The Lower Macungie Mustangs began play in the Surban Youth Football League on Labor Day weekend, matching up with Northampton. Last week, the team took on Upper Saucon.

The 125-pound Mustangs started their season with a 34-0 pummeling of Northampton. The offensive attack was led by Zack Kociban and Isaiah McPherson with two touchdowns each, as offensive guard Zack Higgins led the way with strong blocking.

Bobby Newhard had a five-yard completion to Drew Dunbar for the game's fifth and final score. Chris Smith added two extra points. Defensively the shut out was led by David McCallum, Dalton Daddona, and Cody Gross.

This past weekend, the 125s beat Upper Saucon 36-7. The Mustangs quickly raced out to a 30-0 halftime lead behind the passing of Stefan Rollins, who connected with Zach Kociban for touchdown passes of 60 and 70 yards. Chris Smith capped off a long drive with a one-yard plunge behind the blocking of Jake Wieder, Josh Gross and Dimitri Anagnostou. Izaiah McPherson and Cody Gross each had touchdown runs of 14 and three yards, respectively. The Mustangs were led defensively by Robert Bernhard, Nate Petke, and Josh Artis.

The 110-pound team got off to a good start with a 21-0 win over Northampton in its opener. Sone Ntoh scored twice for the Mustangs and Bailey O'Connor added another touchdown scamper. Brandon Camire finished second to only Ntoh in rushing yards on the day. Collin Ravier led the Mustang defense in tackles with support from Carlton Lovett, Alex Kleinschmidt, Adam Heiserman, Liam Garrett and Ryan Sylvia. O'Connor added an interception and Kleinschmidt recovered a fumble.

The 110s followed that up with a 19-0 win over Upper Saucon in week two. Scoring for the Mustangs were Bailey O'Connor, Timmy Higgins and Vincent Petrizzi. The defense pitched a second consecutive shutout and was led by Collin Ravier, Carlton Lovette, Ryan Sylvia, Bailey O'Connor and Liam Garrett. Ravier added an interception and Noah Kociban had a forced fumble.

In 95-pound action, Lower Mac started in positive fashion with a hard-fought win over Northampton, 19-0. The offensive attack was led by quarterback Alex Lanzone handing off to his feature back Tanner Ritter. The defensive shut out was credited to the defensive front led by Connor Carter.

The team followed up that effort with a win over the Upper Saucon Storm. Tanner Ritter had touchdown runs of 30 and 45 yards to lead the rushing attack. Up front it was Ethan Macik, Justin Hollinger, and Sam Dietz opening up big holes for the Mustang backs. Tyler Keller and Connor Carter played very stout on defense making it tough for the Storm to move the ball.

The 80-pounders fell the first week, but bounced back to even their record at 1-1 with a win over Saucon Valley.

In the opener, the 80s dropped a tough 20-19 game with Northampton. The game opened up with Connor Flok returning a kickoff and continued with Logan Mains leading the rushing attack with two touchdowns, one of which was sprung by a big lead block by Aidan Garrett. The defense held strong, particularly in the fourth quarter. Sean Higgins led the team with several tackles, while Jonny Caverly had a touchdown-saving tackle on the outside. Both Jake DeVita and Ryan DeJohn each chalked up a tackle in the backfield and Grant Carter and Austin Whitesell each had a sack on the day.

In their second game, the Mustangs got past Saucon Valley 12-6. Jack Keenan opened the game with a 45-yard touchdown run while Sean Higgins closed it out with an exciting 98-yard touchdown run with less than two minutes remaining in the game. Lineman Matthew Zerfass and Thomas Harthill opened the hole for the long touchdown run. The defense held strong with excellent open field tackles from Brett Patton, Hayden Blatt and Jonny Caverly, while Sikander Saeed had two stuffs up the middle.

All teams will play at home this Saturday at Lower Macungie Middle School against the Bethlehem Steelers. Flag team starts the day at 10 a.m.