Season Ends for Mustangs

The season came to an end for the Malta Mustangs Football Team last Saturday, October 28, as they fell 40-22 to the Three Forks Wolves, the Southern B's third seed in the 2023 MHSA Class B Football Championship Series.

All Northern B teams were swept in the first round of the playoffs. Glasgow, the north's top seed fell 27-18 to the south's fourth seed, Cut Bank, the north's third seed fell 54-6 to Columbus, the south's second seed, and Conrad, the north's fourth seed los 42-6 to Manhattan, the south's top seed.

Despite still missing several of their original starters due to injury, Malta was able to compete in their loss to Three Forks, going into halftime only down by one score.

Though he was asked about the total of injuries, Coach Oxarart said that he did not want injuries to be an excuse. Instead, he expressed pride in his team.

"Our team battled very hard on Saturday against a good opponent," Coach Oxarart said. "I'm very proud of our efforts. We were able to do a lot of great things but ultimately Three Forks made more plays than we did. We had our opportunities but couldn't quite execute when we needed to. Our offense moved the ball really well but we had a few costly turnovers and weren't able to convert inside the red zone a couple of times. Those mistakes cost us against a good team and we weren't able to overcome them."

He said that he appreciated the efforts of the Mustang seniors this season, and he explained how the younger athletes seeing expanded roles would help the team next season.

"We also had a lot of younger guys step up into large varsity roles after some upperclassmen went down due to injury," Coach Oxarart said. "The experience they gained this year will pay dividends over the next couple of years."

Malta was led by junior quarterback Stockton Oxarart, who completed 14 of 19 throws for 228 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception.

Junior Blaine Downing led the rushing attack with 18 rushed for 91 yards and one touchdown. Junior Treyton Wilke had 11 rushes for 46 yards. Duke Williamson had one rush for 11 yards and Trooper Stiles had one rush for eight yards.

Wilke had four catches for 70 yards and two touchdowns. Dawson Hammond had four catches for 89 yards and Mason Simanton had two catches for 30 yards.

Downing and Simanton had 11 tackles each. Wilke and Hammond each had seven tackles.

Scoring Summary:

Qtr1: none

Qtr2: Colton Hayder 73 yard interception return (Shane Williams run) 11:45 0-8

Blaine Downing 1 yard run (run failed) 6:39 6-8

Williams 35 yard run (Sawyer Anderson run) 6:16 6-16

Treyton Wilke 14 yard pass from Stockton Oxarart (Wilke run) 0:35 14-16

Hayder 84 yard kick return (run failed) 0:18 14-22

Qtr 3: Anderson 5 yard run (run failed) 7:58 14-28

Qtr 4: Anderson 1 yard run (pass failed) 10:49 14-34

Wilke 11 yard pass from Oxarart (Oxarart run) 5:51 22-34

Williams 53 yard run (pass failed) 4:10 22-40