The football season ended as the team fell into fourth place in the Lone Star Conference with a 6-4 record after losing to Angelo State University and Tarleton State University in the Lone Star Conference Playoffs.
“We just didn’t get it done,” head coach Bill Maskill said.
The team played Angelo State Nov. 8. Maskill said they gave up some big plays and got into trouble with penalties and turnovers, resulting in a 41-36 loss.
Saturday was the last game of the season where the team faced Tarleton State University and ran into the same troubles, throwing away a second-quarter comeback to lose 44-41.
“If we would’ve beat Angelo State we would’ve been in the LSC Championship game against Commerce,” Derek Lockhart, sport and leisure studies junior and tight end, said.
Lockhart said they shot themselves in the foot with mistakes and mental errors in the game against Tarleton. Without the turnovers, penalties, personal fouls, talking back to the referees, or shoving players after the play, Lockhart said the season would’ve had a better turnout.
“It’s people being selfish and not really thinking about the team. Those mistakes could really turn the game around and without those penalties we probably could’ve won the game,” Lockhart said. “At the end of the game when it really mattered, we just didn’t pull through.”
Saturday was accounting senior Jake Glover’s last game as a quarterbacksda. Although he ran successful trick plays during the game, it wasn’t enough to beat Tarleton.
“The last play we tried to send everybody to the end zone, throw up a prayer, and see if it’d get answered. Unfortunately it fell short, but you win some you lose some,” Glover said.
Glover has played on the team since 2010 and hopes to continue playing football in the future, but he said he is thankful for his years spent at Midwestern State.
“I couldn’t pick a better group of guys to finish out my career with,” Glover said.
Chester Faiai, criminal justice senior and defensive lineman, also played his last game for MSU and said he is disappointed in the outcome of the season because the team could have made it further into playoffs and could have played in the championship game.
“Personal penalties and mistakes have killed us this year,” Faiai said. “But we have a lot to learn from it and I hope all the returning players will correct all the mistakes that we had this season to become a better team next year.”
“This team fights. We fight hard every single game and never give up. We fell short once again. We’re always beating ourselves,” Nathan Devan, criminal justice senior and offensive lineman, said.
Devan said the team is filled with work horses who work hard and care about each other like family, giving him hope for the team’s future.
“This is going to be a heck of a football team in the future,” Devan said. “It’s sad that I won’t be apart of it.”
Maskill said they are going to start planning to get more recruits and continue to work hard in offseason to be more successful next year.
“We’re going to work hard in the off season to get us in position to win those games like we just lost,” Maskill said.
