After coming off a heartbreaking 9-0 loss to the Waynesboro Indians last week, the New Oxford Colonials played host to their longtime rivals, the Southwestern Mustangs. The Mustangs are also coming off a tough loss to the defending state champions from Central Dauphin. Surprisingly both teams had a 1-2 record coming into this week’s game, and both were looking to get back to the .500 mark. The Colonials were 21-point underdogs coming into the match up, but still had hope that they could pull the upset, too bad the Mustangs had other ideas.
The Mustangs did not take long to jump out ahead of the Colonials, scoring within the first three minutes of the game on a 32-yard TD pass from quarterback Mike Duffy to Brady Shultz. Later in the quarter, Southwest running back Dakotah Moses added another touchdown from four yards out to extend the Mustangs lead to 13-0 at the end of the first quarter. Thirteen seconds into the second quarter, Southwestern added another touchdown, this time running back Dillon Thomas ran one in from 14 yards to brings Southwestern’s lead to 19-0 at the half. Though the Colonials didn’t score in the half, they ran a couple of really well executed fake punt plays, that got the Colonials much needed first downs, but one was negated by a holding penalty.
Coming out of the half, New Oxford was looking for something, just anything to move the ball against the tough Southwestern defense. Southwestern stood strong forcing back-to-back defensive touchdowns early in the quarter, one a fumble recovery in the end zone, the other a 62-yard pick six. A few minutes later, Dillon Thomas had his second rushing touchdown of the night on a three yard run extending the Mustang lead to 39-0. The Mustangs were not done yet. They added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter with their second team offense now on the field, a 7-yard run by back-up quarterback Ryan Lane, and then a 46-yard TD pass from Lane to Brendan Fahs. The final score ended up being Southwestern 52, New Oxford 0. This is the third time the Colonials have been shut out this season in four weeks, only scoring in their 56-19 blowout of James Buchanan.
The Colonials were able to put up only 91 total yards of offense, while the Mustangs had almost 500 yards. Another big factor was the turnover margin. Southwest forced four Colonial turnovers, while New Oxford had none. Colonial starting quarterback Anthony Lippy also went 0-8 passing, before being benched in the second half, while his back-up Jordan Gardner went 1-3 passing for 11 yards. Running back Wesley Beans led the Colonial rushing attack with 49 yards.
While falling to 1-3, the Colonials will travel to take on the surprisingly struggling Dallastown Wildcats who are also 1-3, but all their losses have been very close, so it will remain a challenge for the young Colonials. The New Oxford offense needs to figure out how to better move the ball sooner rather than later, before opening division play at home in two weeks against the Bobcats of Northeastern, and then following up by playing Kennard-Dale, Susquehannock, Dover, and West York.
