Mustangs head to quarter-finals

The Malta Mustangs Football team is moving on to the quarter-final round of the 2020 Class B Football Championship Series after defeating the Bigfork Vikings in Malta last Saturday, October 31.

"I was extremely proud of how our team practiced hard and prepared well for Bigfork," Malta Head Coach Nick Oxarart said. "I thought our players were able to execute our offense very well. We have a few things we need to get better at, but overall I was very pleased with our effort."

The Mustangs, who finished second in the Northern B rankings, will take on the Manhattan Tigers who finished first in the Southern Division. The game is scheduled for Saturday, November 7, at 1 p.m. in Manhattan.

The Tigers blew out the Colstrip Rams 52-0 in the opening round of the playoffs last Saturday. Manhattan is the top-ranked team in Class B and was the runner up team in last year's championship.

Coach Oxarart described Manhattan as a very well balanced team that runs and passes the ball efficiently. He also said that Manhattan is a fast and physical team.

"They have a lot of weapons and can put up a lot of points in a hurry," Coach Oxarart said. "They have a great quarterback that can both run and throw, a couple of tough running backs and a handful of receivers that get catch the ball very well and have game-breaking speed. They run a lot of different formations in order to get their playmakers the ball."

Coach Oxarart said that this weekend will be the biggest test of the year for the Mustang defense.

"We will have to have our best game of the season in order to leave Manhattan with a win," Coach Oxarart said.

Defensively, the Tigers run a 4-3. The team tackles well and plays fast according to Coach Oxarart.

"They have a lot of great athletes and really no weaknesses in any part of their team," Coach Oxarart said. "They haven't given up many points all season long and their offense puts up huge numbers so they present a huge challenge for us."

In Malta's win over Bigfork, Malta was led by Cash Salsbery, who ran for 214 yards and two touchdowns. Rex Williamson had 87 yards on 14 carries. Darrow Messerly had 20 yards on three carries and Shawn Gilkerson had three carries for 17 yards. Malta had a total of 400 yards of offense in their win.

"We worked as a team," Malta senior captain Kooper Oxarart said. "We ran some new defense. Everyone did their job."

K. Oxarart, the team's quarterback had one touchdown on the ground and another touchdown through the air in the win. He completed five of eight attempts for 77 yards, his longest pass being a 34-yard touchdown to Connor Tuss in the third quarter.

"Pierce (Mortenson) and the linemen gave me time," Oxarart said. "I just saw Connor come over the middle and hit him. It was a nice route, good blocking, nice pass, and we just all came together as a team. Touchdown."

The Mustangs had the tall task of slowing down former Mustang Cormac Benn, a senior that played his final high school game where his high school career began.

"It's kind of weird and I try not to think about it because he was one of my best friends when he lived here," K. Oxarart said. "I try not to think about it. I just did my job and everyone did their job and we came out with the win."

Malta's defense held Bigfork to a total of 205 yards.

"We came out fired up and we stayed heated up the whole time," senior captain Pierce Mortenson said. "Things went our way and we got big stops and we ended up winning."

Coach Oxarart approved of his team's defense and looks forward to the opportunity for Malta to try to advance to the semi-finals, a place that Malta hasn't reached since 2012.

"Bigfork is a good football team and I thought our defense did a great job of slowing them up," Coach Oxarart said. "It was a total team effort in getting the victory on Saturday. We look forward to getting an opportunity to play another week."

Scoring Summary vs Bigfork:

1st Quarter: Cash Salsbery 5 yard run (Rex Williamson run) 6:22 8-0.

2nd Quarter: Cormac Benn 3 yard run (Isaac Bjorge pass from Patrick Wallen) 3:45 8-8.

3rd Quarter: Salsbery 5 yard run (Salsbery run) 6:47 16-8. Connor Tuss 34 yard pass from Kooper Oxarart (run failed) 3:35 22-8.

4th Quarter: Oxarart 5 yard run (Williamson run) 11:27 30-8. Benn 7 yard run (pass failed) 7:10 30-14.