Senior lineman Kevin Tippit kneeled down on the fifty-yard line.

He took in the sights and sounds slowly leaving MHS’ varsity football field.

He watched as the score “20-17” quickly disappeared from the electronic board, something he’s witnessed since his freshman year.

But last Friday was different.

Although he didn’t plan for it, this would be the last time his knees would touch the pale white ‘M’ that splits the field in half.

He would never tape his wrists in the MHS locker room in preparation for another game on another Friday.

He would never spend his early Friday afternoons in the commons, eating team dinner with his teammates.

It was his last high school football game.

The Mustangs came in to Oct. 24’s playoff matchup against the Lindbergh Flyers with their heads held high coming off a 48-28 win over Howell Central the week before.

After returning MHS’ kickoff to their own 33-yard line, the Flyers punched it to the Mustangs’ 30-yard line. Senior running back Steven Washington capped off the quick drive with a 19-yard touchdown run to put the Flyers up 7-0 with 8:42 left in the first quarter.

The two teams traded punts and turnovers until Washington drove it in for his second score of the night with 6:02 left in the first half.

The Mustangs came back marching.

Sophomore Xavier Jackson’s 31-yard kick return coupled with a deep 33-yard completion from junior quarterback Jason Powers to sophomore receiver Nick Bulanda, set MHS up at the Flyers’ 14-yard line.

This was all Powers needed to deliver a 13-yard frozen rope to junior receiver Turner Cook, decreasing the lead to 7 with 2:63 left in the first half.

A huge one-handed interception by sophomore Connor Moffett placed the Mustangs at the Flyers’ 29-yard line.

With 2.0 seconds left in the first half, senior Charlie Kreh’s field goal try glided through the uprights and the deficit decreased to four.

After receiving the kickoff to begin the second half, the Mustangs were forced to punt it away.

On the next play junior Jon Shafer recovered the Flyers’ fumble, placing the Mustangs at Lindbergh’s 11-yard line.

This was all junior running back Demarco Johnson needed, driving it for the 12-yard score to put the Mustangs up 17-14 with 6:07 left in the third quarter.

After a fumble recovery by Xavier Jackson, the Mustangs drove to the Flyers’ one-yard line, but a 4^th down goal line stand by Lindbergh prevented them from increasing the lead.

The Flyers came right back with a touchdown run of their own by senior Logan Offner, but the Mustangs were able to block the extra point, keeping Lindbergh’s lead to within a field goal.

With 3:03 left in the game, the Mustangs sacked Offner causing a turnover-on-downs on their own 31-yard line.

MHS had the go-ahead touchdown right in their grasp but couldn’t hold on.

Powers hurled a deep ball downfield to Charlie Kreh, who, in one fluid motion, evaded one defender and trudged his way to the one-yard line. As Kreh was taken down for the presumed score, the ball slipped out and skipped through the end zone for a Lindbergh touchback.

The Flyers ran out the clock and boarded the bus back home with 4-6 record and a 20-17 win over the Mustangs.

In a season riddled with injuries, MHS head coach Matt Klein explained that he was proud of the way his team adopted a “next-man-up” mentality.

“Starting from the beginning of the year if you look at how many starters didn’t play tonight because of injuries I think it would’ve been kind of easy to go and just fold in and not continue to fight throughout the year,” he said. “But even when those guys went down we were still able to win some football games and that’s a next man up mentality.”

He added that he thought very highly of the way his seniors led the team during their last high school season.

“They had the choice of buying in or not, and I appreciate everything they did of buying in and helping preach and lead the message of what we’re trying to do,” he said. “I think you can see that from the way we’re walking off the field tonight that it meant something to a lot of kids and that’s a huge step when that happens.”

Photographed by Cj Barber
Sophomore receiver Nick Bulanda consoles senior lineman Blake Hoffman after last Friday’s 20-17 loss to Lindbergh