Sylvan-Lucas Mustangs Football Looking to Bounce Back After Promising Season Last Year

KRSL's Lucas Kenney sat down with head football coach of the Sylvan-Lucas Mustangs Ben Labertew to discuss a little bit of last season and look forward to what will hopefully be another great season.

Last season, the Mustangs put together a pretty successful regular season. They finished 6-3, with their 3 losses coming in their last 4 games. They lost to Clifton-Clyde in week 6, 32-6, Lincoln in week 7, 46-22, and then lost in overtime in the first round of the playoffs to the future State Runner-up Central Plains Oilers, 40-38. 

Other than the losses, Sylvan-Lucas had a very good season, posting 3 shutouts throughout the season and outscoring opponents 386-146, and scoring less than 22 points just one time. Coach Labertew had some great things to say about last season.

Last year, the Mustangs graduated 5 players who had key roles on both sides of the ball. While that is a lot, Labertew mentioned that there is still quite a few returning players, especially on the defensive side of the ball. 

He mentioned quarterback Carter Johnson, Junior Zayne Maupin, Junior Cai Labertew, senior Braden Nelson, and senior Layne Buttenhoff all as key returning players. Younger guys will also be sprinkled in with them to hopefully get them experience and have them step up for the team. 

The 2024 season was looking promising but had an unfortunate end. However, after seeing the potential for what the team can do, Labertew was extremely optimistic about what is to come and wants his athletes to continue to work hard as well as stay true to them. That is his main goal for his team this year.

Finally, coach Labertew had a couple of amazing comments about how great the community support is for the Mustangs.

The Mustangs open their season on Friday, September 5 with a home game vs Thunder Ridge. Lucas Kenney and Mike Blanke will have the call for that game for the KZRS 107.9 Area Game of the Week, with a kickoff time of 7 pm and a pregame start time of 6:30 pm. 

Area Game of the Week will also be covering the week 7 game on October 17 where Sylvan-Lucas travels to Lincoln.

You can find the full interview on the Audio Archives page.