The Mustangs hosted St. Cloud Apollo Tuesday night in the first round of the playoffs.
The rain held off and it proved to be a beautiful October night for section 5AAA football.
The game started with a bang, Brock Folkema returned the opening kick 83 yards for a touchdown putting Mora up 8-0 with 14 seconds gone in the 1st quarter. The defense made a quick 3 and out and gave the ball back to the offense. They only needed three plays to drove the length of the field and Maverick Southerland punched it in from 3 yards out, to give them a 16-0 lead. The next Eagles drive showed some promise but the were stopped on the Mora side of the field, giving the ball back to the red hot offense. A couple play later Southerland would run for his second touchdown of the game, this time for 89 yards out! That extended the Mora lead 23-0 still in the first quarter. Apollo would take their next possession to the promise land and failed the 2 point conversion. Mora would take hold of the ball and look to score for the forth straight time. but this time the offense would make their first mistake. Folkema fumbled inside the Mustangs own 30 and Apollo would recover and score on 25 yard passing TD to make it 23-12 in the second quarter. On the next Mora possession they would methodically march the length of the field and take time off the clock. They would end their march with a rushing TD from senior QB Nathan Nelson to push their lead out to 30-12. But the Eagles would score on their third straight drive and pull back to within 10 of the Mora lead. Apollo seemed to have momentum on their side and with under two minutes to go looked to be the last team to score before half. The Mustangs would use nearly all of what was left of the clock and Southerland would for the third time punch it into the endzone to go ahead 37-20 at the half.
The 2nd half didn't see as many point as the first half but there was still plenty put up.
Apollo would start the 2nd half with the ball but were held off the board and forced to give the ball back to Mora. The Mustangs again would score on another rushing score from Nathan Nelson extending their lead now to 44-20. The Eagles would not be denied on their next drive and cut their deficit to 44-26. Believe it or not the Mustangs scored again on their next drive, Southerland would score his 4th rushing TD of the game to make it 51-26. Neither teams offense could be slowed and the scoring continued in the fourth with the Eagles scoring again on the next possession. On the next drive Mora's offense stayed hot and scored again on another Nathan Nelson rushing TD leaving only 4 minutes left in the game leading 58-32. Apollo would keep pace with Mora scoring on their next drive yet again, they would convert the 2 point try and pulled withing 3 touchdowns. They looked to try and pull off the onside kick. With how the game had been going it felt like if the Eagles recovered they might have a chance to pull off the comeback. But Mora did recover and melted away the rest of the clock winning the game 58-40.
With the win the Mustangs are onto the semi final game on Saturday! They play the Falcons in Foley at 2PM.
