Jason Richards thought the Muleshoe football team was flat before their game against Seminole last Friday. Turns out, he needn’t have worried. The Mules were ready.

Even though Muleshoe wound up with a 51-35 loss, falling to 2-3 on the season, the Mules put everything they had into the game. They just fell short in the end.

“I think we played our tails off for 40 minutes and ran out of gas the last eight minutes of the ball game,” said Richards.

Daniel Sainez put his head coach at ease early by taking the opening kickoff of the game 96 yards for a touchdown. Muleshoe led 14-13 after one quarter and the game was tied 28-all at halftime.

Seminole jumped out to a nine-point advantage late in the third quarter, but Irvin Torres brought in a 35-yard touchdown from Zach Hasley to keep the game close. Seminole, though, was able to find the end zone two more times to get the victory.

“We were tied 28-28 at halftime and I was very pleased,” said Richards. “They kind of just wore us down. When they suit up 58 and we suit up 28, it kind of wears on you.”

On top of Sainez’s kickoff return, Muleshoe also got a pick-six from Judas Reyes. That helped the Mule offense that was somewhat one dimensional. Seminole limited the Mules to 54 yards on the ground, so the passing game was the main source of offense.

Hasley was 16-of-27 passing for 235 yards, 3 touchdowns and an interception. Sebastian Kirven (5 catches, 117 yards), Torres (4 catches, 69 yards) and Jeremiah Barron (3 catches, 30 yards) were on the receiving end of touchdown passes from Hasley, who was the team’s Offensive Player of the Game.

Jacob Reyes was the Defensive Player of the Game for totaling 15 tackles, six of which were for a loss of yardage, and one sack. Sianez was the Special Teams Player of the Game.

Richards shows every opponent respect, saying each week that the Mules will need to play their best game of the season in order to win. That will certainly be the case this week when Muleshoe closes out non-district play by hosting 4-1 Snyder in a homecoming affair.

Snyder is coming off a 22-15 loss to Jim Ned, which is ranked No. 1 in Class 3A Division I. The Tigers’ other four games were wins, beating the likes of Slaton, Levelland, Lamesa and San Angelo Lake View by a combined score of 171-22. Lamesa – which defeated Muleshoe 24-20 – lost to Snyder 55-0.

“They’re very disciplined, probably the best front seven we’re going to block offensively,” Richards said of Snyder. “It’s going to be a big challenge for us.”

Beating Snyder is certainly a tall task, but the Mules aren’t about to count themselves out of any game. Their losses have all been to teams most likely going to the playoffs. Once they open up district play next week, they’ll have an impressive resume of opponents.

“We’re playing Seminoles and Snyders and all this is just to get prepared for district play,’ said Richards. “We play to win. Some things are going to have to go our way on Friday night, but Snyder’s a good 4A football team. There is no doubt.”

In order to get the win against the Tigers, the Mules will have to get some more plays from special teams and defense and avoid key mistakes such as penalties and turnovers.

“We need to create some turnovers, take care of the ball,” said Richards. “We’re going to have to have some big plays ourselves for sure. We can’t do anything to help them. We’ve got to play a clean, disciplined football game.”