The Collinwood Trojans welcomed the Huntingdon Mustangs to Pat Brewer Stadium on Friday night, October 4th. The festivities kicked off early as the Trojan faithful celebrated their senior classmen of football players, cheerleaders, and band members before the game. The community is blessed to have so many students who have already accomplished so much in their time at CHS and who will do great things in their respected futures.
Huntingdon entered the game as either the #1, #3, #4, or #5 team in the state at the 1A level, depending on which poll is referenced. They are also in the top 40 football teams in the state, regardless of classification on several polls. They lived up to their reputation, especially in the first half. Huntingdon scored on touchdown runs of 5, 14, 28, and 8 yards as well as a pass and catch from 53 yards out for a score. The Trojans gave great effort but were outmatched, outweighed, and vastly outnumbered for most of the night. However, they never quit and for that matter, never backed down, even when the scoreboard was not in their favor. Huntingdon led at the half 35-0. The Trojans never could get much going offensively and spent most of the first half on the defensive side of the ball.
The second half proved to be a better showing for the men in green. Collinwood played Huntingdon to a draw for the 3rd and 4th quarters with neither team finding the end zone. Both teams moved the ball up and down the field but never struck pay dirt. The game was extremely physical on both sides of the ball with the Trojans holding off the Mustangs although being outnumbered almost 2 to 1 of members entering the field of play.
Statistically, Collinwood held Huntingdon to 59 yards passing while accumulating 131 of their own. Both teams ran the same amount of plays, 38, with Huntingdon averaging 8.7 yards per play to Collinwood’s 3.9. The telling stat of the night was the Trojans’ 3rd down conversion rate, as Collinwood struggled to get a new set of downs. They finished the night converting only 3 of 10 attempts on 3rd down conversions against the stingy Mustang defense.
Final statistics on the night for the Trojans show Dayton Scott completing 8 of 17 passing for 131 yards and 1 interception. Three of those completions were caught by Noah Sanderson for 45 yards, 3 by Dalton Chastain for 33 yards. Joe Houston Thompson and Alex Haddock each had 1 reception each for 42 and 11 yards respectively.
Defensively, Noah Sanderson led all tacklers with 10 solo tackles and a fumble recovery. Joe Houston Thompson matched Sanderson’s output with 10 tackles of his own. Cooper Vandiver added 7 individual tackles and Dalton Chastain ended a promising Huntingdon drive late in the 2nd half with an interception.
The Trojans travel to McEwen this Friday for a tough region game.
