Mt. Vernon Middle School def. Prairie City 20-6

MT. VERNON – A 50-yard fumble return for a touchdown by Tyler Roberts in the fourth quarter was the game-breaker, as the Mt. Vernon Middle School football team notched its second victory of the season on Wednesday, Oct. 1, with a 20-6 win over Prairie City.

Mustangs’ coach Pete Piazza said the game was a defensive struggle for much of the first half before a touchdown run by Michael Duckett gave Mt. Vernon (2-2) a 6-0 lead.

Shane Murphy added a second touchdown run for the Mustangs for a 12-0 advantage before Prairie City scored just before the halftime break to narrow Mt. Vernon’s lead to 12-6.

“Penalties hurt us again, and it’s something we’re going to have to work out,” Piazza said. “We had a total of 236 yards in rushing offense, but penalties erased a lot of that.”

The Mustangs’ big break came in the fourth quarter when Roberts picked up a loose ball in the Prairie City backfield.

“Tyler is one big lineman and weighs about 200 pounds,” Piazza said. “The ball slipped out of the quarterback’s hand and Tyler picked it up and started rumbling toward the end zone. About 10 yards short of the goal line he dropped the ball, but it bounced right back to him and he was able to take it the rest of the way. It was something like you’d see in a National Football League bloopers film. I thought Prairie City played an excellent game against us, they have some good athletes on their team.”

Duckett led Mt, Vernon in unassisted tackles with six, and quarterback Zach Gagnon was 1-for-5 in passing for 25 yards.

The Mustangs return to action on Friday, Oct. 10, traveling to Burns for a noon game.