Stangster
09-17-2005, 08:48 PM
Mustangs blank Andrews, 38-0
By RON HOWELL/Reporter Sports Editor
ANDREWS -- While beating Andrews doesn't carry quite the weight it once did in Sweetwater, since the teams are now non-district rivals, the current staff of coaches knows what happened here Friday was still quite an accomplishment.
It's not often that anyone travels to Andrews and wins by a 38-0 score at the "other" Mustang Bowl, but this Sweetwater team has proved since the start of the year that it is far from ordinary.
An inspired defensive effort by the state's No. 4-ranked team in Class 3A was probably the most impressive thing about Friday's triumph. Sweetwater (4-0) pitched its second shutout -- both against Class 4A schools -- after stopping two Andrews drives inside the 5-yard line. In addi-tion, the Mustangs scored their final touchdown as the result of an interception return.
And the most spectacular play of the contest, a 97-yard TD run by Skye Green, came on the first play from scrimmage after a touchdown-saving tackle by Duone Cunnings at the 3.
Andrews, trailing only 14-0 at the time midway through the second quarter, was facing fourth-and-goal from the 7 and lined up for a field goal attempt, but then completed a short pass that nearly cut the deficit to seven points.
Instead, Sweetwater had a 21-point lead just moments later and the outcome was never in doubt again as Andrews fell to 0-3.
"That was as big as anything that happened in the game," head coach Kent Jackson said. "Our defense stopped them there, and then we did it three more times in the second half. The defensive staff, man alive, what a job tonight."
Sweetwater's defensive coordinator, Chris Wigington, said great ball pursuit and physical play were the keys to keeping Andrews off the board.
"My gosh," he said, "to pitch a shutout against these guys is pretty good. We talk every week about being more physical than the other team's defense and getting to the ball, and that's what we did. Our younger guys have stepped up, and the older guys have done a good job of leading them."
Green had already scored on a 4-yard run prior to his game-breaker. He finished with a team-high 129 yards on just eight carries.
"(Quarterback) Sonny (Bird-well) just pitched me the ball," he said of what led up to the 97-yard run. "I was looking for a hole and I found it."
Green was a huge part of the defensive effort as well, as he scored the last touchdown on a 35-yard interception return in the third period. His first TD capped a 7-play, 69-yard drive that made it 14-0 in the opening quarter. Birdwell, who was 4-of-6 passing for 56 yards in the game with no interceptions, hit back-to-back completions of 9 yards to Brittan Pittman and 25 yards to Green on the drive.
Green wasn't the only Mus-tang to immediately score after an Andrews turnover. Joseph Banyard did it much earlier.
Brandan Fangman recovered a fumble at the Andrews 21 on the very first play from scrim-mage in the game. Sweetwater took over and Birdwell handed off to Banyard, who immediate-ly raced in for the touchdown to make it 7-0 -- following Parker Morrow's first of five consecut-ive extra points -- with 11:35 to play in the opening period.
Banyard scored again -- and just about as quickly -- when the second half began. Sweet-water, already ahead 21-0, got the ball at its 41 following the kickoff. After a 9-yard run by Green to midfield, Banyard (8 carries, 104 yards) found room on the right side and raced 50 yards for his second touchdown with 10:56 left in the quarter.
Andrews found itself trailing 35-0 just 33 seconds later when a pass by quarterback Nathan Bryan bounced off his intended receiver and into the hands of Green, who returned it for the Mustangs' final touchdown.
Cunnings -- who later left the game with an injury -- also had an interception a few moments after Green's pick which would have put Sweetwater right back in scoring range, but a roughing the passer penalty returned the ball to Andrews. The hosts then put together their only real drive of the game, advancing all the way inside Sweetwater's 1-yard line while eating up nearly seven minutes of clock. But the defense held Bryan to no gain on a run, a pass fell incomplete and, following a 5-yard penalty on Andrews for an illegal substitution, Bryan was stopped af-ter a 3-yard gain to give the ball back to Sweetwater.
The Mustangs got their final points, on a 27-yard field goal by Morrow, with 7:02 left in the game after another stand by the defense.
Sweetwater, which now has a staggering 260-20 total point advantage over its first four opponents, allowed just 195 to-tal yards and just 66 of it came in the first half. J.J. McCoy also had a fumble recovery for the Mustangs late in the contest to end Andrews' final series.
Sweetwater's leading individual tackler was Justin Adames, who had 11 stops -- two solo -- with one for a loss. Freshman Rufus McCann, who also took over the punting duties in the second half after Cunnings was hurt, had 10 tackles and Ban-yard and Fangman nine. Maur-ice Rosas had eight tackles, in-cluding three solos and two for a loss. Russell Clayton had five tackles and Jeffery Straley, who was making his first start at linebacker, was in on four tackles as were Pittman and Joe Li-mones. Cunnings, McCoy, Jus-tin Rodriguez, James Beckwith, Antonio Gamez and Casey To-land all had three tackles while Green, Ty Jones, Shawn Kin-caid and Kendall Mayes all had two tackles and Tyler Beding-field and Harold Tennon one.
The 38-point winning mar-gin for Sweetwater was one of the most lopsided for either team since the almost annual rivalry began in 1980.
Sweetwater had lost, 38-15, the last time it traveled to And-rews in 2003 but has now won the last two games, including a 28-21 victory here last season.
The Mustangs still have two more games before starting dis-trict play on Oct. 7 against Wy-lie. Sweetwater hosts Pecos in its homecoming game Friday, then goes to Levelland to end non-district action Sept. 30.
