Stanton wins big over GACC in regular season finale

 

The Stanton Football Team routed GACC 60-22 at home in Friday night's regular season finale.

The Mustangs led 24-0 at the end of the 1st quarter, and 46-0 at halftime.

The Bluejays outscored Stanton 14-8 in the 3rd quarter to make it a 54-14 game at the end of three.

GACC won the 4th quarter 8-6.

Sutton Pohlman had 93 yards rushing on 11 carries, and scored three times. Damien Erickson ran the ball 8 times for 79 yards and scored once. Parker Krusemark had 9 carries for 50 yards.

Gage Tighe made 7 tackles.

Stanton had 369 yards of total offense, including 346 on the ground.

The defense gave up 119 yards of total offense, including 88 rushing.

Great win for the Mustangs, who are District Champs.

Head Coach David Stoddard says his team was ready for the Bluejays. "The team, who has worked hard all season long, had a great week of practice leading up to the game. We we able to get stops on defense early and caused two turnovers which led to scoring drives. We were very happy with the preparation leading up to the game and the execution throughout the game."

Stoddard adds winning the District is a huge deal. "Winning a district title was one of goals of the team this year. It is a tremendous accomplishment to win such a competitive district. The players work very hard all year round and we have such great parent/community support, so winning the district for everyone involved is a huge honor."

Stanton (6-1) plays host to Exeter-Milligan/Friend (4-3) in the first round of the playoffs Thursday night.

EMF won 38-28 at home over Heartland two weeks ago.

Exeter-Milligan/Friend's game against Southern in the regular season finale was cancelled.

So it will be interesting to see how EMF comes out Thursday night.

Stoddard says they are a team on the rise. "Exeter-Milligan/Friend is a very good young football team. They are well coached and do a lot of good things on offense and defense. We need to continue to be locked in, in our preparation and have another great week of practice."

Stanton has a couple of things working in their favor here.

They're a perennial 11-man team usually and are veteran laden.

Pohlman and Tighe in particular have had great seasons for the Mustangs.

Stoddard says both are explosive backs aided by the offensive line. "Sutton Pohlman and Gage Tighe have a great work ethic and that carries over to the field. They have the ability to run with power and both have good speed to break the long run. They would be the first to give credit to the guys up front :Mason Bruggeman, Jordan Gartner, Trey Elbert, Kamden Dusatko, and Matt Reese do such a great job blocking and opening up holes."

I feel the running game will be key once again for the Mustangs come Thursday night.

Stanton has to run wild on EMF and stuff their run game.

Kickoff is set for 6:00 p.m. in Stanton.