Football faces loss against Central

After what many deemed a controversial call, the Missouri Southern football team lost to the Central Missouri State University Mules, 27-24 in Warrensburg.

The call came when Tedaryl Mason, senior wide receiver, caught a 13-yard pass and was knocked out of bounds with only a few seconds remaining in the game. The officials, however, called the play as though he was tackled in bounds and did not stop the clock. The Lions did not find this out until time had nearly expired, and so they barely had time to make a play for the end zone.

“Obviously, you’re never pleased with a loss,” said Keeth Matheny, acting head football coach. “Losing is definitely not what we want or is acceptable. And the thing that you learn from a game that was that tight, is the fact that, in reality, any one play can make the difference, and that’s definitely a powerful thing to notice.”

Matheny said he and his staff were proud of how hard the Lions played against the Mules and a CMSU Homecoming crowd.

“I was very, very proud of the effort, intensity and the heart that we played with,” Matheny said. “At the same time, in a loss, you’ve got to always look for what things could have been better [and] could have gotten it done, and we could have gotten it done.”

He said the Lions had improved dramatically over the previous week.

“If we can continue to improve in that direction over time, we’re going to finish very strong,” Matheny said.

He said the defense as a whole played well, especially Dennis Johnson, senior safety, and Bobby Odior, sophomore defensive tackle, who both made many good plays.

Johnson and Matt Crane, senior linebacker, led the Lions in tackles with 12.

Blake Martin, senior safety, earned nine tackles, followed by Atiba Bradley, senior linebacker, who had eight. Joe Bettaso, senior safety, earned six tackles against the Mules.

Crane also had the Lions’ only sack in the game.

On the offensive side, Adam Hinspeter, freshman quarterback, completed 15 of 23 passes for 174 yards and three touchdowns.

Dustin Bromley, senior wide receiver, led the Lions’ receivers with five catches for 45 yards and two touchdowns. Colin Bado, sophomore wide receiver, caught four passes for 39 yards, and Mason caught three passes for 37 yards. Travis Brown, junior wide receiver, caught two passes also for 37 yards. Matt Farrell, freshman tight end, also caught one for a Southern touchdown.

Matheny said Shane McBride, freshman kicker, also had a stellar performance.

McBride had one field goal attempt from 40 yards out and made it, scoring the longest field goal for the Lions since 1999.

“He also ran in a two-point conversion, literally running over a defender, and made an open-field tackle on one of the best returners in the nation,” Matheny said.

He also said to keep the ball out CMSU’s returners’ hands, the Lions ran two quick kicks to take away that “big-play capability” from those returners.

“And we were really able to gain some great field position by getting those two quick kicks,” Matheny said.

The Lions have a bye week this week and return to action Oct. 29 in Topeka against the Washburn University Ichabods.