Assistant Editor Jerry Lindsey wrote this report and took the photos.
A cool evening followed a day of excitement, as Homecoming activities filled the town on the 2022 Homecoming celebration. A large crowd filled the stands and lined the railings, anticipating seeing the Mustangs capture their third win in a row. They left E. M. “Bud” Cole field a bit disappointed. Their Mustangs fell to a winless Sherrard Tiger Football team, by a score of 26-22 on Friday, September 23, 2022.
Sherrard opened the scoring late in the first quarter, when Quarterback Holland Anderson connected with Izaac Novitske for a 27-yard touchdown. The Mustangs responded with a ten-play drive that ended with a failed fourth down attempt, on the Tigers’ six-yard line as the quarter clock expired.
The Tigers quickly marched downfield with two 30-yard gains by Carter Brown, before the drive was stopped when Chase Newman intercepted a Tiger pass on the 5-yard line and returned it to the Morrison 40-yard line. On the first Mustang snap, Logan Baker found a hole off of left tackle. He dropped the football–that fortunately bounced straight up–and, he recovered it and scampered 60 yards for a Mustang score, to tie the game at 6-6. Both offenses struggled the remainder of the second quarter, entering the half in a tie, with both teams searching for an offensive answer.
The ground game in the first half saw the Mustang offense collect 190 yards to the Tiger’s 83 yards. That forced a game plan change for Sherrard in the second half, as 52% of the plays were passes and their ground yardage only totaled 28 yards. The Tigers found the end zone on their second possession of the second half, with a 24-yard completion from Anderson to Kyler Schmidt. The extra point attempt failed, but the Tigers led 12-6 with 6:02 left in the quarter. A Mustang drive that started on their 33-yard line ended in a score, when Brady Anderson completed two 20-yard end runs, to tie the score at 12-12 with 3:08 remaining in the third quarter. Anderson added two points with the extra point conversion to create a Mustang advantage of 14-12 entering the final quarter.
Sherrard continued their third quarter possession into the fourth and found the end zone on a 1-yard dive play by Novitske. They added two points with a pass from Anderson to Brown, to up the score to 20-14. The Mustangs lit the scoreboard again following a Chase Newman fumble recovery, that gave Morrison the ball on the 21-yard line with only 5:53 left in the game. Four plays later Logan Baker crossed the end line from 11 yards out to tie the game at 20 each. Baker broke the tie with the extra point conversion, giving the Mustangs a 22-20 lead with 4:04 remaining. On the ensuing Tiger’s possession, they marched 60 yards, ignited by a 30-yard scamper by Brown, before Anderson connected for a 6-yard touchdown to Brown, with only 1:21 remaining in the game. The extra point pass attempt was denied. The Mustangs and the crowd was silent.
With one timeout remaining, the Mustangs went to the air. Quarterback Danny Mouw connected with Baker and Anderson to earn a first down, before finding Newman open for a 43-yard completion to the 17-yard line, with time fading fast. Three incomplete passes ended the threat. Time expired with the ball lying on the Sherrard 20-yard line, and the scoreboard glared the final score of Sherrard 26, Morrison 22.