Mustangs Fall Hard in Windy Game

The season came to a cold and windy end for the Malta Mustangs football team as they lost 48-14 to the Jefferson County Panthers at Mustang Field last Saturday, November 5.

The wind was in the low 50s with gusts of over 70 mph in Malta, and though Malta's offense struggled to score, Malta Head Coach Nick Oxarart didn't use it as an excuse.

"Besides the 50 mph winds that limited a large part of our offense, Jefferson's size, strength and speed were ultimately what became too much to overcome on Saturday," Coach Oxarart said. "They have a great football team and my hat goes off to them."

He also mentioned that both teams had one quarter each half to play with the wind. The Mustangs were unable to establish the run, which disrupted their game plan.

"One quarter each half we were going to have to go into the wind and we just weren't able to establish our run game going West," Coach Oxarart said. "Our run game depends on our ability to pass and without being able to spread Jefferson out a little bit and pass on them they were able to put more defenders in the box and slow down our run game."

Defensively, Malta fared well in the first half stopping the Panthers in the red zone several times.

"Our defense played very well and I'm proud of their efforts," Coach Oxarart said. "Our coaches did a great job of preparing our defense. We gave them a short field to work with on each of their possessions and that was ultimately the difference in the game. Jefferson had an outstanding kicker (Dylan Root) and when they were able to put points on the board on every possession because of his ability to kick field goals, it became too much for us to overcome."

Jefferson's Luke Oxarart and Dylan Root each had two rushing towchdowns. Root also kicked two successful field goal attempts.

Despite the glaring loss, Malta quarterback Stockton Oxarart, a sophomore, was able to connect with junior Kyle Darrington for two touchdowns, a 38-yarder in the second quarter and a 46-yarder in the fourth quarter.

The loss gave Malta their second of an impressive 9-2 season. Coach Oxarart was asked what he could attribute the team's success to.

"This has been a great group of young men to coach and I would like to thank our seniors Kaden Bishop, Reese Brown, Spencer Gibbs, Eli Hanson, Colton Honey, Tye Jones, Draven Lageson, and Camryn Mears for their leadership and dedication to Mustang Football these past four years," Coach Oxarart said.