Coach (Benn) wanted me to get rid of the ball quick, and that’s what I did, and we got the touchdown gave the Mustangs the early 6-0 lead with 4:41 to play in the first quarter.

Malta’s defense — which allowed Glasgow just 259 total yards of offense on the night (115 yards rushing on 37 carries for an average of only 3.1 yards per run) and 144 yards through the air — forced the Scotties into three-and-outs on the next two drives and took a 14-0 lead following a 49-yard touchdown run by Lopez on the first play of the Mustang’s fourth drive of the night.

“I just put it into fourth gear and outran everyone,” Lopez said of the TD scamper.

Much of the second quarter would feature Glasgow inside Malta’s 50-yard line and one of the lone Mustang miscues on offense came with a fumbled center-to-quarterback snap midway through the frame.

“I didn’t get under Frankie (Werk, Mustang center) deep enough and it hit off his butt and we lost it,” Oxarart said.

Three plays later, with Werk on the D-line and Oxarart at his DB position, Werk tackled the Glasgow runner and stripped the ball which bounced into Oxarart’s breadbasket, giving the Mustangs the ball at their own 21-yard line and stopping the Scottie drive.

“They didn’t cover up the ball very well and Frankie stripped it and we made up for the bad snap,” Oxarart said.

Glasgow strung together a drive as the first half neared its conclusion and were threatening to score with the ball inside the Malta 20, but key pass deflections by DBs Jeremiah Benson and Schipman helped keep the Scotties scoreless in the first half.

“We just hung in there and kept fighting,” Malta Head Coach Benn said. “We had some guys who stepped up big and had to play some different roles. We fought hard tonight and got through it.”

Coach Benn said that Malta Defensive Coordinator Travis Somerfeld had a great defensive scheme for the Scotties and played to the mantra of “bend but don’t break.”

“Our defensive line played very well tonight and dug their heels in and limited their runners,” Oxarart said.

Coach Benn said that one of the strategies of the night was to keep the ball out of two of the Scotties’ best player’s hands, the kickoff return men. All night, Mustang kicker Lopez would squib the ball into the second line of Glasgow players on the receiving team and on the opening kick of the second half, Malta’s Callan Mears recovered the kick to give his team the ball at the Glasgow 42. Malta then slapped-together a 9-play drive capped by a 4-yard touchdown plunge by Lopez and successful extra-point kick by Cordel Salsbery to give the Mustangs a 21-0 lead with 21-minutes left to play.

It was on the next Glasgow drive that the momentum switched to the visitors.

Glasgow would post two unanswered touchdown drives in the next seven minutes to pull the score to 21-16.

“I told them to just keep playing,” Coach Benn said. “I wasn’t worried because I know we can score. We had a lot of success running the edges and that was the plan going in.”

Malta kick returner Cormac Benn started the next Malta scoring drive with a 46-yard kickoff return giving the Mustangs the ball at the Scottie 46. It was 11-plays later that Smith would take a pitch around the right corner, behind a slew of Mustang blockers, to punch a 7-yard run into the end zone.

“Coach Benn told me to go put it in, the line blocked hard, and we scored,” Smith said of the score that pushed the tally to 27-16 for the home team.

Glasgow answered with a touchdown drive of their own to push the score to 27-24 with 6:11 to play in the contest. Malta’s answer to that challenge was a nine-play drive which included a key fourth down conversion and ended with Lopez scoring his third touchdown on the night, a 6-yard effort.

“I broke like five kid’s ankles, so that was good,” Lopez said of what would be the final score of the night.

Malta’s defense would force their final four-and-out of the night on defense and secure the 33-24 win.

“It means the world, and I knew we were going to, but I didn’t think it was going to be that close,” Lopez said of the Senior Night win against the rival Scotties. “I think after we scored those first three touchdowns, we got a little too cocky, but we bend and don’t break. Coach (Benn) told us to get our enthusiasm up, and that is what we did, and we won.”

All told, Lopez amassed 155-yards on 23-totes; Smith had 84-yards on 13-carries and two touchdowns; Cash Salsbery had 43-yards on 11 carries; Benn had 29-yards on 5-carries, and Henry had 1-carry and 11-yards. Oxarart completed 2-of-5 passing for 9-yards, 1-touchdown and 1-interception (aside from the TD pass to Schipman, Benn had one reception for a 5-yard loss.)

The win over Glasgow makes it two in a row against the Scotties with last year’s 55-14 win and avenged a 34-33 overtime loss to the Scotties in 2016 which sent Malta on the road in that season’s playoffs, a game they would drop 54-13 to Eureka. The win also ensures that Malta will be home for the opening round of the playoffs as they host Huntley Project with kickoff slated for 1 p.m. at Mustang Field.

Coach Benn said Huntley Project has a tremendous tailback named Asher Croy and he has over 2,000 yards of offense on the season.

“They have also passed for over 1,000 yards and have some speedy receivers,” Coach Benn told the PCN on Sunday. “And they have big physical linemen.”

Coach Been said to succeed, Malta will need to manage turnovers, create big plays, and weather their offensive storm.

See the Montana Class B Playoff Bracket on Page 4B of this week's PCN.

Advanced ticket sales for local fans start Tuesday at 9:00 am at the Malta High School office until Friday at 10:00 am.

Ticket prices as set by the Montana High School Association are:

$7.00 for adults, and $6.00 for students. Malta High School season passes will not be honored.

 

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