Mustangs Thunder Past G'wood

By Lew
September 11, 2004

By RON HOWELL/The Reporter Sports Editor
GREENWOOD -- Although held on a football field, Friday's non-district shootout between Class 3A rivals Sweetwater and Midland Greenwood turned into a high school track meet over the last two quarters.

And the Mustangs proved to have the fastest hosses.

Sweetwater's explosiveness and speed had a lot to do with its 383 yards of offense, including 303 rushing, in a wild 52-25 victory over the Rangers.

Consider this: the Mustangs (2-1) had four scoring plays in the game of 46 yards are more, and they came from four (actually five) different players.

Sweetwater completed just two passes in the game, but one was a 64-yard strike from quarterback Jeremy Thompson to Michael Williams for its initial touchdown in the first quarter.

The real fun came in the second half, beginning with a 65-yard run by Skye Green which upped Sweetwater's lead to 32-12 in the third period.

Then Joseph Banyard -- who also had a 24-yard scoring run which got the second-half thea-trics underway -- intercepted a Greenwood pass and returned it 62 yards in the fourth quarter to up the Mustangs' advantage to 45-18.

Sweetwater (2-1), which ended a three game losing streak to Greenwood by winning for the first time since 2001, added a final score when reserve running back Matt Miles broke off a 46-yard run with 5:56 to play.

In all, the Mustangs and Rangers combined for 54 points -- or eight touchdowns, if you pre-fer -- in the second half.

"He came out of shoot No. 3," joked head coach Kent Jackson about Miles, whose season was delayed because of a rodeo-related injury. "We're just fortu-nate to have (Matt) play."

And fortunate to have all that game breaking speed which allowed Sweetwater to finally pull away from Greenwood (0-2).

It began when Thompson hit Williams with the 64-yard pass late in the first period to break the ice and give the Mustangs a 7-0 lead following Parker Mor-row's extra point. Williams, a member the past two years of Sweetwater's state medal winning track relay teams along with Thompson, had gotten almost five yards behind his defender before catching Thompson's throw around the 30 and racing to the end zone.

Sweetwater drove to Greenwood's 13 on its next series before settling for a 30-yard field goal by Morrow to make it 10-0. Greenwood responded with a quick scoring drive to cut the lead to 10-6, but it looked as if Sweetwater would score again on its next possession after a long kickoff return by Kendal Carrillo. However, all the Mustangs wound up with was a 41-yard field goal attempt by Morrow that just came up short.

Carrillo made up for it the next time Sweetwater had the ball, though, as he scored on a 15 yard run with 1:22 left in the first half. Morrow's second PAT made it 17-6 at halftime.

A big defensive play by Banyard helped set the early tone for the second half. Greenwood was at Sweetwater's 35 after re covering a fumble, but Banyard sacked quarterback Colton Wilber on fourth down to end the threat and give the ball back to the Mustangs.

Banyard then capped Sweet-water's seven play drive when he scored on a 24 yard run to make it 24-6 with 6:49 left in the third quarter.

At that point, the teams started to trade touchdowns as the game turned into an offensive barnburner the rest of the way.

Taylor Himbury, who scored all four of Greenwood's touchdowns, narrowed the Sweetwater lead to 24-12 with a 3-yard run. But after regaining possession, the Mustangs found the end zone immediately as Green took a handoff and scored on a 65-yard sweep play down the left sideline. Green also tacked on a two-point conversion run to make it 32-12.

The Rangers answered those fireworks by getting a 61-yard kick return from Justin Sebree, who was finally brought down at Sweetwater's 23. Three plays later, Himbury hit paydirt on a 2-yard run. Wilber's two-point conversion run was short, and Greenwood trailed 32-18 with 2:06 left in the third period.

But the Mustangs finally put the Rangers away in the fourth quarter, which began with a 47-yard run by Banyard to set up Sweetwater with first-and-goal at Greenwood's 5-yard line.

From the 1, Carrillo scored his second TD to increase the lead to 38-18.

Greenwood got a break on its next series, moving into Sweetwater territory when a pass that bounced off a Mustang defender was caught by Lane Flowers for a 20-yard gain.

But Banyard came up huge again, as he picked off a short fourth down pass over the middle and returned it 62 yards for a touchdown, giving Sweetwater a commanding 45-18 lead.

After Miles' TD, Greenwood came back to score a meaningless touchdown with 1:39 to play on yet another short run by Himbury.

Sweetwater will try to make it three wins in a row this Friday when it entertains Andrews at 7:30 p.m.

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