By RON HOWELL/Reporter Sports Editor
ANDREWS -- While beating Andrews doesn't carry quite the weight it once did in Sweetwater, since the teams are now non-district rivals, the current staff of coaches knows what happened here Friday was still quite an accomplishment.
It's not often that anyone travels to Andrews and wins by a 38-0 score at the "other" Mustang Bowl, but this Sweetwater team has proved since the start of the year that it is far from ordinary.
An inspired defensive effort by the state's No. 4-ranked team in Class 3A was probably the most impressive thing about Friday's triumph. Sweetwater (4-0) pitched its second shutout -- both against Class 4A schools -- after stopping two Andrews drives inside the 5-yard line. In addi-tion, the Mustangs scored their final touchdown as the result of an interception return.
And the most spectacular play of the contest, a 97-yard TD run by Skye Green, came on the first play from scrimmage after a touchdown-saving tackle by Duone Cunnings at the 3.
Andrews, trailing only 14-0 at the time midway through the second quarter, was facing fourth-and-goal from the 7 and lined up for a field goal attempt, but then completed a short pass that nearly cut the deficit to seven points.
Instead, Sweetwater had a 21-point lead just moments later and the outcome was never in doubt again as Andrews fell to 0-3.
"That was as big as anything that happened in the game," head coach Kent Jackson said. "Our defense stopped them there, and then we did it three more times in the second half. The defensive staff, man alive, what a job tonight."
Sweetwater's defensive coordinator, Chris Wigington, said great ball pursuit and physical play were the keys to keeping Andrews off the board.
"My gosh," he said, "to pitch a shutout against these guys is pretty good. We talk every week about being more physical than the other team's defense and getting to the ball, and that's what we did. Our younger guys have stepped up, and the older guys have done a good job of leading them."
Green had already scored on a 4-yard run prior to his game-breaker. He finished with a team-high 129 yards on just eight carries.
"(Quarterback) Sonny (Bird-well) just pitched me the ball," he said of what led up to the 97-yard run. "I was looking for a hole and I found it."
Green was a huge part of the defensive effort as well, as he scored the last touchdown on a 35-yard interception return in the third period. His first TD capped a 7-play, 69-yard drive that made it 14-0 in the opening quarter. Birdwell, who was 4-of-6 passing for 56 yards in the game with no interceptions, hit back-to-back completions of 9 yards to Brittan Pittman and 25 yards to Green on the drive.
Green wasn't the only Mus-tang to immediately score after an Andrews turnover. Joseph Banyard did it much earlier.
Brandan Fangman recovered a fumble at the Andrews 21 on the very first play from scrim-mage in the game. Sweetwater took over and Birdwell handed off to Banyard, who immediate-ly raced in for the touchdown to make it 7-0 -- following Parker Morrow's first of five consecut-ive extra points -- with 11:35 to play in the opening period.
Banyard scored again -- and just about as quickly -- when the second half began. Sweet-water, already ahead 21-0, got the ball at its 41 following the kickoff. After a 9-yard run by Green to midfield, Banyard (8 carries, 104 yards) found room on the right side and raced 50 yards for his second touchdown with 10:56 left in the quarter.
Andrews found itself trailing 35-0 just 33 seconds later when a pass by quarterback Nathan Bryan bounced off his intended receiver and into the hands of Green, who returned it for the Mustangs' final touchdown.
Cunnings -- who later left the game with an injury -- also had an interception a few moments after Green's pick which would have put Sweetwater right back in scoring range, but a roughing the passer penalty returned the ball to Andrews. The hosts then put together their only real drive of the game, advancing all the way inside Sweetwater's 1-yard line while eating up nearly seven minutes of clock. But the defense held Bryan to no gain on a run, a pass fell incomplete and, following a 5-yard penalty on Andrews for an illegal substitution, Bryan was stopped af-ter a 3-yard gain to give the ball back to Sweetwater.
The Mustangs got their final points, on a 27-yard field goal by Morrow, with 7:02 left in the game after another stand by the defense.
Sweetwater, which now has a staggering 260-20 total point advantage over its first four opponents, allowed just 195 to-tal yards and just 66 of it came in the first half. J.J. McCoy also had a fumble recovery for the Mustangs late in the contest to end Andrews' final series.
Sweetwater's leading individual tackler was Justin Adames, who had 11 stops -- two solo -- with one for a loss. Freshman Rufus McCann, who also took over the punting duties in the second half after Cunnings was hurt, had 10 tackles and Ban-yard and Fangman nine. Maur-ice Rosas had eight tackles, in-cluding three solos and two for a loss. Russell Clayton had five tackles and Jeffery Straley, who was making his first start at linebacker, was in on four tackles as were Pittman and Joe Li-mones. Cunnings, McCoy, Jus-tin Rodriguez, James Beckwith, Antonio Gamez and Casey To-land all had three tackles while Green, Ty Jones, Shawn Kin-caid and Kendall Mayes all had two tackles and Tyler Beding-field and Harold Tennon one.
The 38-point winning mar-gin for Sweetwater was one of the most lopsided for either team since the almost annual rivalry began in 1980.
Sweetwater had lost, 38-15, the last time it traveled to And-rews in 2003 but has now won the last two games, including a 28-21 victory here last season.
The Mustangs still have two more games before starting dis-trict play on Oct. 7 against Wy-lie. Sweetwater hosts Pecos in its homecoming game Friday, then goes to Levelland to end non-district action Sept. 30.