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Rising up: Mustangs ride defense, ball-control offense to 10-7 win over Indiana

By Rob Burchianti 6 min read
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Laurel Highlands running back Parker Hoff cuts up field on a 13-yard touchdown run in the third quarter of Friday night’s game against Indiana at Mustang Field. It proved to be the winning score in the Mustangs’ 10-7 win.
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Laurel Highlands’ Mason Smith (53) forces a fumble while tackling Indiana’s Danny Trevorrow (9) during the second quarter of Friday night’s game at Mustang Field. Mark Reed recovered for the Mustangs.
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Laurel Highlands’ Noah Lion (3) gets a key block from Parker Hoff (18) during a 56-yard run in the third quarter of Friday night’s game against Indiana at Mustang Field. It was the Mustangs’ longest play of the day in a 10-7 win.
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Laurel Highlands' Gio Guerriere (14) tries to maintain possession of the ball as he hurdles a tackler during Friday night's game against Indiana at Mustang Field. Guerriere gained 11 yards on the play.
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Laurel Highlands quarterback Noah Lion (3) fires a 10-yard completion to Josh Reed (7) during Friday night’s game against Indiana at Mustang Field.
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Laurel Highlands running back Gio Guerriere (14) is tripped up after a six-yard gain during Friday night’s game against Indiana at Mustang Field. Guerriere had a game-high 60 rushing yards in the Mustangs’ 10-7 win.
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Laurel Highlands’ Gio Guerriere (14), Mason Smith (53) and Zi’Miere Green (76) congratulate Parker Hoff (18) after his 13-yard touchdown run in the third quarter of Friday night’s game against Indiana at Mustang Field.
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Laurel Highlands coach Rich Kolesar signals the play to his offense during Friday night's game against Indiana at Mustang Field.
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Laurel Highlands' Gio Guerriere (14) breaks into Indiana's secondary during an 18-yard run in Friday night's game at Mustang Field.
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Laurel Highlands' Tanner Bruzda (8) kicks an extra point out of the hold by Noah Lion during Friday night's game against Indiana at Mustang Field.

Laurel Highlands could only muster two scoring drives against Indiana on Friday night.

The Mustangs’ defense made sure that was enough.

Parker Hoff’s 13-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter put Laurel Highlands ahead and his key block on quarterback Noah Lion’s 56-yard run in the fourth quarter helped pave the way for a 10-7 victory over the visiting Indians in a non-conference football battle at Mustang Field.

Laurel Highlands grinded out 163 rushing yards on 38 attempts with Gio Guerriere leading the way with 15 carries for 60 yards. Lion finished with 14 carries for 52 yards and Hoff followed right behind with nine attempts for 51 yards.

LH, which churned out 14 first downs to just five for Indiana and held a 7:10 advantage in time of possession, played without injured two-way starter Antwan Black.

“Antwan has a foot sprain,” LH coach Rich Kolesar said. “We’re hoping next week he’ll be back out there.”

The Mustangs’ defense allowed only one score on a two-yard drive after an Indiana interception and limited the Indians to 118 total yards in improving to 2-1.

“Great effort by our defense, great preparation,” Kolesar said. “The kids played really hard. The seven points we gave up were on a two-yard drive so that’s on us offensively, not them.

“We battled. We had a few too many mistakes but we hung in there and we made the plays that we needed to make to get the win.”

Laurel Highlands trailed 7-3 at halftime but forced Indiana (1-3) to go three-and-out on its first two possessions of the second half. The Mustangs took over at their own 27 after the second punt with 6:06 left in the third quarter and marched 73 yards for the go-ahead touchdown in 12 plays while taking 5:48 off the clock.

Hoff capped the drive with his TD run on a sweep to the right.

“It was just a good hard run,” Hoff said. “I saw the cutback lane inside so I just hit it.”

“He’s our leader,” Kolesar said of Hoff. “He’s never happy with losing and he wanted to find a way to win this game and he did everything he could to make sure we did.”

Hoff gave credit to Guerriere for setting up his score.

“Shout out to our running back Gio,” Hoff said. “He worked the ball the whole way down the field. They gave him a little break right there and we were able to punch it.”

Guerriere had six carries for 37 yards in the drive.

After its defense forced another three-and-out, Laurel Highlands got a huge play from Lion to help flip the field for the hosts.

On third and five from the LH 37, Lion ran a keeper to the left and, taking advantage of a big block by Hoff that took out two Indiana defenders, rambled down the sideline 56 yards to the Indians seven.

“Noah made some mistakes early but he fought back and made a really big play there late in the game,” Kolesar said.

Indiana’s defense held the Mustangs out of the end zone on the next three plays. Facing fourth and goal from the three, Kolesar opted to go for it rather than allow Tanner Bruzda to kick a field goal that would still leave it a one-score game, banking on his defense to stop the Indians if his offense came up short.

Hoff was stopped at the two-yard line on a run up the middle and Indiana took over from there with 6:08 left in the game.

The Indians picked up a pair of first downs with two 17-yard plays on a Danny Trevorrow pass to Rocco Cosentino and a run by Elijah Thomas to get the ball out to their own 35. LH’s defense held from there, tackling Trevorrow short of a first down on a fourth-and-16 scramble at the 41, turning the ball over on downs to the Mustangs with 2:03 left.

Hoff rambled 14 yards on the next play for a first down at the Indiana 27, but a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty against Laurel Highlands and a shanked punt wound up giving Indiana the ball back at its own 36 with 45 seconds remaining.

Laurel Highlands called on its defense one last time and after a reverse pass sailed long, Guerriere intercepted a long Trevorrow toss at the LH 47 and took it back for an apparent touchdown to seal the win, although a penalty on the return negated the score.

One kneel down by Lion wrapped up the win for the Mustangs.

Kolesar commended Guerriere after the game.

“Gio had a really good game offensively, running the ball hard, and we put him in at the end on defense,” Kolesar said. “We knew they had to throw the ball and he made a play when he had a chance to. He rotates in on defense once in a while but I think those were his only couple plays tonight right there at the end.”

Lion completed seven of 14 passes for 52 yards and the two interceptions. Josh Reed had three receptions for 30 yards and Scott McClay had four catches for 22 yards.

Laurel Highlands opened the game with a time-consuming 16-play, 65-yard drive that took 9:24 off the clock and ended with Bruzda kicking a 23-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead. Lion completed four passes for 38 yards in the march.

The second quarter had a combined three turnovers, with two coming on Indian interceptions by Cosentino and Trevon Joeseph, the second of which was brought back 17 yards to the LH two-yard line. Thomas scored on a three-yard TD run two plays later to give the visitors a 7-3 lead with 1:36 left in the half.

Laurel Highlands’ defense forced the other turnover when Mason Smith knocked the ball loose on a tackle that was recovered by Mark Reed at the LH 12.

There was no panic in the Mustangs at halftime, according to Hoff.

“We had confidence,” Hoff said. “We felt we were the better team. We made a couple mistakes and we knew if we fixed those we would be in good shape.”

Indiana managed just 66 rushing yards on 25 attempts. Trevorrow completed seven of 12 passes for 52 yards.

“I thought we played well overall defensively,” Hoff said. “We were pretty solid and didn’t allow any home run balls from them. We always had multiple hats to the ball. It was just a good team effort out there.”

The Mustangs finish up their non-conference slate next week at Mount Pleasant.

“I told our guys after the game we had fun, we won a game, that’s what we’re here to do, that’s why we work so hard,” Kolesar said. “I told them to enjoy it over the weekend and then we’ll get back to it on Monday.”

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