Video: Lyric Ashton
Article and Photo: Isabella Barnes
A battle took place on the crisp night of October 25th, 2024. A war between Mustangs and Cougars had begun when the bell rang for the start. After the last couple of losses from the Mustangs, morale was lower than it usually is, but that did not affect the Minarets football players down on the field. They played hard and got results, winning with a score of 42-8. When asked about the win, head varsity coach Shannon Pulliam said, “It's always good to come back after a couple of losses in a row. Our kids really prepared this week, really hard. We knew we were playing a little less competition than we've played the last two weeks. But we knew that coming into their place, they're going to play hard, they’re going to want to beat us…I’m really proud of the way they played.” All of our players got to play in the Mustangs and Cougars game.
However, even with such a big gap between scores, Coach Pulliam still wasn’t 100% happy with how the team played, “The first quarter we played really well. The second quarter was not so good... Then we had a little talk with them at half-time. In the second half, they came out and they really answered the call, they stepped it up and did some good things.” With such a big scoring game, there is no doubt that the Mustangs are back and are prepared to make it stay like that.
The key to their success? Focus. According to Coach Pulliam, “We speed up our intensity as coaches. We made them learn more, to see and figure out what they're doing and their responsibilities. So they did a lot better on really focusing on their assignments.”
Now, it is known that hunting season is right around the corner. What is in season? Mammals from the weasel family; badgers. The Minarets Mustangs are in it for the long game, preparing for next week; the Yosemite Badgers game. How will the Mustangs win against the long-time rival? Coach Shannon Pulliam is confident when he says, “Just the way we did it tonight…It’s going to be one of those kinds of games but we’ll prepare and we’ll be ready.” It doesn’t take much effort for a horse to crush a weasel, sorry, a badger… Look out Yosemite!
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