By Noah Dalton
ELLETTSVILLE – Mitchell High School began its 2023-24 campaign on Friday with a losing effort against Edgewood, finding themselves ultimately unable to keep up with the Mustangs’ offense down the stretch, falling 41-27.
After both sides struggled to get things going early, Edgewood was the first to find the end zone, when senior Grant Coffey capped off a quick first-quarter drive with a nine-yard rushing touchdown.
Just a few minutes later in the quarter, the Bluejackets answered after their defense was able to force a turnover, with senior lineman Wes Hallatt recovering a dropped ball.
Next, quarterback Ethan Turner found Gavin Robinson on a short route with space to move. After the sophomore shed a tackle, he turned upfield, taking it 37 yards to the endzone to tie up the game, before a two-point conversion rushed in by Jackson Kling put Mitchell in the driver’s seat, 8-6.
The Mustangs quickly rallied back, with Nehemiah Strunk returning the kick-off to his team’s 42-yard line before he carried the ball another 23 yards on a rushing play. Later in the drive, Edgewood scored again, this time on a 24-yard rushing TD from running back Gabe Drew, giving them a 13-8 lead after Gunner Caswell nailed an extra point attempt.
The Mustangs weren’t done scoring in the first half, rushing in two more touchdowns before the end of the second quarter. The first was a 27-yard carry from Drew for his second score of the game. The other came from Coffey, who scored on a goal-line QB sneak, bringing the score at the half to 27-8.
The Bluejackets battled back in the second half, earning back-to-back defensive stops before scoring the first touchdown of the half, an identical call from their previous scoring play, this time resulting in a 44-yard connection between Turner and Robinson, bringing the score to 27-14.
They would go on to score again on their next possession at the start of the fourth quarter, which began with a 55-yard pass from Turner to senior receiver Kale England before Turner would eventually find him again for a 17-yard touchdown pass.
Ahead by just one touchdown with just under 11 minutes left to play, the Mustangs’ offense stepped up to close out the contest, with Coffey rushing for six yards to pick up a crucial first down in a fourth and short situation in the red zone, setting up Drew to rush in his third touchdown of the game, this time an 18-yard attempt.
Mitchell was forced to punt on their next possession after being left in a fourth-down situation with 25 yards needed to keep the drive alive deep into their own territory.
After marching their way up the field while draining out the clock, the Mustangs rushed in another touchdown the following possession, this time a five-yard carry on a pitch to Simeon Venegas-Kot with 1:36 left to play, bringing the score to 41-20.
The Bluejackets weren’t done, however, with Turner throwing for his fourth touchdown of the game shortly after, this time a 53-yard bomb to freshman Malakai Goodman, leading to the final score of 41-27 after a successful PAT from Nate Robertson.
Despite losing in the end, Mitchell head coach Kevin Kling was encouraged by what he saw from his time, which saw many younger, less experienced players taking the field for significant time.
“We’ve just got little things that we’ve got to fix and, like I told the kids, it’s everybody. It’s coaches, it’s players, it’s everybody that’s got little things to fix, and we’ll get them fixed. We are so much better than we were last year and we played four or five freshmen out here. We had three of them on defense. So, we were making young guy mistakes and doing things like that, that they will fix and they fixed a lot of them in the second half,” said Kling.
The team looked much improved from the previous year, particularly on offense according to Kling.
Scoring four touchdowns on the night, the Bluejackets’ aerial attack, led by Turner, who racked up 217 yards through the air on his way to four TDs.
“It’s not even close offensively. You see how fast we can score now. I mean, we feel like we’re never out of the game,” Kling said. “We were down, last year, that down, we would have had a hard time coming back. But now we can just put points on the board and our kids believe it and believe in what we’re doing.”
Though Mitchell shined throwing the ball against Edgewood, they struggled on the ground, rushing the ball for 28 yards as a team, something Kling said the undermanned Bluejackets will have to improve upon as the season progesses.
“We’re gonna have to run the ball, but we lost a guy in the first half, our starting left tackle for a little bit. He came back in the second half once we got him fixed up. We’re right tackle by committee. We started a left guard that was his first start. And then you’re replacing four offensive linemen from last year that were veterans. So it’s gonna take a little bit of time for it to gel,” the second-year Mitchell head coach said.
Next, the Bluejackets will play their first home game of the season, as they will welcome Patoka Lake Athletic Conference opponent Springs Valley (1-0) to Terry Cole Field on Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
