After two road games to start the 2023 season, the Tri-Valley Mustangs finally had their first home game on Friday, September 1st. The Mustangs hosted the Custer Wildcats and cruised to a 45-7 win for their second victory of the year.
Tri-Valley took advantage of great field position all game long. Carter Sorenson scored on a 23-yard run with 10:24 to go in the first quarter. Sorenson scored again on an 18-yard run with 8:57 left in the quarter. Eli McFarland added a 20-yard touchdown run with 4:53 remaining. Reese Smith made all three extra points plus a 30-yard field goal late in the quarter giving Tri-Valley a 24-0 lead.
Brody Dybvig had a two-yard run in the second quarter, and Hayden Hastings added a three-yard run. Smith made both extra points pushing the lead to 38-0. Sorenson had his third rushing touchdown with a 17-yard run with 10:14 to play in the game to extend the lead to 45-0. Custer scored on a seven-yard touchdown pass in the final :30 of the game.
Tri-Valley finished with 328 yards of offense, 293 rushing yards and 35 passing yards. Custer was held to 136 yards of total offense, 80 rushing yards and 56 passing yards.
Sorenson finished with six carries for 82 yards and three touchdowns. McFarland had 10 carries for 103 yards and a touchdown. He was also 1-3 passing for 35 yards. Dybvig had eight carries for 33 yards and a touchdown. Hastings had six carries for 26 yards and a touchdown. Cyrus Kirstein had a catch for 35 yards.
Smith was 6-6 on extra point attempts, had a 30-yard field goal, and had five kickoffs that went for touchbacks in the game.
Colby Carruthers finished with five tackles. Smith, Trey Johnson, Brendan Newman, Javier Mendoza, and Myles DeWitt all had two tackles each. Landyn Reiser and Everett Althoff both had a fumble recovery in the game.
