WRAP UP: Ponies Drop One to Mound on the Road

If Stillwater took two big plays away from Mounds View running back Tyler Hansen, the Ponies could have came away with a huge conference road victory.

Instead, Hansen scored two long touchdowns, the first from 31-yards out in the first quarter and his second, an even more impressive 79-yard score for the eventual game winner early in the fourth quarter as the Mustangs came away with a 21-14 win.

“On my second one, I was kind of losing my balance and one of their guys hit me and kept me on my feet,” Hansen said of his second score. “After that I saw an opening and just ran for it.”

Mounds View also was able to run away with its fourth straight win against Stillwater, which included two dominating victores last season.

Hansen had 191 yards on the ground and 130 were accounted on his two touchdowns, which helped Mounds View reach 278 rushing yards.

Stillwater as a team only had 100 rushing yards for the game, a week after having Nick Anderson run wild against Forest Lake.

“Stopping the running game was crucial,” Mustangs coach Jim Galvin said. “They just kept hammering it and hammering it and hammering it and they got it going a little bit in the second half.”

After Hansen gave Mounds View a 7-0 lead in the first, it was in Stillwater’s territory again, but ponies defensive back Charlie Register made the Mustangs pay in a big way.

In an attempt to set up a screen play, Register blew it up, reading the play perfectly and intercepting the pass. He cruised down the Ponies sidelines, just having to make a small cut to allude a Mustang player before crossing the goaline to tie the score.

The score remained that way heading into the locker rooms for halftime, but Stillwater coach Beau LaBore said the Ponies were lucky to have a tie game.

“Couldn’t be more fortunate,” LaBore said. “Couldn’t be happier with the way the defense played offense and defense.”

On the opening drive in the third quarter, Jeremy Redmond gave Mounds View the lead, punching in a touchdown from the Ponies 2.

After putting a halt to the Ponies corresponding drive, Hansen and the Mustangs wasted little time in extending the lead, using only two plays to go 80-yards, 79 coming from a great run by Hansen.

“He’s a very good football player, we just needed him on defense so badly,” Galvin said. “He’s tougher than heck and we know that he’s good. Played both ways the whole night and added a tremendous spark.”

Down by 14, Stillwater had to respond and do so quickly.

With Aaron Romportl still calling plays under center, Nate Ricci was used at wide receiver and Romportl looked his way all night.

One midway through the fourth quarter, proved to be big.

Taking the snap, Romportl slipped on his drop back, but was able to keep his balance and deliver a long strike to Ricci, who was able to out-jump the Mustangs defensive backs and come down with the ball for a touchdown.

There were chances for Stillwater to tie the game back up in the final quarter, but the Mustangs defense stiffened when they needed to the most.

On a key fourth and short play, Stillwater handed the ball to Anderson, but was stuffed before he even got to the line and the Ponies turned the ball over on downs.

It was a way to summarize how Mounds View’s defense played at clutch moments in the game.

“Proud of the kids for just hanging in there,” Galvin said. “Things got ugly there for a little while, but defense was just solid the whole night.”

Mounds View was able to drain the clock down to less than two minutes and give the ball back to Stillwater, but deep in its zone.

Ricci quarterbacked the final drive, but again, the Ponies turned it over on downs and the Mustangs kneeled down the final play to run out the clock, improve to 4-1 and drop Stillwater to 3-2.

“We were our own worst enemy in the first half,” LaBore said. “Our defense kept us in it and it was great to see us respond like we did in the second half.”

Romportl finished with 134 yards with a touchdown and two picks.

He helped move the offense in the second half, but Stillwater was hit with several costly penalties, which was not the case for the least penalized team in the conference coming in.

“Uncharacteristic of us,” LaBore said. “And it definitely hurt us, especially in the first half.”

Next week Stillwater will have a chance to get back on track in front of a big homecoming crowd when it takes on East Ridge for the first time in school history at Pony Stadium.