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MUSTANG DRUG 704C 59 5-Hwy., Anderson, MO (next to Town & Country) Mike Thornton - R.Ph. 417-845-7799 Go Mustangs! 845-3913•845-3566 Anderson Missouri B & M TIRE & MUFFLER SERVICE Supporting the Mustangs! 2C McDonald County Press Thursday, August 23, 2018 F a l l S p o r t S p r e v i e w Mustangs To Face New Challenges On Football Field Rick Peck Special to McDonald County Press After going 2-28 in the three seasons before his arrival, Kellen Hoover led the McDonald County High School football team to a 5-5 record in his first year as head coach of the Mustangs. But Hoover faces some challenges in his second year to avoid the infamous "soph- omore jinx." Though the 2016 team finished winless in its 10 games, Hoover greeted a veteran group of returners with hopes that the 2017 season would be different. The Mustangs had back their starting quarterback, lead- ing running back and receiver among the 16 seniors back for their final year. Those 16 are gone and with them most of the yardage gained by the Mustangs, including 1,000-yard rusher Isrrael De Santiago and 1,000-yard passer Peyton Barton. Barton's favorite targets — Kennedy Hodson and Cole DelosSantos — were also lost to graduation. In addition, leading defenders Timber Teague and Trey Black along with Delos- Santos and De Santiago will also have to be replaced. "We have to retool, especially at our skill positions, but more so than football play- ers we have to retool in our leadership," Hoover said. "We had some really, really good leaders who had went through some tough times football-wise. We had a group that was really hungry and was willing to do whatever it took, whether that was taking on a leadership role or sacrificing statistics, for the good of the program." Hoover said last year he wasn't focused on a one-year turnaround as much as he was in building a program. That can be evidenced by even with the losses from graduation, McDonald County returns 16 lettermen and 11 starters. "We come in with a group of kids that hasn't had to fill that role before, but we made a lot of strides with that this summer," Hoover said. "With the group of seniors we graduated last year you would think we pretty much lost everything and would have to scramble to refill positions, but really that is not the case." Hoover said the strength of the return- ing lettermen is the offensive line. "We are very fortunate to return our starting line," Hoover said. "We hope to lean on them due to several new guys in skill positions. We hope to have a balanced attack, but we will most likely have to rely on the experience of our big boys up front no matter what we do. We intend to use our size of front. We are big and we are definitely going to lean on them, espe- cially early as we start to implement our offense." Leading the returning linemen is MCDONALD COUNTY IS COMING OFF 5-5 SEASON IN 2017 RICK PECK/SPECIAL TO MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS The 2018 McDonald County High School football team. SEE FOOTBALL PAGE 3C