At the time Osceola’s Cody Stowe took back the opening kick-off Friday night, the Osceola Bulldogs had to feel pretty good about their chances to celebrate homecoming 2008 with a win.
Well that thought was only a moment in time as the Mustangs piled up a 40-14 win over the Osceola crew Friday night.
After the first score the Mustangs defense didn’t give up a whole lot of anything as they shut the Bulldogs down the entire second half and used a ball control offense to post the easy win.
After the Bulldogs went down the field 54 yards in five plays, using primarily their passing attack, and quarterback Cody Stowe connected with Tony Cliffords on a 24 yards pitch and toss, the score stood 22-14 with a little over five minutes to play in the second quarter.
On the drive Stowe hooked up with Cliffords for 19 yards outside the 24 yard touchdown toss and he also found Kyler LeSuer for 14 more yards. The Osceola passing game seemed to expose a weakness in the Mustang defense, but the Bulldogs “D” could not find any answers to stop the Mustangs “O”.
Following a change of possession the Mustangs scored on a 48-yard toss from Dalen Hall to Damon Winn with 55 seconds to play in the half, and on the first play from scrimmage following the kick-off, Hall picked off Stowe and returned the ball to the Osceola 15 yard line.
The very next play the Mustangs added six more as Winn hit Jake Brouillette on the halfback pass.
In a span of 30 seconds the game went from a manageable eight point deficit to a 20 point Mustangs lead.
In the second half the only scoring came on a Winn 20 yard run. Winn led the ground game with 82 yards on 26 carries, and Hall finished 5-10 for 122 yards and one touchdown.
The Bulldogs ground game was led by Stowe with 14 carries for 39 yards, and he was also 18-37 for 181 through the air and one touchdown. Cliffords had eight receptions for 101 yards and a TD.
In the first quarter after falling behind 8-0, McCool Junction erased the early Bulldog advantage with a 9-yard Hall run and a Brouillette reception covering 40 yards.
McCool JCT will host Shelby next Friday night, while Osceola travels to Nebraska Christian.

McCool Junction        14    20     0     6- 40
Osceola              8      6       0     0- 14