The
Glendale (Springfield, Mo.) football team finished the season just one win better than last year's 1-9 team, but there was a world of difference between the two squads.
In the first year under pass-happy coach Mike Mauk, Glendale went 2-8 on the season and scored 324 points. That total is nearly 200 points more than last year, when Glendale scored 132.
"We have a long, long way to go, just from a physical standpoint of being able to play against the teams we play against and tonight was a good example of that," Mauk told the Springfield News Leader. "I'm very optimistic. We've got a good group of young players coming back and our seniors did a good job of leading them and kind of setting a tone. It's going to take a little time, but I think it's something that can be done."
The big turnaround for Glendale came in the passing game, where senior quarterback
Alex Austin set a number of Missouri state records under Mauk's tutelage.
In a season-ending 62-30 loss to Republic, Austin completed a national-record 58 passes in 83 attempts for 475 yards and two touchdowns. The News Leader had reported that Austin had completed 62 passes in 89 attempts, which both would have been national records, but Glendale reported the 58 and 83 totals to MaxPreps.
The 58 completions match Austin's total from a 48-47 win over Kickapoo earlier in the year. It also ties former Mauk protege Grant Sherman, who tossed 58 completions for Kenton (Ohio) in 2013.
This year, Austin had two games with 42 completions, one of 45 and two of 58. All five of those outings would be among the top 50 performances in national history, according to the records kept by MaxPreps. No other quarterback in national history has more than two entries on the list.
Austin's 83 attempts sets a Missouri record, breaking Austin's own mark of 82 set against Kickapoo. Tyler Hutchinson of Greenville (Ill.) set the national attempts record of 87 last year, but Austin has single game totals of 70, 75, 82 and 83. Of the top 30 players listed for most attempts in one game, Austin is on the list four times. No other quarterback is listed more than twice.
Other state records Austin has set this year include:
* Touchdown passes in a game: 9 vs. Rolla (beat record by one).
* Passing attempts in a season - 634 (beat record by 178, ranks fifth all-time nationally).
* Passing completions in a season - 379 (beat record by 61, ranks 12th all-time nationally).
Austin's 4,084 yards passing this year rank third-best in state history behind Eric Czerniewski of Montgomery County's 4,407 yards and Jordan Webb of Union's 4,308 yards.
