Phantom Stang
09-03-2009, 02:42 PM
Mustangs go to Seminole in search of 1st win
Written by Ron Howell
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Week Zero football wins are always better than a season-opening defeat. But losing your season opener isn’t necessarily a good indicationn of how your season will go.
Take Sweetwater, for instance.
The Mustangs have now lost their last three openers after falling to Burkburnett 14-0 this past Friday at the TSTC Sammy Baugh Classic. It spoiled the head coaching debut of Craig Slaughter, who replaced Kent Jackson this past spring.
But if anyone knows how to turn a team’s fortunes around, it’s Slaughter. After all, he turned losing programs at his first two stops at Hearne and Clyde into successful ones.
The biggest problem last week for Sweetwater was turnovers. The Mustangs had five of them, including one on each of their four second-half possessions.
Two of those turnovers led to Burkburnett’s two scores in the fourth quarter that broke a 0-0 deadlock.
“Your goal is not to beat yourself, and we did just that,” said Slaughter, who takes his team to Seminole this Friday at 7:30 p.m.
“But we’ve addressed it and we’ll definitely do a better job this week.”
Sweetwater finished with just 148 yards, but had the ball for only 35 plays — in-cluding just 13 in the sec-ond half — to Burkburnett’s 58. Sweetwater averaged 4.2 yards per play, not far off Burkburnett’s 5.0.
Seminole also had turn-over problems in its opener but still beat Idalou 7-6, the only touchdown coming on a 3-yard run by Keithen Hughes in the third period. Reid Layton kicked the winning extra point. Idalou got its only score on a 69-yard run by Jacob Johnson after a fumble recovery in the fourth quarter, then tried a two-point conversion but came up short. Seminole had just 117 yards in the game, including just nine pasing, but its defense limited Idalou to 115. Seminole’s biggest threat was sophomore Jarod Adams, who returned the second-half kickoff 57 yards to set up the Indians’ scoring drive. He also replaced senior Ricky Gillespie at quarterback after starting the game as a receiver and was at the controls when Seminole scored its only touchdown.
Gillespie was the team’s top rusher with 40 yards on eight carries, but also lost the fumble that Idalou recovered for its touchdown and also threw two inter-ceptions at quarterback.
Seminole has a lot of size on its offensive and defensive lines, with all but one player weighing between 225 and 288 pounds.
Slaughter said the best lineman is Daniel Allen, a returning all-state selection who starts at both center and defensive tackle.
Sweetwater, which is at full health for Friday’s game, had several top defensive efforts against Burkburnett. Sam Nemir had seven tackles, Bo Buga-rin six and Ken Norman, B.J. Walker and A.J. McCoy five. Clint Jay had eight assisted tackles and two QB pressures. Norman had seven assists and two for a loss. Walker, Kris Mayes and Josh Gomez also had tackles for a loss and Cole Rhoades had two quarterback knockdowns.
http://www.sweetwaterreporter.com/content/view/164908/122/
Written by Ron Howell
Thursday, 03 September 2009
Week Zero football wins are always better than a season-opening defeat. But losing your season opener isn’t necessarily a good indicationn of how your season will go.
Take Sweetwater, for instance.
The Mustangs have now lost their last three openers after falling to Burkburnett 14-0 this past Friday at the TSTC Sammy Baugh Classic. It spoiled the head coaching debut of Craig Slaughter, who replaced Kent Jackson this past spring.
But if anyone knows how to turn a team’s fortunes around, it’s Slaughter. After all, he turned losing programs at his first two stops at Hearne and Clyde into successful ones.
The biggest problem last week for Sweetwater was turnovers. The Mustangs had five of them, including one on each of their four second-half possessions.
Two of those turnovers led to Burkburnett’s two scores in the fourth quarter that broke a 0-0 deadlock.
“Your goal is not to beat yourself, and we did just that,” said Slaughter, who takes his team to Seminole this Friday at 7:30 p.m.
“But we’ve addressed it and we’ll definitely do a better job this week.”
Sweetwater finished with just 148 yards, but had the ball for only 35 plays — in-cluding just 13 in the sec-ond half — to Burkburnett’s 58. Sweetwater averaged 4.2 yards per play, not far off Burkburnett’s 5.0.
Seminole also had turn-over problems in its opener but still beat Idalou 7-6, the only touchdown coming on a 3-yard run by Keithen Hughes in the third period. Reid Layton kicked the winning extra point. Idalou got its only score on a 69-yard run by Jacob Johnson after a fumble recovery in the fourth quarter, then tried a two-point conversion but came up short. Seminole had just 117 yards in the game, including just nine pasing, but its defense limited Idalou to 115. Seminole’s biggest threat was sophomore Jarod Adams, who returned the second-half kickoff 57 yards to set up the Indians’ scoring drive. He also replaced senior Ricky Gillespie at quarterback after starting the game as a receiver and was at the controls when Seminole scored its only touchdown.
Gillespie was the team’s top rusher with 40 yards on eight carries, but also lost the fumble that Idalou recovered for its touchdown and also threw two inter-ceptions at quarterback.
Seminole has a lot of size on its offensive and defensive lines, with all but one player weighing between 225 and 288 pounds.
Slaughter said the best lineman is Daniel Allen, a returning all-state selection who starts at both center and defensive tackle.
Sweetwater, which is at full health for Friday’s game, had several top defensive efforts against Burkburnett. Sam Nemir had seven tackles, Bo Buga-rin six and Ken Norman, B.J. Walker and A.J. McCoy five. Clint Jay had eight assisted tackles and two QB pressures. Norman had seven assists and two for a loss. Walker, Kris Mayes and Josh Gomez also had tackles for a loss and Cole Rhoades had two quarterback knockdowns.
http://www.sweetwaterreporter.com/content/view/164908/122/