The Mustangs football team won its season opener against Missouri Southern State University.The Mustangs started its 2024 campaign with a victory over MSSU on Thursday, Aug. 29.

This was the Mustangs’ first game under head coach Rich Renner after Bill Maskill announced his retirement in December 2023.

Midwestern took the win over MSSU after a rattling second half where the Mustangs crunched 13 points, bringing the final score to 18-11.

“There were a lot of things that worked well with the team. I think it was a team effort and starting off let’s go with offense. Offense did a great job of running the football, moving the ball, working together. We didn’t score a lot of points, but they maintained possession,” Renner explained.

While offense did not convert any points on the first drive down the field, special teams stepped up and helped the defensive line stop MSSU from adding more points to their lead.

“I felt like the special teams did a great job flipping the field which means pinning the ball back to the other team’s goal line so that their chances of driving down and making a long dive scoring is really difficult. And then defensively there were crucial times, we got stops when we needed them especially when they were getting close to field goal range and then obviously going when they were backed up, we forced them to punt and give a short kick for offense to keep control of the game,” Renner said.

Surprisingly, the first points for MSU came in the last three minutes of the first quarter after a safety scored by pre-physical therapy junior Kam’rin Devault.

“Defense made a big stop on the first score that we had and that was a safety, which was ironic. I was a former defense coordinator so now being the head coach the first way we score was by a safety, not by a touch down or a field goal so how ironic was that,” Renner said.

The first two quarters had the Mustangs inching for a lead that came with the help of a 39-yard punt kick from kinesiology senior Diego Gonzalez and a 48-yard field goal scored by business analytics graduate Joseph Carlson. 

Midwestern successfully executed a drive down the field, resulting in the first touchdown of the game within the last two minutes of the third quarter. General business junior Christian Olige raced past the Lions into the end-zone to secure an eight-point lead against MSSU. Ten minutes into the fourth quarter, the Lions clinched another touchdown and a two-point conversion, leveling the teams at 11-11.

“What was going on in my mind at 11-11 was ‘how are we going to win this game’ not ‘if’ we were going to win it but ‘how’ we were going to win it,” Renner said, continuing, “When the game was close you didn’t feel a panic, you didn’t feel like there was a ‘oh are we going to win it are we going to win?’ you know. I think there was a lot of confidence, and I think the kids really worked together like I said and they fed off of each other and they were very disciplined.” 

The Mustangs secured the victory in the remaining five minutes of the game with a final touchdown from physical education junior Devin Cross after a 21-yard sprint that sealed the deal.

Midwestern State will face Western Colorado University next on Sept. 7 in Gunnison, Colorado.