Walker Valley piled on 28 first-half points behind the superb blocking of the Mustangs’ offensive line and added an insurance touchdown in the second half to pick up a 36-14 freshman football win at “The Corral” Monday night.

The Mustangs came out firing on all cylinders, with Reggie Mills breaking loose for 74 yards and the first score of the night to put Walker Valley ahead. The Mustangs went up 14-0 minutes later when quarterback Holt Spencer scrambled 26 yards to paydirt.

“This is probably the best offensive game we’ve had. The linemen did amazingly well. We had one of our players out tonight; he went out of town and couldn’t get back. He [was in a vehicle that] broke down with his dad. So, some other guys had to step up. Our boys played well. Our linemen are to be applauded tonight. It was the best blocking we’ve had,” said Mustangs coach Tony Spencer.

The Mustangs took a 28-0 lead with less than a minute left in the first half when Cory Cook picked off a Cleveland pass. Walker Valley took over at the Blue Raiders’ 41-yard line and Mills finished the first-half scoring for the Mustangs with a 9-yard jaunt into the end zone. Cook completed the effort with a 2-point conversion toll to Elijah Haynie to make it 28-0.

Cleveland fought back before the intermission buzzer to get back in the game with time ticking off the first-half clock. The Raiders moved from their own 48 to the Mustangs’ 20 on an Austin Massey to Eric Goodwin connection. Seconds later, Massey found a leaping Bryan Adams in the back of the end zone with no time left on the clock for a Cleveland TD. Orlando Alcantara booted the extra point to make it 28-7 at the break.

“We were on and off,” said Cleveland coach David McMahan. We had some people step up on defense. When we finally started getting in a groove we could stop the run. They might hit a counter and break one on us, but our kid never quit and kept fighting to the end,”

After a scoreless third quarter, Cleveland closed the gap a bit more in the fourth with a 58-yard run to the end zone by Massey with just under five minutes left to play. Alcantara’s point after cut it to 28-14.

The Mustangs answered back with a 10-yard blast by Holt Spencer to make the final score 36-14.

“They had a run game that we couldn’t stop. They are a good group of kids and play smash-mouth football. My hat is off to them. They stuffed it down our throat and we struggled to stop them all night,” said McMahan.

“Offensively, I thought our kids did a great job. They rallied and they never quit. I’m proud of them for that. My problem is I’ve got some great playmakers out there and only one football. It’s a good problem to have. We’ve got some good kids and we’ve just got to build on this. Losing to a cross-town rival is going to hurt, but we can use it as motivation to get better and work harder.”

A pleased Spencer praised the efforts of his running trio

“Elijah Holt scored, of course Reggie scored and we had one called back for Levi (Daffron). I think everybody who touched the ball just about scored at one point or another,” Spencer lauded.

“The defense stepped up big a couple of times when they needed to. We get frustrated when they score, but they are a good team. They are great athletes. For us to hold them like we did and be able to score like we did was really a praise to the players. They are good athletes at Cleveland and have good coaches. It was a fun win.”