By Ronnie Hughes

FANNETT — The West Orange-Stark Mustangs rode the arm of Jack Dallas to a 35-0 shutout win over the Hamshire-Fannett Longhorns Friday night in District 9-4A Division II action at Longhorn Stadium.

Dallas completed 8-of-16 passes for 180 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another as the defending 9-4A champion Mustangs (8-1, 3-0) rolled to the win.

The Mustangs finished with 400 yards of total offense, 210 on the ground and 190 in the air.

The Mustang defense limited the Longhorns (5-3, 1-1) to just 229 total yards, all of it coming via the ground. WO-S limited outstanding Longhorn quarterback Kendrick King to just 107 yards on 22 carries. King, 9-4A’s leading rusher, did not complete a pass, going 0-for-7.

Dallas got the Mustang offense working on all cylinders early completing two consecutive passes for 18 and 29 yards. He’d find Aric Cormier in the end zone for a 29 yard touchdown pass with just 10:12 remaining in the first quarter for an early 8-0 advantage.

The Longhorns came out the gate quickly, but after opening up with a King 37 yard run they would lose steam and be forced to punt. The defense went right to work and cleaned up their secondary after the first series against the Mustangs. They forced the Mustangs to a three-and-out after pinning them deep at their own 1following the punt.

The Mustangs, however, shoved right back and forced a three-and-out of their own.

The Longhorn rushing attack found no daylight up the middle against the Mustangs all night, but constantly played conservative against the WO-S defense. The majority of the Longhorn big gains came off the edge or toss plays to the outside. They never mustered more than three yards up the middle against a stout WO-S defensive line.

 

The HF defense stepped up the remainder of the first quarter and kept the Mustangs from notching another touchdown until the five minute mark in the second quarter. Juliane Malone intercepted Dallas to start the second quarter and defensive-end Casen Carter applied pressure to put a kink in the Mustang game plan.

 

Something eventually gave with Dallas regrouping after his interception. He completed a 21 yard pass to start the next Mustang series. Two plays later connected with back Jeremiah Shaw for a 25 yard touchdown; notching his second passing touchdown of the night to give the Mustangs a 14-0 lead heading into halftime.

The Longhorns received the second half kick-off and quickly went three-and-out. The Mustangs received excellent field position following a shanked punt that went just two yards.

Dallas capped the short drive with a one yard touchdown dive to extend the WO-S lead to 20-0. The Longhorns continued to sputter on offense and were not able to get past midfield the entire third quarter.

The Mustangs continued to roll to start the fourth and final quarter. They scored 16 points in the first minute and a half. Shaw ran one in from two yards out at the 11:31 mark.

Shae led the WO_S running game with 85 yards on 10 carries. Quinton Chargois had 68 yards on nine totes.

The following kickoff the Longhorns gave the ball right back after receiving the kick at the 1, but kneeled it down in the end zone for a safety; giving the ball right back to the Mustangs along with two points.

Dallas threw his third touchdown pass with 10 minutes remaining in the game. Thomas Wallace ran a deep skinny post to haul in the 28 yard touchdown to put the icing on the cake.

Tyrese White had 64 yards on 17 carries for the Longhorns while Thomas Hein had 55 yards on 13 totes.

The Mustangs will wrap up their regular season at home next week against Hardin-Jefferson before they dive into the playoffs to try to make another deep run after making it to the Class 4A Division II State Championship a season ago.