2005 Year in Review

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Mustangs Ready for Challenge

Friday night's bout between your Mustangs and the Bureau Valley Storm looks to highlight a weekend that will provide some shakeups to the conference. With Newman hosting Amboy on Saturday afternoon, the Mustangs look to set up a week nine showdown for the conference championship on their home turf. However, they have bigger foes to tackle and harsher territories to enter. When they take the field in Manlius Friday night, the Mustangs will once again be underdogs, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

The Mustangs look to gain some more respect from those nonbelievers around the area by "upsetting" a ranked foe. The Storm and Mustangs come into to the game as near mirror-images of each other. Both teams bring in 4-0 records including wins at Amboy. Just like the Mustangs, the Storm have a very touted backfield anchored by their quarterback Garrett Barnas. Barnas was the catalyst of the fourth quarter comeback that gave the Storm a victory over Amboy. Barnas has racked up over 500 yards passing and near 200 on the ground.
Morrison will look to counter with their terrific trio of backswho have led a Morrison offense that has run for over 1000 yards already this season. Nick Vandermyde leads that trio with two-100 yard games while Biggs and McBride each have reached the century mark once. Ryan Schisler will take the passing responsibilites for the Mustangs as they look to open up their run game through the air.
Friday night's game looks to be decided in the trenches. Whoever controls the line of scrimmage will most likely take this one. The Mustangs throw out arguably the best middle five in the conference and will look to take care of business. The Mustangs welcome back the services of Shaun Vegter, who will see his first action of the year after playing varsity ball last season. Morrison's talented tackle combo of Chris Scott and Ryan Scott, guards Dustin Vandermyde and Daniel Deter, and center Zach Harridge will join in battle.
Both teams will yield stellar defenses with stars at every position for both teams. Once again the battle of the trenches will provide the success for one team or the other. Morrison's defensive backfield of Sammy Biggs, Austin Rickels, and Ryan Schisler have recorded four interceptions this season including two that stopped the Clippers in the red zone last week. Morrison's linebacker crew of Greg Frickenstein, Zach Harridge, Nick Vandermyde, Nathan Neighbour, Brent Beveroth, and Roman Fernandez hope to confuse and frustrate the Storm all night as well as contain the mobile Barnas. Ryan Scott, Dustin Vandermyde, and Adam Rumfelt will hope to stalemate the Storm front five and disrupt the flow of the Bureau Valley offense.
As in all potentially close games, special teams will also play a huge role for both teams in the field position game as well as converting situational work. Morrison offers one of the best and underused punters in the conference in Ryan Schisler, who if needed will turn the field on the Storm. Ryan Scott put on a show with his kickoffs last week that included a 65-yard touchback and another 55-yarder that pinned the Clippers deep in their territory late in the game. Jorge Hernandez has been a nice addition to the squad and has been 7-10 in extra points this season with two of those misses being blocked. Coverage and containment will come in handy in not allowing momentum swings through special teams errors.
This game has all the makings of a game that will be talked about by its' spectators and participants for years to come. This game will go a long way in the conference race and will be the key game in the area on Friday night. The Mustangs could use all the fan support and noise possible on Friday night. The fans that saw last week's thriller in Amboy were incredibly supportive throughout that game, and I challenge the fans to increase in numbers, volume, and spirit as they jump onboard the Campaign for Champaign as it rolls into its next stop on Friday night.

by rustinl
2005-09-21 22:06:24