Published: September 09, 2006 02:07 am      

Mistakes make it easy for Mustangs

VEEDERSBURG, IND. — Fountain Central took advantage of three early Covington mistakes to put their game with the Trojans out of reach.

In a 68-3 win, the Mustangs scored all of their points before the Trojans got a late field goal to avoid the shutout.

Things started out badly for Covington according to their head coach, Corey Kiger, and then only got worse.

Fountain Central kicked off to open the game and the Trojan receiver, who Kiger said should have let the ball go into the end zone, grabbed the ball, tripped and fell to the turf on the four-yard line.

Two plays later, Covington fumbled and Bud Endicott recovered for the Mustangs.

Fountain Central scored a couple of plays later when quarterback Rodney Carver ran around the right side of his offensive line for the touchdown.

Covington fielded the next kickoff cleanly, but were unable to move the ball and were forced to punt. Eric Crowder blocked it and the Mustangs recovered on the Trojan six.

Once again, it took two plays — both runs by Crowder — for Fountain Central to score.

Covington could not move on their third possession and punted. The Mustangs fumbled, but the Trojans fumbled right back. Fountain Central took their usual two plays to score to make it 21-0.

“We had a rough past few days as a team,” said Kiger, whose grandmother had died earlier in the week causing him to miss and alter practice times. “We came out okay, but those three quick mistakes caused us to hang our heads and they [Fountain Central] just took over.”

Curt Trout, the Mustang head coach, could find little fault with his team, say they had come out fired up and ready to play. One drive in the second quarter was emblematic of the play of his team.

The Mustangs appeared to score a touchdown when Cap Quirk returned a punt over 80 yards, but the run was negated due to three penalties. As a result, the officials moved the ball back to the Fountain Central five-yard line.

In a 15-play drive that took almost nine minutes, the Mustangs kept the ball on the ground with Crowder carrying on 10 of the plays. The team marched down the field for a touchdown that made the score 35-0.

“That was a drive you can really appreciate,” said Trout. “We made a mistake and started way back. We moved the ball right down the field — I didn’t realize it was from the five, but I knew it was a long drive — and used up a lot of time. That’s just what you want.”

On the first eight Mustangs touchdowns, Brett Sheldon kicked the extra point. On the final two, he remained on the bench and Fountain Central was unable to convert the extra point tries either kicking or with a fake kick and pass.

The Trojans got their only score with 1:17 left in the game when Josh Crain kicked a 27-yard field goal to make the final score 68-3.