Mules fall to Valley View

Two teams faced off under the bright lights for an opportunity to capture their first win of the season. While one would finally get a tally in the win column, the other would leave the field with back-to-back losses.

The Poplar Bluff High School Mules football squad traveled to Jonesboro for a revenge matchup against the Valley View Blazers for their second game of the season.

With a chance to correct their mistakes from last week’s loss, the Mules came out headstrong with a new attitude, but despite their effort, the Valley View Blazers would walk away with a 26-14 win.

Head football coach Dave Sievers said he hoped to see a different team step on the field, and he got his wish.

“We got better as a team tonight,” Sievers said. “We talked a lot about being a team, and we focused on getting better from the mistakes we made last week. I could not have been more disappointed, not in the fact that we lost, but because of how we lost. This week, I couldn’t be more proud of how we competed as a team. I told them not to be satisfied with being 0-2 but to be happy with how you performed as a unit.”

Last season, the Mules took a loss to the Blazers 16-2, which Sievers said the team struggled to move the ball by only picking up 134 yards for the entire game. This time around, the Mules would surpass their shortcomings from the previous matchup to give the Blazers a run for their money.

The Blazers got the game rolling early with a long drive down the field and capitalized on a 12-yard touchdown pass on the connection from Carson Turley to TJ Starks. Valley View took a quick 7-0 lead only minutes into the first quarter, but the Mules stayed patient and would soon make a strong drive themselves.

After a few snaps from both sides, the Mules responded as senior Kolyn McBride turned on the jets for a 15-yard rushing touchdown to even the score to end the first quarter.

Stepping into the second quarter, neither team wanted to give up the edge and battled for the lead. The Blazers answered the call first with another connection from Turley and Starks on a 20-yard touchdown pass. The Mules would make a connection of their own as junior Jay Edmundson threw a 12-yard touchdown to Darius Graham.

Though the Mules held strong for most of the second quarter, Valley View would snatch away the momentum with another touchdown with munies before halftime to give the Blazers a 20-14 lead.

Much of the second half was all about the Blazers as they continued to rack up points. The Mules attempted to make a run, but Valley View made sure to close the window with their aggressive defense.

Edmundson threw 8/18 on 85 yards with one touchdown and Mason West got some snaps in by throwing 7/10 on 46 yards. The receiving trio of Graham, Romeoh Wontor and Hunter Clifford combined for 90 yards on 12 catches with one touchdown from Graham.

Regardless of the ending, Sievers was proud of how the Mules competed throughout the game.

“We did some good things, but we’re just missing a couple of pieces,” he said. We had a lot of kids playing both ways, and I think we kind of ran out of gas a little bit at the end. We didn't execute as well as we need to offensively, but it's head and shoulders above where we were last week.”

The Mules will return to action next Friday as they head to play Central High School at 7 p.m.