Stangs hope to slow Steers

**Kevin** Fri Sep 25, 2009 11:42 am

Stangs hope to slow Steers
Written by Ron Howell
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Last Updated ( Thursday, 24 September 2009 )

To say Sweetwater will have a tough game at Big Spring this Friday at 7:30 p.m. is like saying that Texas Tech quarterbacks throw the ball a lot. But Mustang head coach Craig Slaughter said Wednesday he won’t be throwing in the towel even though his team’s current record (0-4) is the exact op-posite of Big Spring’s and Sweetwater is coming off its second overtime loss of the young season. “We’re going into (Friday’s game) to win,” Slaughter said. “But we want to see more positives. That’s what we’re looking for.”
Big Spring’s Monte Anderson ran for more yards (300) in the Steers’ 49-7 win over Andrews last week than Sweetwater’s total (263) against Clyde in a 27-20 loss. It was the team’s best offensive showing, but a second OT defeat was tough to handle, Slaughter admitted. Last week’s heartbreaking loss also spoiled what was an excellent debut at quarterback for T.J. Jones, who was just called up from the JV team earlier in the week but completed 8 of 11 passes for 118 yards including scoring throws of 56 yards to A.J. McCoy and 36 yards to B.J. Walker.
To have more success, Slaughter said the Mustangs must be able to es-tablish more consistency in all facets of the offense. Most of Sweetwater’s success came after the Bulldogs had jumped out to a 13-0 lead and though Sweetwater rallied to take a brief lead, the offense sputtered at crunch time.
Big Spring threw for 346 yards and ran for 340 — that’s 686 total, in case you’re counting — against Andrews in a stunning display of balance to run its record to 4-0. Only once have the Steers scored fewer than 40 points — in a 27-21 win over Denison. Big Spring quarterback Tyler Tannehill had a sensational game as he threw for four touchdowns to three different receivers on 17-of-27 passing. Thad-deus Slaughter caught two scoring aerials and Tevian Parnell and Xavian Parnell had one TD catch each.
“The biggest key for us is to make first downs,” Slaughter said.
“We need to shorten the game when we’re on offense so that they can’t be on the field as many plays. We’ve got to do something when we get the ball no matter who we play. Defensively, we need more stops and turnovers.”