THORNDIKE — In the preseason, Mount View High School football coach Haggie Pratt raved about the many weapons his Mustangs can use on offense. During Saturday afternoon’s season opener, Pratt got to use all of them.
Four players scored a touchdown for Mount View, which jumped out to an early lead on the way to a comfortable 49-12 win over Camden Hills.
With a few starters able to play but dinged up, Pratt made use of that depth in the skill positions early. Six players carried the ball in the first half, as the Mustangs built a 29-point halftime lead.
“We’ve got 10 guys who are really starters. We could go to those guys. A hot day, I think it paid off to have that much depth,” Pratt said.
The option play worked extremely well for Mount View. The Mustangs’ first three touchdowns came on the option, with quarterback Cole Hannan pitching to Gavin Simpson for touchdown runs of 3 and 18 yards, before keeping the ball on a 42-yard touchdown run that gave Mount View a 22-0 lead with three minutes left in the first quarter.
“We just tried to focus on getting the right reads, and everybody came out firing. Everything just worked out for us today,” Hannan, who ran for a team-high 114 yards, all in the first half, and threw a touchdown pass, said.
“That’s our stuff. That’s what we do. We’ve got some pretty good speed on the perimeter,” Pratt said.
Tyler Ripley scored on touchdown runs of 14 and 56 yards for Mount View, and caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Hannan late in the third quarter to push the Mustangs’ lead to 49-6. Ripley finished with 82 yards on five carries. Darrin Cook’s 19-yard touchdown run with 5:11 left in the second quarter gave the Mustangs a 35-6 halftime lead.
A bright spot for the Windjammers was Taylor Crosby, who excelled in Camden Hills’ tightly packed, single wing offense. Crosby carried the ball 34 times for 268 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter on fourth down and 11. Crosby accounted for 96 percent of the Windjammers yards from scrimmage.
“(Crosby’s) a hard runner. They’ll get better with that offense. It’s very deceptive. If they ever master that, they rest of the league is going to be in trouble,” Pratt said.
With the game in running time, Camden Hills scored a late touchdown on a 15-yard catch by Daulton Oakes on a pass from Spencer Johndro.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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