Myers Park shuts out Berry on Friday for first win; Mustangs planning a big revival
When new Myers Park football coach Jason McManus took over the program this year, he knew getting the Mustangs going again wasn’t going to be an easy task.
Long a regional and national power, Myers Park had hit a sort of bottom last spring when the school had to forfeit all of its games from the 2021 season, plus a share of a conference title, after multiple players from multiple states were found living in three homes near the school and at least some of them were found to be ineligible.
McManus was the school’s fourth coach in four seasons, and just days before the season started, he lost at least five players to academic issues.
Myers Park, minus some key starters, lost its first four games for the first time in 19 years.
But Friday, the Mustangs got McManus’ first win at the school and ended their losing streak, beating Berry 50-0. And McManus didn’t deny for a second how good it felt.
“The most important thing is that I am so happy for our players,” he said. “What our young men have been going through and faced since I’ve been here, it’s unbelievable. The fact that they keep showing up, they keep working, they keep competing. These guys have done everything I have asked of them since I’ve been here.”
With the roster changes, McManus said that he and his staff are working with the players they do have — and he said the Mustangs have a great core of guys playing.
“We are who we are,” McManus said. “We started the season with what we have, and we have kind of settled in as a Myers Park football team right now. The first four games were definitely a learning curve for us. We are still in the process of trying to formulate an identity as a football team and who we are and what we can do.”
For a team that was coming into the contest at 0-4, for the number of fans in the stands, you would have thought these were like Mustang squads that have reached two N.C. 4A Western Regional championship games in the past four years.
Fans filled the stands on the home side of the field.
“These fans are rabid,” McManus said. “This Myers Park community, it was one of the main reasons why I wanted to come work here, the unbelievable support of our community. These fans are rabid, and what they have done for us in just a short amount of time. They love football, they are passionate about football.”
On Friday, the Mustangs gave their fans a game to talk about all weekend.
Myers Park returned the opening kickoff to the Berry 8. It was negated by a penalty, but this play set the tone for the remainder of the game as the Mustangs were able to get whatever they wanted by rushing the ball behind running backs RJ Alexander and Latrell Goodwin.
“My (offensive) line was giving me some good blocks,” said Goodwin, who had more than 100 yards rushing. “I had room to make cuts and get into the open field. I love my boys.”
One thing that McManus wants moving forward is more consistency, and not just from his players but everything involved with the program.
“I’ve been craving more consistency,” McManus said. “Now that we are in school and we have established some routines, we’ve established our culture. I’m hoping that we can be incredibly consistent the rest of the year because we have been up and down.”
Unfortunately, to this point, that consistency has been hard to come by.
“Anything that you can imagine to happen to a high school football team has happened to us,” McManus said. “I’m hoping that as we start (conference) play in the next four or five weeks, we can just be a consistent football team, get some momentum and stack good days on good days and we will be playing our best football late in the year.”
Three Who Made a Difference
Latrell Goodwin, Myers Park: Goodwin had several hard-nosed runs during the course of the game, rushing for 106 yards and scoring two touchdowns. He also caught two passes for 51 yards.
Jaemyn Smith, Myers Park: The backup quarterback got his number called when starting quarterback Wendell Thompson went down with an apparent leg injury. Smith had three long passes to go for over 40 yards each and did have one touchdown pass.
Myers Park defense: The Mustangs’ defense pitched a shutout and in the process held Berry to under 90 yards of total offense in the game.
Worth Mentioning
The Mustangs honored David Shannon, a former player for Myers Park who 10 years ago tragically passed away.
What’s Next?
Myers Park will travel to Harding next week while Berry will also be on the road facing South Mecklenburg.
Scoring Summary
Myers Park 10 13 20 7 — 50
Berry 0 0 0 0 — 0
MP: Hank Thompson 24-yard field goal
MP: Latrell Goodwin 2 rush (Thompson kick)
MP: Max Ameido 3 pass from Wendell Thompson (2 point conversion failed)
MP: RJ Alexander 4 rush (Thompson kick)
MP: Tavion Neal 46 pass from Jaemyn Smith (Thompson kick)
MP: Jon McDowell 4 pass from Smith (PAT missed)
MP: Goodwin 7 rush (Thompson kick)
MP: Neal 4 rush (Thompson kick)
PHOTOS: Berry at Myers Park
This story was originally published September 16, 2022 at 11:34 PM.
