The Mount Vernon freshman team struck out with an early lead but lost 32-20 against Mount Pleasant on Friday, Sept. 27.
Before the game, the team with a roster of freshmen players was not confident. “I was a little nervous,” quarterback Easton Reasland said. “Many of their kids were sophomores and some played on varsity.”
But once the game started the nerves subsided and the Mustangs connected on multiple deep passes from Reasland.
In the second quarter, the Stangs were up largely due to the efforts of the defense, who gave up zero scores in the first two quarters. Freshman Kolter Flockhart notably had a great game with several quarterback pressures and tackles. At the same time, freshman Teddy Bonewald was doing great on both sides of the ball, as a defensive back breaking up lots of passes and as a receiver, making a long ball touchdown.
At the start of the second half, the freshman team was confident. They realized they could win after some early scores and the Mustang defense kept the Panthers off the scoreboard. Reasland said they realized that Mount Pleasant wasn’t actually that good for having varsity players on it, and now they believed they could win. The quarterback pushed down nervous energy, remembering past games they had been up at half and somehow lost.
Kicker Calvin Crawford also thought the same. “Before the second half I was thinking that we were going to win,” he said. “But I also had a bad feeling because, in the past games, we would start losing in the second half.”
By the end of the 4th quarter, the Panthers had fought back into the lead.“Around third, fourth quarter some of our slip-ups were on special teams,” said kicker Jack Carnes. “Some of the flags that were thrown also messed us up.”
At the end of the game, some MV players were still proud of their performance even though the final score registered a loss. The freshman team was able to score the ball and made crucial stops against a team with varsity players on its roster.
The Mount Vernon Freshman football team is headed to Davenport on Oc.t 4, to take on the Assumption Knights (1-4) in the Jack and Pat Bush Stadium.
