Phantom Stang
08-15-2005, 05:15 PM
Mustangs shut out Mid. Christian
By RON HOWELL/Reporter Sports Editor
Although "dazzling" might be an overstatement in describing the Sweetwater football team's first scrimmage here Saturday, the Mustangs still had several impressive moments when they faced their first outside com-petition of the 2005 season.
Sweetwater's offense scored on its very first play and later added two other touchdowns on its home turf, while the de-fense prevented Midland Chris-tian from finding the end zone.
Statistically, Sweetwater had 355 yards of offense -- 219 rushing and 136 passing -- and averaged just about seven and a half yards every time it touched the ball; not bad for a team which is replacing several starters on its offensive line from a year ago. The statistics would have been even more im-pressive if a 70-yard touchdown run by Joseph Banyard on the Mustangs' first offensive play had counted, but a holding penalty denied the score.
Head coach Kent Jackson also liked what he saw from the three players who are compe-ting to start at quarterback, and with good reason. The three players -- seniors Sonny Bird-well and Kendal Carrillo and junior Duone Cunnings -- not only were a combined 6-0f-12 passing for 136 yards, but also accounted for 149 of the team's 289 rushing yards along with two TDs; in fact, the only two that counted.
Carrillo, who played with the first unit, broke loose for a 38-yard score down the left side-line. Cunnings, who quarter-backed the number two squad, had the Mustangs' first official score on an 8-yard run.
Cunnings led all Sweetwater rushers with 65 yards on only five carries, while Carrillo was almost identical -- five carries, 63 yards -- and Birdwell gained 21 yards on three runs. Banyard gained 25 yards on four rushes, not counting the 70-yarder, and Maurice Rosas picked up 24 yards on four runs. Banyard also had two catches good for 52 yards, Brittan Pittman had two catches for 40 yards, KiKi Johnson had one catch for 30 yards and Skye Green had one catch for 14 yards.
In the passing department, Birdwell completed 3 of 5 for 54 yards, Carrillo was 2 of 4 for 52 and Cunnings completed 1 of 3 attempts for 30 yards.
"I felt all three quarterbacks did a good job," Jackson said. "But it was the same with all of the other players. There were a lot of positives."
Defensively, Sweetwater held Midland Christian to 170 yards -- 114 rushing and 56 passing. And almost all of the yardage in the air came on a 52-yard com-pletion early in the scrimmage when the visiting Mustangs had their only real scoring threat.
Midland Christian got to the Sweetwater 9-yard line until a fourth-down pass was knocked away by Carrillo. After that, the closest Midland Christian came to a score was Sweetwater's 42.
Individually, Rufus McCann was Sweetwater's leading tack-ler with 12 stops while Carrillo had seven tackles and two pass breakups. Auston Davis had six tackles, Banyard and Joe Lim-ones four and Pittman, Green, Ty Jones and Russell Clayton three each. Pittman also had an interception.
Sweetwater's offense put it-self in position to score on three other occasions without getting points. The Mustangs drove to Midland Christian's 15 on their first 15-play series before being stopped, and got inside the 30 a couple of other times before an interception and incomplete pass ended the threats.
Sweetwater's JV team scored seven times against Midland Christian's JV in a 7-1 rout. Thomas Holsey and Jonathan Granado each had a pair of TD runs and R.J. Hickman and Martin Williams also ran for scores, with Bryan Boyd catching a pass from Cory Fergeson for the other touchdown. Holsey also had an interception and Adam Salazar recovered a fumble, while Keifer Adamez and David Covington were also defensive standouts.
Sweetwater's freshman pro-duced a pair of touchdowns in their skirmish on runs by Mc-Cann and Brandon Bugarin.
All three Sweetwater squads will return to Mustang Bowl on Friday for a final scrimmage against Vernon before opening the regular season here on Aug. 26 against Lubbock Cooper.
Copyright © 2005 Sweetwater Reporter
By RON HOWELL/Reporter Sports Editor
Although "dazzling" might be an overstatement in describing the Sweetwater football team's first scrimmage here Saturday, the Mustangs still had several impressive moments when they faced their first outside com-petition of the 2005 season.
Sweetwater's offense scored on its very first play and later added two other touchdowns on its home turf, while the de-fense prevented Midland Chris-tian from finding the end zone.
Statistically, Sweetwater had 355 yards of offense -- 219 rushing and 136 passing -- and averaged just about seven and a half yards every time it touched the ball; not bad for a team which is replacing several starters on its offensive line from a year ago. The statistics would have been even more im-pressive if a 70-yard touchdown run by Joseph Banyard on the Mustangs' first offensive play had counted, but a holding penalty denied the score.
Head coach Kent Jackson also liked what he saw from the three players who are compe-ting to start at quarterback, and with good reason. The three players -- seniors Sonny Bird-well and Kendal Carrillo and junior Duone Cunnings -- not only were a combined 6-0f-12 passing for 136 yards, but also accounted for 149 of the team's 289 rushing yards along with two TDs; in fact, the only two that counted.
Carrillo, who played with the first unit, broke loose for a 38-yard score down the left side-line. Cunnings, who quarter-backed the number two squad, had the Mustangs' first official score on an 8-yard run.
Cunnings led all Sweetwater rushers with 65 yards on only five carries, while Carrillo was almost identical -- five carries, 63 yards -- and Birdwell gained 21 yards on three runs. Banyard gained 25 yards on four rushes, not counting the 70-yarder, and Maurice Rosas picked up 24 yards on four runs. Banyard also had two catches good for 52 yards, Brittan Pittman had two catches for 40 yards, KiKi Johnson had one catch for 30 yards and Skye Green had one catch for 14 yards.
In the passing department, Birdwell completed 3 of 5 for 54 yards, Carrillo was 2 of 4 for 52 and Cunnings completed 1 of 3 attempts for 30 yards.
"I felt all three quarterbacks did a good job," Jackson said. "But it was the same with all of the other players. There were a lot of positives."
Defensively, Sweetwater held Midland Christian to 170 yards -- 114 rushing and 56 passing. And almost all of the yardage in the air came on a 52-yard com-pletion early in the scrimmage when the visiting Mustangs had their only real scoring threat.
Midland Christian got to the Sweetwater 9-yard line until a fourth-down pass was knocked away by Carrillo. After that, the closest Midland Christian came to a score was Sweetwater's 42.
Individually, Rufus McCann was Sweetwater's leading tack-ler with 12 stops while Carrillo had seven tackles and two pass breakups. Auston Davis had six tackles, Banyard and Joe Lim-ones four and Pittman, Green, Ty Jones and Russell Clayton three each. Pittman also had an interception.
Sweetwater's offense put it-self in position to score on three other occasions without getting points. The Mustangs drove to Midland Christian's 15 on their first 15-play series before being stopped, and got inside the 30 a couple of other times before an interception and incomplete pass ended the threats.
Sweetwater's JV team scored seven times against Midland Christian's JV in a 7-1 rout. Thomas Holsey and Jonathan Granado each had a pair of TD runs and R.J. Hickman and Martin Williams also ran for scores, with Bryan Boyd catching a pass from Cory Fergeson for the other touchdown. Holsey also had an interception and Adam Salazar recovered a fumble, while Keifer Adamez and David Covington were also defensive standouts.
Sweetwater's freshman pro-duced a pair of touchdowns in their skirmish on runs by Mc-Cann and Brandon Bugarin.
All three Sweetwater squads will return to Mustang Bowl on Friday for a final scrimmage against Vernon before opening the regular season here on Aug. 26 against Lubbock Cooper.
Copyright © 2005 Sweetwater Reporter