The Meadows dominates White Pine, grabs 2A South football title

It wasn’t long ago that The Meadows’ football program was left for dead.

The Mustangs were playing as an independent eight-man team, and many in their Class 2A league were skeptical they would ever see The Meadows play 11-man ever again.

The Meadows not only played in a 2A league this spring, it has the hardware to prove its success. Mick Corrigan threw for 206 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 128 yards, and the Mustangs shut down White Pine’s potent offense in a 33-6 home win and clinched the 2A Southern Region championship.

“For us, it means we’re back,” The Meadows coach Jack Concannon said. “We were seen as a never-going-to-happen program. Here we are, two seasons later, and they’re handing us a trophy.

“My three seniors paid a price in this thing. They played eight-man and did those things.”

All three of Corrigan’s touchdown passes went to Ryan Hannig, who had eight receptions for 129 yards.

Dawson Levine opened the scoring with a 6-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and closed it by returning a fumble 22 yards for a fourth-quarter TD. He had 69 of his 78 rushing yards in the second half to help The Meadows (4-1, 4-0) control the clock.

Corrigan, who was intercepted once, and Hannig gave the Mustangs a 14-0 halftime lead with a 50-yard connection with 3:59 to go before the break.

“Those guys have a special connection,” Concannon said. “When you’re on the sidelines and they’re telling you what they can do, they don’t exaggerate. It makes calling plays really easy when you have players like them.”

Corrigan found Hannig for third-quarter touchdowns of 8 and 15 yards, the latter of which capped a 16-play, 85-yard drive. It also answered White Pine’s only touchdown of the night, a 60-yard John Cessford run.

The Bobcats (3-2, 2-2) entered the game averaging 47.8 points per game and hadn’t put up less than 32 in any game before Friday.

Isaias Gonzalez Marquez threw for 152 yards but was picked off three times, twice by Sean Gosse and once by Peter Diugu.

“Everybody is starting to get it, especially defensively,” Concannon said. “We have traditionally had trouble tackling people We broke that tradition tonight. We were tackling people, and we’re now enjoying playing defense instead of it being a chore.”

Contact Jason Orts at jorts@reviewjournal.com. Follow @SportsWithOrts on Twitter.