The McCracken County Mustangs stood their ground defensively Friday night and made their mark regularly on offense, taking down Union County 43-7.
While the Mustangs have allowed their opponents plenty of trips to the end zone so far this season, Week 5 was a different story. Multiple defensive stops, including forced fumbles, turnovers on downs and a pick-6, provided easy access to the end zone for the Mustangs.
“We challenged our guys all week,” McCracken County head coach Tyler Brooks said. “When we do our job, we have a good defense. And they did a good job all night of bringing the physicality and doing their job and we saw tonight how that can transpire for us.”
Those big defensive stops came when Collin Salin poked the ball out with his helmet on a Union County drive midway through the second, with another fumble forced on the Braves next possession. Add a turnover on downs early in the first, giving the Mustangs field position within the red zone, and a pick-6 later on, and the defense was doing it all.
And, while the defense was making way for the offense to do its thing, the Mustangs proved just how deep they were on the offensive side of the ball. Throughout their 43 points, a total of five different Mustangs found the end zone.
Conterrion Turner would get the ball rolling when Cole Presswood found him for an 80-yard bomb for the Mustangs opening play of the game. From there it was steady progress with Brently Gregory and Jude Lanier making impressive plays for the early 22-0 first quarter score.
“We are two or three deep in a lot of spots,” Brooks said. “It’s nice to have so many guys that can score the ball for us and Cole does a good job of orchestrating it all for us.”
One guy who adds another piece to the Mustangs’ depth is senior Weston Buckhalter. Mainly a baseball guy, Buckhalter decided to get back into football just this week and made an immediate impact in his debut.
With a comfortable 36-0 lead, Buckhalter snagged an interception and ran it with nothing but wide-open field for a pick-6.
“Weston Buckhalter joined us this week after mainly playing baseball and we were able to get him in the fold right away,” Brooks said.
“I’m feeling pretty good. It feels kinda surreal right now. I don’t really know what’s happening half the time,” Buckhalter joked. “I played football before, so this is nothing I haven’t done before. It’s just my senior year and I wanted to get out here and have fun. I’ve wanted to all throughout high school, but I’ve put baseball first. It was just fun to get out here tonight with the team and get the win.”
Before Weston put up what would be the final score of the night, Jakari Matchem would make it a 29-0 score in the second quarter and Turner would add his second score of the night at the 4:59 mark in the second quarter to go up 36-0, leading to some of the reserves getting action in the second half.
Union wouldn’t leave Paducah empty-handed. Despite being held scoreless for much of the night, Grayson Moore would put the Braves on the board with a short 5-yard reception early in the fourth.
With the win, the Mustangs improve to 3-2 on the year and will turn their attention to the 5-0 Murray Tigers next week. As for Union, they fall to 1-4 on the year and will travel to Hancock County next Friday night.