NEW MARKET — Southmont football had to wait an extra day to kick off its 2023 season on Saturday when the Mounties hosted the Fountain Central Mustangs. With many new faces in new spots for the Mounties, that didn’t stop them from running all over FC in what ended up being a dominating 49-19 win for the Mounties in their season opener.
Fountain Central got the ball on the games first possession and wasted not time in scoring the games first touchdown as freshman quarterback found Owen Acton for a 66 yard touchdown. After that original punch in the mouth by the Mustangs, the Mounties settled in the rest of the way. Senior fullback Wyatt Woodall got his season started off in a monster way and got the Mounties on the board with a big 42 yard touchdown run just two minutes later. Woodall ended the game with 14 carries for 196 yards and found the end zone four times.
“With the loss of the seniors from a year ago, I knew coming into this season that I’d have to step up big,” Woodall said. “This summer I worked harder than I ever have. The goal for me is go on and play at the next level, so this was a good start for me and for our team tonight.”
Not only did the Mustangs have no answer for Woodall on the ground , but the senior proved why he’s an elite two way player. On defense he laid the lumber a few times with hard hitting tackles and also set up the Mounties with great field position for one of their scores with an interception. As a team the Mounties rushed for 387 yards and tallied over 500 total yards of offense.
With so many new faces in different positions Southmont coach Desson Hannum saw a lot of his players get more comfortable as the game went on.
“We told our guys that they were going to grow as they game went on,” Hannum said. “We had plenty of guys out there who were getting their first meaningful varsity snaps tonight. I was overall pleased with how we played. Our kids played hard, they played physical . We responded very well after giving up that opening touchdown and I think it was a wake up call for us. Coach King and Fountain Central are much improved from last year. That’s a team that will be very successful this year.”
Fountain Central (0-1) gave the reigns of the offense to freshman signal caller Eli Foxworhty who made his first career start on Saturday. As typical for a freshman in his first start, there were some things that coach King was pleased with, but also knows his freshman has to improve upon.
“Eli did some good things tonight but just like everyone else he’s got to maintain his composure a little better,” King said. “He’s very aware of what’s going around him and can be an accurate passer. He makes us a better football team because of those things. Our receivers didn’t help him out at points tonight with the amount of drops that we had. He stuck passes on the money and we just couldn’t come up with them. We had some chances to score down near the goal-line and just couldn’t punch it in. We’re going to get better though I know that for sure.”
Foxworthy ended the game 6-19 passing for 142 yards in the loss.
The Mounties (1-0) also had a new face at QB in senior Nolan Boyer who ended the night with a very efficient 8-13 passing for 129 yards.
“Nolan and Cale Chadd are both very dynamic players for us and played well tonight,” Hannum added. “Someone else who stood was Marlin Williams. We asked him to play safety for us and its a new position for him. He brought a great energy level to our secondary.”
Southmont will hit the road next Friday for a matchup against the North Putnam Cougars who were defeated by fellow Montgomery County team North Montgomery 40-16 on Friday. Fountain Central will welcome the third MoCo team in the Crawfordsville Athenians for its home opener next Friday.
