On the first offensive snap of the night for the Blue Valley Northwest Huskies, senior quarterback Payton Hartman took the snap in shotgun formation, and fluttered his first pass of the night into the arms of a BVN defender with 10:50 remaining in the first quarter. It was the first of four BVNW turnovers on a night that saw the Huskies fall 48-13 to the Mustangs.

After the Huskies won the coin toss and elected to defer the opening kickoff to the Mustangs, BVNW forced a 3-and-out. Head coach Clint Rider said the defensive execution early on was good, and the inability of the Husky offense to sustain drives led to the breakdown of the defense.

“They were flying to the football,” Rider said. “I mean, I think they had a good gameplan and trying to stop the RPOs that they do, the run-pass options. Offensively we didn’t give them enough of a break so I think we started to wear down a little defensively, and when you’re out there for that many plays and the offense comes on and off so quick, I just saw them knowing their assignment, getting there, wrapping up tackles and I think as the game wore on we didn’t do that as well as we did when we first started.”

It did not take long for the experience and talent of the Mustangs, a team expected to compete for an EKL championship, to overwhelm the Huskies. The BVN defense, which returned nine senior starters was able to bottle up the BVNW offense all night.

“The first time running a new offense, a new system, and guys taking their first varsity snaps, those are things that when you play a team that has nine or ten seniors start on defense, that they just have over you immediately,” Rider said.

Rider said despite the disappointment of the 35 point season-opening loss, the Huskies would be able to gauge themselves against a quality opponent.

“This program was evaluated tonight,” Rider said. “We know the state of our program versus a very good EKL team, and we’ve got a lot of work to do. We don’t have the depth that a lot of teams do, but it just means, not that we shouldn’t work as hard, it means that we need to work harder. We’re laying the foundation and hopefully, we look different week six then we looked tonight.”

The Huskies travel to Mill Valley High School next Friday to take on the Jaguars at 7 p.m.