Mustangs paste Wolves 40-0

Lightning struck on Wednesday evening in Malta, both literally and figuratively.

Heading into halftime of Malta's game against the Wolves, bolts of lightning ripped through the night's sky – touching down under a mile away from Mustang Field – extending the intermission by 30 minutes due to safety concerns. Prior to that, the Mustangs football team struck for 34 points in the first two quarters leading to a 40-0 victory for Malta over the district foe Wolf Point.

"I'm really happy with our kid's efforts," said Malta Head Coach Nick Oxarart. "Our goal was to get this win so we could earn second (place) in the conference and qualify for the playoffs and we got the job done. We came out and were ready to go and they just weren't going to lose tonight."

The win came on Senior Night for the Mustangs and prior to kick-off, Collin Holman, Cole Brown, Tyler Ost and Quintan Boos were escorted to mid-field by members of their families. Once the game started, Boos was escorted down the field by Malta's offensive line to the tune of 145-yards on 25-carries and three touchdowns.

"We came out and our linemen were all on their blocks and that opened up our pass game which led to a good night," said Boos. "Everyone on the offensive line played a great game and people should give them credit and tell them they played a good game because they made a ton of blocks tonight."

When Boos and his fellow backs weren't grinding up turf on running plays, junior quarterback Jase Galt was completing timely passes on his way to three touchdown strikes and completing 9-of-14 for a total of 146-yards through the air. Tyson Carney was on the receiving end of two of those touchdown passes and led the team in receptions with four on his way to 90-yards -- Holman nabbed the other TD pass early in the second quarter.

When it was all said and done, Malta posted a total of 339 yards on offense while holding Wolf Point to 157 total yards.

"We weren't sure what type of defense we were going to line up against tonight," said Oxarart, "but our O-Line did a great job of talking and executing the things we wanted to do. They just got the job done."

Captains for the night were Holman, Boos, Caleb Salveson and Kalen Wiebe. The Mustangs won the coin toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff. After the Mustang's initial drive on offense resulted in a turnover on downs, Malta then scored on their next five possessions.

The first score of the contest came on a pass from Galt to Carney in which Carney snuck out onto the right side of the field, hauled in the catch and then scampered 37-yards past Wolves defenders for the score. Allen Williamson converted the extra point for a 7-0 lead with 7:24 to play in the first frame.

When the Mustangs weren't scoring on offenses, they were playing lights-out on D and only allowed the Wolves to get past the 50 on a few occasions (in fact, Wolf Point only managed to gain yardage of 10 or more on five plays through the entire contest.) The only real scoring threat of the game for the Wolves followed Malta's first score of the game, but the Mustangs buckled down and thwarted a fourth and four at the 29 to give the ball back to the offense.

Malta then methodically marched down the field for a nine-play, 71-yard drive in just under three minutes, capped by a nifty run from Boos for the score from 15-yards out to give Malta a 13-0 lead.

Wolf Point's next two drives were each suddenly halted due to fumbles; Jordan Pierce recovering the first, Cody Werk recovering the later. Malta made the most of the turnovers as Galt connected with Holman on a touchdown pass on a second and goal from the two following the first forced turnover. The Mustangs followed Werk's fumble recovery with an eight-play, 44-yard drive capped with a one-yard TD-plunge from Boos.

The next Mustangs possession saw Galt throw to his left to Carney who took the short pass and hustled to the end zone for a 21-yard score giving Malta a 34-0 lead at halftime. As the Mustangs headed to the locker room, thunder and lightning crashed, rain started to fall and spectators headed for safety away from the field. High winds kicked-up, the rain continued for most of the evening and what would have been a 12-minute intermission at halftime extended to nearly 45-minutes. The extra break didn't slow the Mustangs.

On their second drive of the third quarter, Williamson came across the field in motion, took the handoff from Galt and ran 11-yards down field – only a shoestring tackle keeping him from pay dirt. Just four plays later, Boos pounded his way to his third score of the game to give the Mustangs a 40-0 lead with five minutes to play in the period. With the score over 35, the clock was run continually and Malta salted away the victory 40-0.

Though the Mustangs were confident coming into the contest, Boos said that Malta didn't let that confidence cloud the task in front of them.

"We had a good week of practice and we felt good about our chances, but we didn't underestimate them," he said.

The Mustangs came into the contest knowing that a victory over Wolf Point would almost certainly secure second place in Northern 2B and with that a playoff berth and first round game at home.

"We are pretty excited about that and it gave us a little extra incentive to win tonight against these guys," said Oxarart.

Up next for the Mustangs is 0-6 Harlem (who lost on Wednesday night to Choteau 47-0.) Ultimately, the road game against Harlem will be treated as an early playoff game as the Mustangs will assure themselves of the first round playoff game at home against the Wildcats.

"We just need to take care of business against Harlem so we can secure, for certain, that we are the number two seed," said Coach Oxarart. "They are

going to have a similar look to Wolf Point so we will just go play our game, do a lot of the same things we did tonight and execute our game plan."

Mustang Stats:

Passing: Galt 9-of-14, 146 yards, 3 TD, O INT. Keenan Schipman 1-of-1, 20 YDS. Rushing: Boos 25 ATT, 145 YDS, 3 TD. Williamson 2 ATT, 29 YDS. Konner Kuehn 3 ATT, 14 YDS. Holman 2 ATT, 12 YDS. Cru Darrah 6 ATT, -1 YDS. Galt 2 ATT, -5 YDS. Receiving: Carney 4 REC, 90 YDS, 2 TD. Ostin Welch 1 REC, 24 YDS. Jordan Pierce 2 REC, 23 YDS. Darrah 1 REC, 20 YDS, Williamson 1 REC, 7 YDS. Holman 1 REC, 2 YDS, 1 TD.