The regular season is over for the West Orange-Stark Mustangs. That means the post season is about to start. Coach Cornel Thompson evaluates the Mustangs as they head into the playoffs. He admits they played pretty good football last week in the win over Orangefield as the players were focused on their offense, defense, and kicking games. The kicking game especially stood out with the return game leading to several touchdowns. Thompson concludes, “We’ve got a few bumps and bruises you normally have at this time of year, but we’re pretty much ready to go.”
West Orange-Stark opens the playoffs Thursday against Tarkington. Thompson indicates the Longhorns run an offense which the coach and the Mustangs are very familiar. This will be the eighth time the Mustangs have faced a team that runs the Slot-T Offense, but Tarkington is also multiple on offense. The Longhorns will snap the ball one play out of the Slot-T and the next may be in the Spread. West Orange-Stark will have to be on the top of its game to adapt to the different alignments used by Tarkington.
Lining up as a slot back is Clay Jones who has rushed for 484 yards while catching passes for 254 yards. He has seven touchdowns combined. Cody Parish is their leading rusher with almost 600 yards. Thompson points out the Longhorns have three or four senior leaders on offense and that’s his big concern.
The Mustangs’ Spread will be facing an inexperienced Tarkington defense, but Coach Thompson says the Longhorns are a much improved team on defense. Like their offense the Longhorns use multiple fronts on defense running a 50 and some four-man front. Their big noseguard Julian Sullivan is a two-way player also seeing time in the offensive line. He weighs in at over 300 pounds and will play over Mustangs’ center Ryan Ragsdale. Kevin Palmer at defensive tackle is another Longhorn concerning Thompson.
Undefeated and ranked number one in the state West Orange-Stark appears to be clicking on all cylinders. The Mustangs are a great team because a great coach like Thompson has them striving to get better each week. Offensively they need to do a better job of throwing the ball to open receivers and make the proper reads of opponents’ pass coverage. Pressure forced quarterback Jack Dallas to have to scramble a couple of times last week against Orangefield which has the coach concerned about the Mustangs’ offensive line. Thompson points out, “Those are phases of our game that need to be improved.”
The West Orange-Stark Mustangs play the Tarkington Longhorns Thursday night at 7:30 in Beaumont at The Butch. KOGT will carry the game live.
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