Mules 43-Godley 27

The Mules won the Area Champions football trophy last night, beating Godley 43-27 in the Mustang Bowl at Sweetwater. It was quite a game. I took loads of notes; Bill said too many notes. Let me see how much of it I wind up overloading you with. To start with, there were definitely more Mule fans there than Wildcat fans, but at least their band was there on time to play their school song, and later, as the home team, The Star-Spangled Banner. The field is down below ground level, hence the name Mustang Bowl, so the wind, which was blowing quite well and continued all night, was at least not quite as cold as it could have been since it was not blowing up on your legs through the seats. But on to the game. We received first and marched down the field before quarterback Beau Avila was sacked and then threw an interception. So Godley drives down and Saul Elizalde intercepts one himself , which eventually leads to a touchdown and extra point, the score now 7-0 and the clock stands at 4:16, first quarter. With 2:49 left in the quarter, Godley slips by for their own touchdown and point after, tying the score at 7-7. which is how the quarter ends. But at least by now the band has arrived, and there is a little more noise from our stands. Godley starts off with a bang, or I should say touchdown, a mere 43 seconds into the second quarter, and the score is 7-14. But we drive back down and Isaac Baca runs in for another score, so now it is 14-14. On Godley’s next possession they just nearly score, and Coach Wood calls time out to chew on a few Mule butts, to no avail, apparently, because Godley then goes on to score, which is called back on a face mask penalty. We then answer with a face mask penalty of our own, and they are just about to score again when, luckily for us, they drop the ball and we recover on the 5-yard line. But then we don’t take advantage of the gift, can’t score, and have to punt. Low and behold, Godley fumbles again, we get it and this time Ryan Deleon catches a long pass and scores, Elizalde kicks and the score is now 21-14. Godley gives the Mules yet another fumble after the kick-off and once again we can’t use it to score, but at least that keeps Godley from scoring. Another Muleshoe interception, another Godley fumble and with 2 seconds on the clock, Elizalde barely misses a field goal and it is half-time. Third quarter and  Godley eats up 5 minutes and 56 seconds before finally making the touchdown but missing the point after, and the score is 21-20. It’s at this point that things get a little scary. We punt, recover another fumble, get a penalty and even get it to the 5-yard line and can’t score. And the score is 21-20, remember. .. So the fourth quarter starts with the football gods on our side-we catch them in the end zone for a safety, and we follow up with a touchdown, so now the score is 30-20. Godley follows with a touchdown, making the score 30-27 with 8:32 on the clock, so it’s a little dicey again! And I may be the only person who saw it this way, but at this point the Godley band fired up a very fast version of that Hey! Go (fill in your mascot)! song and I swear it threw the tempo off on the playing field as well. Everything felt rushed. I felt rushed and wondered what it would do the team. Well, a personal foul was called, we got a first down out of the deal,  and made a touchdown, so I guess it worked out okay. The score is 37-27 with 3:57 left. Elizalde kicks the ball out of bounds twice, so they send in Joe Guerrero and he kicks out of bounds! But we go on to intercept another pass and score with it this time and planned to kick the extra point, but a bad snap caused a change of plans and Avila couldn’t quite turn it into a two-point conversion, so the score is now 43-27 with 2:03 left in the game. Guerrero kicks another one out of bounds, and at this point the game is over. The last minute, thirty-nine on the clock is allowed to run out, and the celebrating began. Now here’s where things get fuzzy. We leave the game with the understanding that the Mules will play Merkel at Frenship next Friday. This morning the TV says Childress won, UIL says Merkel won  but shows a different score than  the newspaper. So since UIL should be the final authority, I am going to say that the Mules will play Merkel on Friday at a location to be announced! Way to be, Mules! Great game.