Just seconds after a Monticello fumble recovery, Kyree Koonce took a pitch sweep and exploded 65 yards for a touchdown down the Mustangs’ sideline like he’d been shot out of a cannon.
Just like that, the race was on.
The points kept coming, and nobody seemed to know how to slow down the onslaught.
When the dust finally settled some time after 11 p.m., Monticello won the shootout against Fork Union 58-38.
“(Quarterback James St. Hill) did a great job distributing the football,” said Monticello coach Jeff Woody. “We had lots of guys carrying it, lots of guys catching it and we need to continue doing that if we want to be successful.”
The two squads piled up 1,094 total yards of offense and eight touchdowns of more than 40 yards, five of them from 60 or more yards out. And that all happened after the game was delayed a half hour as referees made their way from St. Anne’s-Belfield’s own long contest over to Monticello.
Until a clock-grinding 80-yard drive in the fourth quarter where Monticello ran 11 plays and took 4:48 off the clock, it seemed like the game was going to stretch even deeper into the night. But that drive, capped by a 10-yard touchdown catch by Seth Miles and Miles’ 49-yard interception return for a touchdown just a minute later, put away Fork Union for good with the Mustangs up 58-31.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Miles said. “To have two in one night was an amazing feeling.”
Until that point, Fork Union had counter punched seemingly every big play by the Mustangs behind a 227-yard passing night from Sam Allen and a 193-yard rushing outing by Rashon Torrence and Julius Puryear’s 108-yard receiving outing.
“We did better and we fought — we were in it and we shot ourselves in the foot again,” said Fork Union coach Brian Hurlocker.
The Blue Devils were penalized eight times this week for 67 yards, and they all seemed to come in the red zone with Fork Union knocking on the door. Six total turnovers, three interceptions and three fumbles, really did FUMA in however, including the backbreaking interception by Miles.
Miles’ performance was one of several incredible nights for the Mustangs, with Josh Malm, Tyler Wagner, St. Hill, Koonce and Darian Bates all putting together tremendous outings. Malm had a 78-yard catch on a streak down the sideline on the Mustangs’ third play from scrimmage that put Monticello up 14-3. He finished with the first 100-yard receiving game of his career, piling up 120 yards on three catches. St. Hill threw for a career too, going for 251 yards and three touchdowns on 8 for 18 passing.
Koonce got a few more touches than he did in the season opener for Monticello and he produced a lot of the same results. He averaged 10.4 yards per carry while netting 156 yards and two touchdowns on 15 touches. He also sped 60 yards for a touchdown on a swing pass to give him 216 yards from scrimmage.
Tyler Wagner, the Mustangs’ change-of-pace power back burst forward for 107 yards and two touchdowns, including a 64-yard sprint that opened the fourth quarter. Bates, a sophomore, provided an extra dose of speed with a 93-yard performance.
The Mustangs played without T.J. Tillery because of a minor injury and lost standout linebacker Zach Graves in the second half due to an unknown injury.
In the end, the Mustangs edged Fork Union by just 12 yards of total offense as the Blue Devils went for 541 total yards in the loss.
Monticello moves to 2-0 and now has a better idea of what exactly they have to work on before starting Jefferson District play in two weeks after traveling to battle Turner Ashby next week.
“We’ve got to improve, there’s a lot of little details that need to be taken care of,” Woody said. “It goes back to fundamentals — it’s lining up right before the snap, it’s making sure that we wrap up on tackles, it’s making sure that we pursue to the football…a lot of small things that we’ve got to work on and offensively it’s the same.”
The Blue Devils drop to 0-3 on the year against a challenging opening slate. They head east to face Christchurch next Saturday.
