It was a frustrating go for the Apollo in their home opener Friday night as they were downed 48-12 by McCracken County. A pushed-back start time and the heat plus the Eagles’ stalled offense and worn-down defense made for a long night for the Apollo-faithful at Eagle Stadium, as the game didn’t end until about 11:15 p.m.
The Mustangs jumped out to an early 14-0 lead, scoring on each of their first two possessions. The Eagles responded in hand with two touchdowns of their own. The first came on the ground with a rush from quarterback JT Edge, though the point-after-attempt was blocked.
The Eagles nearly knotted things up with their next drive, one that looked to be a spark for Apollo. Edge found Eli Masterson in stride and in space, and the 80-yard strike put the Eagles in a position to tie the game on the ensuing two-point try. However, it was a failed attempt and left Apollo trailing 14-12 after the first quarter.
The series of plays was indicative of the night for the Eagles: big moments surrounded by inconsistency leading to frustration.
“Well first, we did some great things here and there – some stuff to build on. We also saw some stuff to focus on,” said Apollo Head Coach John Edge. “We go fix those things, keep moving on, and keep getting better.”
Things unraveled slowly for the Eagles over the final three quarters. Although the Mustangs would go on to rattle off 34 unanswered points, the Eagle defense kept the team in the game for a while. They gave up just 10 points in the second quarter, taking the team to the half down 24-12.
As the offense stalled, however, the defense wore down, and both sides of the ball for Apollo struggled in the penalty column. The Eagles had 15 penalties for 144 yards.
“We had some penalties that cost us. We’ve got to clean those up,” Edge said.
One of the costliest penalties came on a 4th-and-long for the Mustangs in Eagle territory in the third quarter, when Apollo was called for pass interference on an incompletion. What would have given the ball back AHS in a 12-point game turned into the Mustangs scoring on the ensuing plays. From there, the game got further and further away from Apollo.
Penalties piled up for the Eagles, while it was points the Mustangs were adding on as they ran away with the 36-point victory.
With Apollo off to an 0-2 start, Edge looks to keep working to improve going into next week’s game at Meade County.
“We’ve got to get back to practice on Monday,” he said. “We had some kids out this week with sickness and other stuff. We just got to get everybody healthy and go out and get going again in the right direction. Regroup. Rally. And get going.”
JT Edge completed 15 of 30 passing attempts on the night. He finished with 176 passing yards and 60 yards rushing to go along with one passing and rushing touchdown each. Caiden Tutt had 43 rushing yards. Masterson led the Eagles in receiving with 80 yards. Niles Board led the Eagles in all-purpose yards with 125 while Masterson notched 105. As a whole, the Eagles posted 131 rush yards and 183 pass yards for 314 yards of total offense.
The Mustangs had rushing touchdowns from Zeno Cornelius, Maddox O’Neil, and Isaiah Harris. Davion Dunbar had two touchdown receptions, and James Barragan had one. Quarterback Maddos O’Neil was 14 of 25 passing for 201 yards. The Mustangs put up 382 total yards of offense.
