Mustangs take down Roundup Panthers 41-0

The Malta Mustangs Football team bounced back from their week one loss to Huntley Project with a dominant 41-0 win over the Roundup Panthers on Friday, September 2, in Roundup.

"We learned a lot of lessons from game one versus Huntley Project," Malta Head Coach Nick Oxarart told the PCN. "We need to put laser focus on each play and play with a lower pad level. We made a lot of mistakes that we were able to clean up for game two."

The Mustangs will head to Red Lodge to face the Rams. The last time that the teams met was in November of 2019, when the Rams handed Malta a 35-6 loss in the quarterfinals of the playoffs that year.

Coach Oxarart talked about this year's version of Red Lodge, and what the Mustangs know of them so far.

We know they are a well-coached team that always has a lot of good athletes," Coach Oxarart said. "They have a tall quarterback (Thomas Buchanan) that can sling the football. He has big receivers that he can get the ball to. They really like to spread the field with their formation. They have a speedster (Landen Tomlin) that they like to get the ball to and let him run in open space. They present a lot of challenges for our defense as we will have to get lined up to many different formations. They have a big offensive line that can block well, so they have a solid run game too."

Malta will also have their hands full on their offensive possessions.

"They are really active with their linebackers on defense and like to blitz," Coach Oxarart said. "We will have a lot to work on in practice this week to get ready for an outstanding opponent."

The varsity game starts at 7 p.m. on Friday, while the JV team is slated to face their Red Lodge counterpart at 10 a.m. on Saturday, September 10.

In their win over Roundup, Malta scored all of their points in the first half of the game.

Senior running back Camryn Mears scored the first two touchdowns. He had a seven yard score with 10:04 to go in the first quarter, and a five yard run with 5:21 left in the quarter. Malta missed the point after kick after both touchdowns.

Kyle Darrington scored next on a 24 yard run with 1:30 left in the first quarter. Treyton Wilke converted the 2-point conversion.

Sophomore Stockton Oxarart threw for two touchdowns in the second quarter, a 32 yard connection to Spencer Gibbs (2-pt conversion good on a Mears run) and a 10 yard pass to Eli Hanson (kick after by Colton Mears was good).

Darrington scored a defensive touchdown after intercepting a pass and running it back 48 yards.

Coach Oxarart was asked about the team's win.

"The key to our win was having a good week of practice and fixing some mistakes we were making in game one," Coach Oxarart said. "We executed our plays much better. Our players came ready to play and had a fast start which gave us the early momentum which is key to winning on the road. We had great team effort and it was a team victory."