A few costly turnovers by McDonald County turned out to be too much to overcome in a 10-0 loss to Monett in the season opener Friday night.
Scoreless through three quarters of play, Monett took advantage of a big turnovers to get the only score.
Monett blocked a punt and took over deep in Mustang territory. That led to a short field, and a 6-yard touchdown run by Tristan Homfeldt. The PAT made it 7-0.
Then things went even worse for Mustangs.
The kickoff was fumbled and Monett recovered. That set up a 25-yard field goal by Chris Eimer to give Monett a 10-0 lead that stood the rest of the game.
“We played really good on defense, we just got put in a bind and didn’t keep them out,” McDonald County coach Chris Gwartney said.
Offensively, the Mustangs had two good drives, but both ended in fumbles. The first drive of the game, the Mustangs drove down to the Monett 15-yard line and fumbled. The next time the Mustangs got the ball, the team moved to the Monett 20-yard line, before another fumble killed the drive.
“We had five turnovers and lost four of them,” Gwartney said. “We got in the red zone and lost two fumbles. We had our chances and we played well on offense and defense, but the turnovers killed us.”
Nick Wolfe led the Mustangs in rushing with 73 yards, while Dustin Resz had 57 yards.
