Adjustments lead Mathews over Tigers
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NEWTON FALLS -- After last week's defeat at the hands of Columbiana, the Mathews Mustangs had to take inventory. Their Week 3 opponent, Newton Falls, scored at least 35 points in each of its first two games and dominated in each.
The Mustangs had their work cut out for them. But a bruising run game paired with a great defensive effort sparked Mathews as it handed the Tigers their first loss of the season, downing Newton Falls, 28-7.
"We told our guys coming in this week that they hadn't seen a lot of adversity yet. They outscored everybody by a ton, and we figured if we could get a good couple stops on defense, a little bit of adversity on their side, we'd be able to take this," Mustangs coach Mat Polta said. "I think our game plan worked out pretty good."
After not liking the offense against Columbiana, Polta took things back to basics. That led to the trio of Caden Brubaker, Mason Eagle and Londyn Deak taking over the game.
"We made a lot of adjustments after last week. We did not do well against Columbiana," Polta said. "We didn't do well with what we do, so we kind of went back to basics. We got a back under center, pounding the ball. Getting Deak the ball, getting Eagle the ball, and we spread it around. Then Caden throws his punches in there as well."
Brubaker did just that. The junior is a hard kid to bring down. Brubaker scored the team's first two touchdowns in the first quarter on the ground, running in from 3 and 28 yards respectively.
The Tigers responded after the second score, with quarterback Chase Clonch connecting with senior receiver Phil Davis on a 5-yard pass.
Containing Clonch isn't an easy feat, but Mathews was able to limit him.
"We've got a heck of a lot of good players," Polta said. "Our middle linebackers are fantastic, outside linebackers are fantastic. Just all across the board. Our defensive line, corner, safeties, everybody. The goal was to keep (Clonch) hemmed in, and minus a couple big runs from him, we did that. That was our goal, and we did it well."
Brubaker struck once again before halftime, however, as the Mustangs chewed through the clock on the ground, culminating in a 10-yard rush by Brubaker to extend the team's lead back to 14 points.
Mathews continued its ground-and-pound approach in the second half, spending a large chunk of the third quarter moving down the field. The drive culminated in Deak forcing his way through the trenches for a 2-yard score and a 28-7 advantage for the Mustangs after the extra point.
Mathews sits at 2-1 on the season, and Polta hopes the win gives the group some momentum as they enter the league schedule.
"The confidence is being built every week," he said. "Last week was a tough loss, but we gained a lot of confidence in our defense. Week 1 we didn't do as well defensively, last week we did well on defense, today we put it all together. Just want to keep that ball rolling on both sides of the ball, doing what we're supposed to be doing."
Mathews has its first league game of the season next week as they host Pymatuning Valley in what will be the team's biggest test yet.
Newton Falls (2-1) also opens up its league schedule in Week 4 with a showdown against Ravenna Southeast.
Losing the home opener left a bad taste in the Tigers' mouth. One that coach Josh Goss hopes they can get rid of soon.
"This was a tough pill to swallow. We knew we were going to be in a dogfight coming into this game. Mathews is a really good football team, but I challenged my guys early on in the summer, and I asked them, 'What are you going to do in adversity strikes? How are you going to handle it as a man?' Because the older you get, and the more you go through life, the more adversity that you're going to have to face, and you face it many times on the football field. That's one of the greatest beauties of football, is it teaches so much character and it brings you together with people.
"It's not just about Friday nights. It's about a whole community. When you come out here on Friday, and the whole community's out here, and you're making mistakes, and things aren't going your way, the spotlight's on you. I didn't think we handled adversity real well tonight. I saw a lot of us go back to who Newton Falls was last year when we got down, that 0-10 campaign. That's not the message I want this community to know. That's not the message I want my team to know. We are going to handle adversity well. We're going to have to have a great week of practice. We're going to have to be excited at practice, and we're going to have to really scout Southeast going into next week because (Pirates coach) Pat Youel always has a tough, chippy football team. They're coming into our house, and they're going to want to spoil our second home game, so we're going to have to have a high intensity practice, and we're going to have to handle adversity well."