Coming off a disappointing playoff loss last year, the MRHS Mustangs football team was excited for the new fall season. So far, the Mustangs have reached some of their goals set during the preseason and are on pace to finish the year with a winning record for the first time since 2019. They opened the season against Mount Hebron–last year’s county champions–with a 42-0 win. Since then, the success has increased, much to the delight of the fans.
Over the summer, while football was an afterthought, the Mustangs were in the weight room training for the new season. Led by team captains Luke Holland and Lucas Tran, many expectations were set, and hard work was put in to ensure success in the season.
“This year we had about 24 guys bench 225 [pounds] or more. Last year that was about 16 or 13. Our strength has really improved as a team and we’re seeing that pay off on the field,” senior Luke Holland said.
Since last winter, when the season ended, Coach Holzman has been leading workouts for his athletes that include a range of exercises with the hope that they can gain 70% of their maximum weight from the beginning. Over the months spanning these workouts, Holzman was impressed with their improvement.
“About 80% of the team made that goal,” Coach Holzman said.
This is a major increase from last year.
However, the work paid off in unexpected ways. So far, the defense and special teams have scored six touchdowns of the 17 total drastically different from last year. Not only are they scoring, but they are letting up fewer points as well. Last year, on average, opponents scored 20 points a game compared to this year’s nine points a game.
Defense is not the only surprise, sophomore quarterback Blake Willingham has made the rise to varsity after starting the year on JV. Teammates of Willingham were somewhat skeptical about the move, though after moving to 3-0 as a starter and averaging 28 points per game; it looks like he’s here to stay.
Currently, the Mustangs are 5-1 heading into their game against 1-5 North County on Thursday, October 17th. Thursday’s game marked their only out-of-county game for the season and should not be overlooked despite the Knight’s record.
Looking past this game, however, the Mustangs close the regular season out with games against Reservoir and Atholton, the latter being the much harder and highly anticipated game.
“At the end of the season, we have Atholton who is our biggest threat,” said Holland.
Finishing off the season with three wins would put them in a great position for the playoffs. However, a county championship seemed unlikely because of the new HCPSS sports format where schools are divided into the Summit and Sierra divisions. Top teams from each division will now face off in a county championship to decide a winner. The loss to Glenelg earlier this season makes a county championship more challenging.
After Thursday night’s game on October 31st against Atholton High School, the Mustangs shed off their mistakes and take upon the larger goal: Winning States.
