Mustangs Football: Malta faces Roundup in Homecoming showdown

The Mustangs had a close loss to the Red Devils, (19-7) last Friday in their season opener, but the young team has gained experience, which will help them this Friday as they face the 0-1 Roundup Panthers during Malta's Homecoming game.

"After playing a tough team like Huntley and going toe to toe with them for a while, our confidence was boosted and we can build off of that," said Malta Mustangs Head Coach Nick Oxarart. "They played hard the whole game and I think some of them get a little more experience every quarter."

Oxarart went on to say that the team could have learned a lot from that close loss, which was to an experienced team.

Their next adversary Roundup also lost their first game last Friday, to the Shepherd Mustangs 22-20.

The Panthers are hungry after posting a 2-6 season last year, with one of those loses against Malta 46-0.

The teams should be more evenly matched, with Roundup looking older than Malta was a year ago.

The Panthers will likely be led by Hunter Saltzman a senior tailback that is known for his all around run game.

He scored a 36 yard touchdown against Shepherd and made a heads up play to recover a fumble for another score.

The Panthers like running a Wing T offense, which is full of run plays and will likely have plenty of fake handoffs, which can compromise an undisciplined defense.

Saltzman will have help from fellow senior running back Cody Pearson, who was the only Panther other than Saltzman to score last week.

"He's a solid back and they'll want to get him to the outside," said Malta Head Coach Nick Oxarart.

Pearson also has a knack for making plays on defense, along with Saltzman who may challenge Malta's inexperienced offensive line.

Roundup has many of their key players returning from last year, which might pose a struggle for the Mustangs, but if they can put up a fraction of the amount of rushing yards (355) that they did last year, they could be looking at their first victory of the year.

Roundup will run a 3-5 defense, that could terrorize Malta's backfield in a multitude of ways, though it may leave Roundup susceptible to the pass.

If Malta can duplicate the passing game they put forward against Huntley, it could pay major dividends on Friday.

In last Friday's action, Jase Galt looked pretty sharp completing 21 of 30 of his pass attempts, while racking up 181 yards through the air, one touchdown and two interceptions.

"If Jase gets a little bit of time, he's deadly," said Coach Oxarart. "He hit some nice throws to Ostin Welch. He's got an accurate arm."

Coach Oxarart told the PCN