WEST ORANGE — Taking advantage of five turnovers by Hamshire-Fannett, the No. 7-ranked West Orange-Stark Mustangs opened up their District 21-3A campaign by dismantling the Longhorns 44-0 at Hooks Stadium Friday night.

The Mustangs (5-0, 1-0) cashed in on five H-F (2-3, 0-1) miscues, including three interceptions of quarterback Dante Smith to nab the victory.

Mustang quarterback Jimmy Salter may have just completed 6-of-18 passes on the night but three of them went for scoring strikes.

The Mustangs limited the Longhorns to 174 yards of total offense to record their 83rd shutout in school history.

Salter finished with 82 yards in the air and had two touchdown passes to J’Marcus Rhodes. Running back Abear Simien led the WO-S ground game with 83 yards on 12 carries. The Mustangs finished with 306 yards, 224 of it coming on the ground.

“It was another shutout for us but we still have plenty of things to correct,” said Mustang coach Cornel Thompson. “We came out really flat to start the game and played with little emotion, we can’t continue to do that.”

Smith completed just 7-of-23 passes for 103 yards. Longhorn receiver Darius Riley had four catches for 59 yards while tailback Jordan Brown had 59 tough yards on 19 carries.

“The defense held them in check most of the night,” said Thompson. “We gave up a few pass plays here and there but we picked off three of them and I thought we were excellent in stopping them on fourth downs.”

The Mustangs struck quick in the third quarter thanks to receiver/defensive back Rhodes.

Rhodes picked off Smith at the WO-S 49 and returned it to the H-F 39 with 10:19 in the third. Scott picked up 18 yards on two tough runs that also included a H-F personal foul and Salter and Rhodes capped it when Salter hit Rhodes with an eight-yard touchdown dart in the right front corner of the end zone to make it 24-0 with 9:22 in the third.

WO-S made it 31-0 in a hurry when Quinton Tezeno picked off a Smith pass and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown with 7:12 in the third.

The Mustangs upped the margin to 38-0 with a seven-play, 54-yard drive with Salter and Rhodes hooking up on another touchdown pass, that one from seven yards out with 2:04 in the third.

Salter made it 44-0 with a 13-yard keeper around the right end to wrap up a 41-yard drive with 9:39 left in the game.

After a sluggish first quarter, the Mustang offense put together 17 points in the second period.

After a bad punt snap, the Mustangs took over at the H-F 21 with 9:02 left in the half.

Four plays later, Salter took a quarterback draw up the middle for an eight-yard touchdown scamper. Kicker Rodrikson Cano nailed the extra point to make it 10-0 with 6:57 left.

The Mustangs scored on a big play to go up 17-0, driving 54 yards in five plays to paydirt. Facing a fourth-and-7 from the Longhorn 36, Salter hit speedster Tezeno on a perfect pass across the deep middle and Tezeno took it in for the score.

It looked as if the Mustangs had another score with 2:05 left after Salter hit Rhodes on a 47-yard touchdown strike over the middle but it was called back due to holding.

“We’re still doing some silly things that are setting us back,” said Thompson. “We’ve got to get rid of those penalties that kill big plays. Also, we missed some open receivers tonight and we also had several balls that were dropped. We got a win tonight but I want to see us continue to get better as a football team.”

H-F got all the way to the WO-S 32 on their first drive of the game but were held back.

The Longhorns had another opportunity with three minutes left in the first when Tezeno fumbled the ball over to H-F’s Jake Jannise at the WO-S 39. They came away empty-handed again when Jose Alvarado missed a 34-yard field goal.

The Mustangs got on the board early in the second period after they marched from their own 20 all the way to the H-F 17 in 14 plays. Cano capped it with a 34-yard field-goal boot with 11:14 in the half.

Mustang linebacker Daniel Woodson picked off Smith at the H-F 47 with 2:05 left in the half.

The Mustangs outgained H-F 151-118 in the first 24 minutes.

Salter and Smith both completed 4-of-13 passes with Salter throwing for 67 yards and Smith 67.

John Scott led the WO-S ground game in the half, going for 31 yards on five carries. Brown had 39 yards on nine carries for H-F.

The Mustangs will head to Sour Lake next week to take on the Hardin-Jefferson Hawks, who had their bye week this week.





WO-S 44

H-F 0



WO-S    0    17    21  6— 44

H-F        0     0     0    0 — 0



Scoring summary

WO-S: Rodrikson Cano 34 field goal.

WO-S: Jimmy Salter 8 run. Cano kick.

WO-S: Quinton Tezeno 36 pass from Salter. Cano kick.

WO-S: J’Marcus Rhodes 8 pass from Salter. Cano kick.

WO-S: Tezeno 25 interception return. Cano kick.

WO-S: Rhodes 7 pass from Salter. Cano kick.

WO-S: Salter 13 run. Kick failed.





———

                              WO-S             H-F

First downs             21                  10

Rushes-yards       41-224          34-71

Passing                   82                 103

Comp-Att-Int         6-18-0          7-23-3

Fumbles-Lost         2-2                2-2

Penalties-yards     6-45               6-63



INDIVIDUAL STATS

Rushing: WO-S, Jimmy Salter 13-18, Maurice Morris 1-10, Abear Simien 12-83, John Scott 7-49, J’Marcus Rhodes 1-12, Kane Tezeno 5-24, Quinton Tezeno 1-28 Tremaine Anderson 1-0; H-F, Jordan Brown 19-59, Dante Smith 12-22, Blake Hicks 1-1, Tanner Williamson 1-3, Team 1-(-14).

Passing: WO-S, Jimmy Salter, 6-18-0 82; H-F, Dante Smith, 7-23-3 103.

Receiving: WO-S, Dre Spencer 2-29, Quinton Tezeno 1-36, Ra’shon McDonald 1-2, J’Marcus Rhodes 2-15; H-F, Darius Riley4-59, Travis Appling 2-34, Cedric Antwine 1-10.