Mustang drops heartbreaker to Stillwater

Coach Lee Blankenship isn’t one to normally accept moral losses.

What the scoreboard says at the end of the night is who determines the winner and loser.

But Blankenship diverted from that path after Mustang’s trip to Stillwater. Up until the final seconds, the Broncos looked like they were going to pick-up their second victory of the season, but it was the Pioneers who pulled out the 32-28 win.

“It stinks to get beat on that scoreboard, but I was proud of our kids,” Blankenship said. “Our kids battled the whole game, and the ball just didn’t bounce our way right there at the end.”

With 9:30 left in the game, Mustang trailed 25-21. They had just allowed the Pioneers to drive 70 yards and to take the lead on a touchdown pass from quarterback Gage Gundy to Mason Butler.

The Broncos responded with a time-consuming drive that took them all the way down to Stillwater’s one-yard line. However, after Mustang High School was stuffed on a couple of run attempts and quarterback Tristen Russell was sacked, a holding penalty took them back even farther. Backed up to the 22-yard line on fourth down, Mustang had to get to the endzone, or the game was essentially over. This time, Russell threw to tight end Andre Dollar in the back of the endzone for the touchdown. Dollar’s second TD of the night put the Broncos back in front 28-25.

“We had been working against scout team all week knowing what their defense was going to do, knowing what that safety was going t do,” Dollar said. “I had full faith in my offensive line, full faith in my quarterback that he saw what I saw, and we would both make the right read.”

Stillwater was left with just 3:16 on the clock when they got the ball on their own 20-yard line.

After being bludgeoned by the Pioneers run game all night, Mustang finally had Stillwater in a must-pass situation. The Pioneers were unable to get deep on the MHS secondary and they found themselves with a fourth down and five on their own 40-yard line. One more stop and the game would be over.

That is when Gundy hit a streaking Heston Thompson down the middle of the field. His defender fell as Thompson was making the catch and the sophomore sprinted into the endzone to put the Pioneers up by four points with 49 seconds remaining on the game.

Mustang was unable to do anything with its Hail Mary pass attempts in the final seconds to end the night.

“It’s a good football team right over there and we had them,” Blankenship said of Stillwater. “We gave it away right there at the end. But I like what coach Harper said. Everyone is going to remember one play and that being the one we gave up in the end. But we had several things. We had a turnover, a punt blocked that led to a score. We are just a couple of little bitty things away from being really good. I think we are one of the better teams in the state of Oklahoma because we just stood toe-toe with a team that I know is.”

The Broncos racked up 434 total yards. That included 220 yards rushing. Jay Bedford led the charge with 17 carries for 62 yards.

Russell ended the night throwing for 214 yards and three touchdowns on 14 of 18 passing. The junior signal caller added another 54 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Senior Cameron Broadus was Mustang’s leading receiver with four catches for 67 yards. Dollar and Jacobe Johnson combined for three touchdowns.

The Broncos outgained the Pioneers by 38 yards. But the Pioneers average 5 yards a carry as it rolled up 208 yards rushing.

But it was the small mistakes that Blankenship said cost his team the win in the end.

“We talk about it every day. It’s one of our core values,” Blankenship said. “Discipline in the details. Sometimes it’s just something like that, and them seeing it, that it can be the difference in the game. We are going to continue to harp on it, but sometimes it just takes a heartbreaker like this.”