sweetwater vs Big Spring

[Phantom Stang]

Mustangs, Steers here Friday
October 24, 2013
By
Ron Howell


After two games, only one team is 2-0 in District 4-3A while four teams are locked in a second-place tie at 1-1.
But two of the second-place teams — Sweetwater and Big Spring — will try to break free from each other when they go head-to-head at Mustang Bowl on Friday. The winner will put itself in great position to claim one of the four playoff berths; the loser faces an uphill bat-tle with two games left.
Both teams are currently tied with Wylie and Snyder for second place behind 4-3A leader Monahans, and both are coming off rather lopsided wins last week.
Sweetwater finally broke its three-game losing streak with a 54-29 win at last-place Greenwood.
The Mustangs exceeeded both the 50-point and 500-yard plateaus for the second time as several players had great offensive games, while the defense was able to get some key second-half stops and force three turnovers, one of which — an intercep-tion in the fourth quarter by Kaleb Hoover — was returned the other way for a Sweetwater touchdown that gave the Mustangs an insurmountable 26-point lead over the Rangers.
Enjoying huge nights were Bray Amos, who had four TD receptions and ano-ther on a run; quarterback Kaegan Jeffrey (25-for-33 passing, 309 yards, 4 TDs); and Isaiah McGee, who was a standout on both sides of the ball. McGee scored twice on runs and had a season-high 160 yards rushing, plus five catches for 58 yards and a two-point conversion run. On defense, he was equally sensational as he had five solo tackles, six assisted stops, four tackles for a loss (including a sack) and an interception after being moved from safety to outside linebacker.
Big Spring won its first district game in three years as the Steers easily beat Sny-der 42-14. Big Spring had 12 straight district losses prior to its win, which improved its overall record to 5-2 and came right after a two-point loss to Wylie a week earlier, when a long field goal attempt to win the game narrowly missed.
So both teams will come into Friday’s game pumped, as both continue to pursue their goal of ending playoff droughts going back a few years. Sweetwater last made the postseason in 2008 and Big Spring’s last playoff berth was in 2009. Sweetwater has a slightly tougher road as it still has Monahans and Wylie on its schedule, while Big Spring ends with Greenwood and Monahans.
Big Spring’s explosive spread offense is led by junior quarterback Tobyn Tannehill, who is the younger brother of Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill. Tobyn will be a big threat both running and passing the ball. He threw for 280 yards and ran for 146 against Wylie, when he accounted for four touch-downs. Against Snyder, he did the most damage rush-ing with 207 yards on the ground, plus another 160 yards through the air.
Receivers Devin Roberson and Tate Kennedy are also threats to score, as are running backs Hunter Hill and Preston Alexander.
The Steers had 495 total yards against Snyder, with 312 on the ground and 183 in the air as the Tigers suf-fered their first 4-3A loss.

http://sweetwaterreporter.com/content/mustangs-steers-here-friday

[Phantom Stang]

Mustangs lose a scoring fest
October 28, 2013
By
Ron Howell
sweetwatersports1@yahoo.com

When two teams with powerful offenses meet, it often turns into a track meet, or basketball on a football field, or whatever.
By the time the dust had settled here Friday night, Big Spring and Sweetwater had combined to score 107 points and gain over 1,000 yards. But all that really mattered — in the end — was that the visiting Steers came away with a 65-42 win at Mustang Bowl.
The victory improves the Steers record to 2-1 in Dis-trict 4-3A with two games left and puts them in prime shape for a playoff berth.
Sweetwater, which had been part of a four-way tie for second place coming in along with Wylie and Sny-der, dropped to 1-2 (3-5 for the season) and now faces a big hurdle if the Mustangs are to reach the postseason.
Sweetwater’s remaining games are with teams that are ahead of them in the standings. Coach Shane Mobley’s team visits first-place Monahans (3-0) this Friday before ending the season on Nov. 8 by enter-taining Wylie (2-1).
The Loboes barely got by Snyder on Friday, pulling out a 35-34 win that assures them of one of the district’s four playoff spots.
Big Spring came into the game fresh off its first dis-trict win in three years — and 13 games. But the Steers held the upper hand from the start over the Mus-tangs, who were able to tie the game 7-7 and 14-14 in the first half but couldn’t stop Big Spring’s explosive attack led by quarterback Tobyn Tannehill and fresh-man running back Preston Alexander. Both rushed for over 100 yards and totalled five touchdowns.
Tannehill also threw for 248 yards, completing 15 of 19 passes and no picks, for three TDs as he accounted for 350 total yards.
There were only two punts in the game — both by Sweetwater, which ended the night with 464 yards but surrendered 552 — 304 rushing and 248 passing.
After the Mustangs tied the game at 14, Big Spring ran off the next 17 points for a 31-14 halftime lead on a pair of Alexander scoring runs and a 33-yard field goal by Devin Roberson that came with just six seconds left until intermission.
Isaiah McGee gave Sweet-water fans hope, however, when he stripped Alexander of the ball on Big Spring’s first drive of the third quar-ter and returned it 54 yards for a touchdown to pull the Mustangs within 31-21.
Tannehill’s 39-yard pass to Tate Kennedy restored a 17-point lead for the Steers, but Sweetwater came back again to score on a 5-yard Kaegan Jeffrey pass to Kaleb Hoover, making it 38-28.
But a 21-0 run from that point allowed Big Spring to put the game out of reach.
Another Tannehill scor-ing pass, this one to Ryan Lopez, followed by two TD runs by Hunter Hill in the absence of Alexander, who left with a second-half in-jury, made it 59-28 with just 7:53 left to play.
To their credit, the Mus-tangs didn’t quit.
Jeffrey, who threw for 322 yards, connected with Hoover on a second TD pass from 10 yards out, and after Tannehill scored Big Spring’s final points on a 45-yard run to make it 65-34, McGee caught an 11-yard Jeffrey pass for the final Swetwater touchdown with just 29 seconds to play, followed by a two-point conversion pass to Bray Amos.
Amos had 179 yards re-ceiving on just five catches, including a 64-yarder that led to Sweetwater’s tying touchdown by Jeffrey — on a 1-yard run — that briefly evened the game at 14 in the second quarter.
McGee scored the Mus-tangs’ first TD on a 16-yard run that tied the game at 7 with 3:08 left in the first quarter.
After Big Spring went up 21-14 in the second quarter, Sweetwater drove from its 31 to the Steers 12 where the Mustangs faced fourth-and-3. But a McGee run was stopped for a one-yard loss, and Big Spring marched 87 yards in nine plays to open a two-score advantage.

http://sweetwaterreporter.com/content/mustangs-lose-scoring-fest