Mustangs’ win over Muhls no Small feat
2024 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Cameron Small ran wild in wins the past two weeks but the Muhlenberg tailback met a little more – no, make that a lot more — resistance Sunday afternoon when he stepped on the field at Gov. Mifflin.
The Mustangs were well-prepared for the Lancaster-Lebanon League’s top rusher and pinned him down, limiting him to a season-low 22 yards in a one-sided 41-6 Section 2 victory at Mifflin Stadium.
“They won the box today, period,” said Muhlenberg coach Rob Flowers, who saw his team held to a fraction of its usual rushing total. “They won the box on their defensive side; they won the box on their offensive side.”
Mifflin fullback Grady Garner was running downhill as usual and picked up 165 yards and a pair of scores.
For Small, it was an uphill battle every inch of the way. He had no run longer than 6 yards and never found a crease to run through. He averaged 8.4 yards per carry through the first four games; Sunday he averaged less than 2 yards per carry.
“(The plan) was just to clog up the gaps and not let him get outside,” said Mifflin tackle Ismael Vargas, “because once he gets outside he can take it out. Our outside linebackers contained pretty well and we stopped him.”
Vargas, defensive end Bryce Tully, linebacker Dan Bonfadini and their defensive teammates gave Small no running room and no escape routes.
“Right from the start, they couldn’t move the ball on us at all,” said Tully.
“We knew we had to keep two linebackers in the box over the guards all day, even when they came out in their spread stuff,” said Mifflin coach Nick Morrissey. “If there’s on gap in there he’s gonna take it and he’s gonna be gone.
“It came down to our defensive line being able to sustain. We had to play a lot of man coverage behind it because we knew we had to load the box up to stop him.”
The Muhls (1-1, 3-2) had only two first downs in the opening half, the second coming when Michael Miller took a screen pass 56 yards up the left sideline for a score in the final minute.
Other than that the Mustangs (1-1, 3-2) gave up practically nothing. The Muhls, who were averaging 321 rushing yards per game, finished with 50 on 19 rushes.
“Physically, they beat us to the point of attack and handled us,” Flowers said. “That goes back to the strength deficit that we have.”
Vargas, the 5-6, 335-pound space-eater, doesn’t lack for strength. He’s a weight room monster and the Mustangs’ strongest player. He proved impossible to move or block and was there waiting for Small. Vargas recorded a game-high nine tackles, two for loss.
Cornerback Travis Jenkins had five tackles and broke up a pass in the end zone. Tully had six tackles.
All-League defensive back Reese Hohl broke up a pass in the red zone and intercepted a pass in the end zone to snuff out a scoring threat after the Muhls had moved to the 5.
“I think we did really good,” Tully said of his defense. “We executed well. We didn’t want to come out here and underestimate them, so we took every single player on their team seriously.”
When things are going well for the Mustangs they control the game with a grinding running attack; that was the case Sunday.
Garner set up Mifflin’s first score with a 34-yard run to the 15; he crashed over from the 2 a few plays later for a 6-0 lead late in the first quarter. That 73-yard drive was a tone-setter.
“Coach ‘Vec’ (Mick Vecchio, the Offensive Coordinator) said they gave us exactly what we wanted,” Garner said, “and we just took it. We were game-planning (to run) ‘52’ (and) ‘53’ (the fullback dive); it was there all day. The O-line was looking great as they have all year. We’ve been riding them.”
With Muhlenberg’s defense sucked in by Garner’s line plunges the Mustangs caught them on a quick pop to slot back Travis Jenkins, who snuck out of the backfield undetected and went 64 yards for a score. Garner’s conversion run made it 14-0 on the first play of the second quarter.
The lead grew to 21-0 when quarterback Javien Pletz scored from the 1.
The Mustangs went up 27-0 in the final minute of the first half when Pletz found Hohl uncovered in the right corner of the end zone with a 7-yard pass.
Pletz made a nifty pull on a fullback dive and took it around left end from the 5 to give the Mustangs a 41-6 lead on the final play of the third quarter, starting the running clock.
Mifflin finished with 345 rushing yards. Lebron Leaf went for 58 on four carries. Hohl ran for 16 yards on his only carry; Jenkins ran for 11 on his lone carry. Pletz scored a pair of TDs.
“Mifflin football,” Morrissey said. “We did our thing. We grinded it out up front. We actually spread the ball out a lot more than we have the past couple of weeks. Javien did a heckuva job on the play-action stuff when we needed it on second-and-short and third-and-mediums.”
The win was the 21st straight for the Mustangs over their long-time rivals. The Muhls have not won in the series since 2003; they haven’t taken a league game from the Mustangs since 1975.
“Mentally, we’ve got to get over this Gov. Mifflin hurdle,” Flowers said, “the mindset of it. I know for a fact that we can be more competitive than we were today.”
The game was postponed from Friday, when the Muhlenberg school district learned of the threat of gun violence.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Gov. Mifflin | 6 | 21 | 14 | 0 | 41 |
| Muhlenberg | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Gov. Mifflin | Garner, 2 run (kick failed) | 3:47 |
| 2 | Gov. Mifflin | Jenkins, 64 pass from Pletz (Garner run) | 11:49 |
| 2 | Gov. Mifflin | Pletz, 1 run (Jenkins kick) | 3:27 |
| 2 | Gov. Mifflin | Hohl, 7 pass from Pletz (kick failed) | 0:03 |
| 2 | Muhlenberg | Miller, 56 pass from Baez (run failed) | 14.8 |
| 3 | Gov. Mifflin | Garner, 3 run (run failed) | 8:23 |
| 3 | Gov. Mifflin | Pletz, 5 run (Leaf run) | 0:00 |
Team statistics
| Gov. Mifflin | Muhlenberg | |
| First downs | 23 | 5 |
| Rushes-yards | 54-349 | 19-50 |
| Passing yards | 83 | 133 |
| Total yards | 432 | 183 |
| Passes | 3-5-0 | 8-17-1 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-0 | 0-0 |
| Punts-average | 2-47.5 | 5-34.6 |
| Penalties-yards | 4-43 | 9-84 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Gov. Mifflin: Garner 23-165, Leaf 4-58, Kalis 7-46, Pletz 7-27, Steuer 3-19, Hohl 1-16, Jenkins 1-11, Caspesch 2-8, Overly 1-3, Alvarez 1-0, Team 4-(-4).
Muhlenberg: C. Small 12-22, Baez 4-12, Miller 2-11, Ortiz 1-5.
PASSING
Gov. Mifflin: Pletz 3-5-0–83.
Muhlenberg: Baez 8-17-1–133.
RECEIVING
Gov. Mifflin: Jenkins 1-64, Dinatale 1-12, Hohl 1-7.
Muhlenberg: Miller 5-102, Ortiz 2-27, C. Small 1-4.
INTERCEPTIONS
Gov. Mifflin: Hohl.
