It was an overall rough night for PCM’s football squad as Senior Night was spoiled by No. 3 in Class 2A West Marshall as the Mustangs lost to the Trojans 30-7, as broadcast on the KRLS3 stream at kniakrls.com.

The Mustangs’ lone touchdown of the night came on their opening drive as Kaden Hale scored from a yard out. Other than that, it was all Trojans on the ground. Preston Pope got the scoring started for West Marshall by running into the end zone from 41 yards out on his third carry of the game. PCM failed to stop West Marshall on the ground all night as Pope rushed for 171 yards and the touchdown. Quarterback Peyton Hart had a big night on the ground also, rushing for 98 yards and three scores.

PCM’s leading rusher was Aidan Anderson, who ran 12 times for 75 yards. Adrian Robbins gained 75 total yards, including 33 on the ground, 22 through the air, and 20 on the receiving end. Gavin Van Gorp was under pressure all night long as he was sacked four times and mustered 79 yards passing and two turnovers. Coach Greg Bonnett says that this team needs to get back to the basics, including the center-quarterback exchange.

“The first thing that comes to mind is just the center snaps. We gotta figure that out because that’s disrupting our time of everything. Once the timing gets disrupted, then our offense is going to struggle. Right now we are playing with a freshman running back and repping a freshman running back quite a bit. But at this point in the year, you are old enough to play, we just gotta start making plays. Hopefully, the teams that we face in the next couple of weeks are not as good as West Marshall, but I do think they are pretty dang good.”

The loss drops PCM to 2-4 on the season and 1-2 in district play, making their push to the playoffs much more difficult. The Mustangs will be on the road for the final two weeks of the season, with their next stop being Friday night at Chariton.