Home field advantage

Mustangs stay close to The Meadows with only two away games

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Playing in the revamped 2A Southern League last season, The Meadows School and coach Chris Lounsbery found the travel in the conference to be as challenging as the teams. But with two of the best offensive players in the league gone to graduation and an eight-game schedule that only sends the Mustangs on the road twice all season, Lounsbery and his squad are entering the 2005 football season with a renewed sense of confidence.

Last season Meadows went 1-4 in the Southern League and qualified for the playoffs as the No. 4 seed in the league. The Mustangs edged league newcomer and regular-season champion, West Wendover, 19-18 at West Wendover in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual state champion Pershing County in Lovelock, 44-0 in the state semifinals to finish the year with a 2-8 overall record.

This season, conference champs West Wendover (4-0, 7-2 overall) lost the 2A Offensive Player of the Year, Luis Perez,while Lincoln County (2-6, 2-2) said goodbye to star quarterback Kyle Seevers.

Hopefully benefiting the Mustangs this season is a Summerlin-friendly schedule which sees the team hit the road only twice -- and their first road tilt isn't until Oct. 14 in Ely against White Pine (0-4, 1-7).

"I'm not looking forward to either of those places we go to because they're always tough at home -- Needles and White Pine are always tough at home," Lounsbery said. "But I'll exchange it. All of our non-league (games) are home and that's really nice for us because for the last three years we've been road warriors and I think that's taken a toll on the kids. But our schedule this year will be really nice."

Graduation did affect the Meadows as standouts John Curran, Adam Schnurstein, Jordan Kelley and Greg Maggiore are gone, and with them, the remnants of the school's state-record 41 straight wins and five state titles from 1997 to 2001 under coach Frank DeSantis, now at Eldorado.

But the Mustangs do return some quality players in seniors Rod Santacruz, Ben Fitch and Mike Dodson. Santacruz, a first-team all-state selection at defensive back last season, will see time on both sides of the ball while Fitch and Dodson, both second-team all-state selections on defense will provide some size and experience on the lines.

"Santacruz is our strong safety and our fullback and he was our leading tackler last year, returning -- you've got to love when that happens," Lounsbery said. "We move him around and try to keep him free to play football on defense and he does a wonderful job with that. He's all football. He breathes and sleeps and eats it.

"And Fitch is a big kid, about 210 pounds, a remarkable individual and one of the best linemen we've ever had at this school. And Mike Dodson is probably the most athletic football player we have this year. On a side note, he's a tremendous lacrosse player and he's being recruited fairly heavily by East Coast schools. But he is 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. There is one gear in Mike and it's full-speed, and it's full-speed forward."

Likely earning the starting quarterback position (the choice was unavailable at press time) is sophomore Graham Hilts, who led the Mustangs junior varsity team to a perfect 5-0 mark last season. Lounsbery likes what young Hilts brings to the table.

"Without a doubt in my mind he'll be our starter," Lounsbery said. "We knew last year when we had all seniors at our specialty positions that a lot of our junior varsity players would have to step in to starting positions on the varsity team.

"Where he (Hilts) is dangerous is he's a very smart quarterback that's very athletic. He gets better every day throwing, however, his strength is running the ball. We're messing around with the option a little bit ... he's an option-type quarterback. We may run it (the option offense), we may not."

If the Meadows is to improve on the gridiron this fall, the college prep school will need to find a way to score some more points. Last season, the Mustangs averaged just 11 points per game and had a season-high point total of only 19 three times.

"I can't guarantee we're going to score any more points," Lounsbery said. "I can guarantee that we are going to probably run the ball a lot more than we did last year. Last year we threw the ball a lot and that stopped the clock and that can work against you and there were some games that it probably did work against us. We're going to try and manage the clock more."

Helping the Meadows to that end will be returnees Thomas Bach, Jeremy Liebowitz, Mychal Martinez, Billy Pierce and Guy Capanna.

"Capanna's a prototype type of tailback that's going to run the ball a lot," Kothe said. "He's got great speed, he's got great physical strength and he's a real intelligent kid. He's going to get the job done for us."

The 2005 season kicked off Aug. 26 at home against new 4A high school Arbor View. Results were unavailable at press time.

The Meadows welcomes Milford (Utah) to Summerlin Friday night and then hosts La Jolla Country Day School from outside of San Diego on Sept. 9.

Southern League conference play begins Sept. 16 when the Mustangs play host to Needles (Calif.), a team the Meadows plays twice again this season. Needles, who beat the Mustangs both times in 2004 and who Lounsbery said his team has developed a rivalry of sorts with, finished with a 4-1 league mark and a 6-4 record overall.

On Sept. 30 defending league champ West Wendover pays a visit in what also will prove to be a very important contest for the Meadows. The Mustangs lost in the regular season matchup last season (24-6) but got revenge by eliminating the Wolverines in the opening round of the playoffs.

After playing their first five games at home, the Meadows finally hits the road on Oct. 14 when they get on the bus to Ely to face White Pine (0-4, 1-7). Although the Bobcats were winless in the league last year, they do return eight starters including running back James Williams and Mike Morasko.

The Meadows only regular season win last year came against White Pine (19-0), but to assume a win in this tight league this time around would be a mistake.

The Mustangs welcome Lincoln County on Oct. 21 in another winnable game this campaign. The Lynx return 13 starters including all-Southern League wide receiver and defensive back D.J. Lucchesi. Lincoln County defeated the Meadows, 30-8 in 2004.

The regular season wraps up Oct. 27 at Needles with the second meeting of the season between the two Mustangs and the only one that counts in the league standings. The 2A playoffs begin the following weekend and fourth-year coach Lounsbery thinks his team will be ready.

"I love this conference. I just wish we were closer together," Lounsbery said. "Anyone can beat anyone on any given day ... it's really a fun conference. It's too bad we have to travel so far to do it (compete). Who's going to win it? Flip a coin. I think anyone can win it and I think if we stay healthy and get some production from some of our younger players, we'll have a solid year. We'll see."