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HUGHESVILLE - Mifflinburg's offense may have struggled to points on the board in the first half of Friday's Heartland-III scrap at Hughesville, but the Wildcats' defense was stellar.
Regardless, Mifflinburg head coach Cody Botts had some choice words for his players at the half - none of which are fit for publication.
Whatever Botts said to his players lit a fire beneath them, because the turnaround from the first half to the second was a dramatic one for the Wildcats.
Mifflinburg scored three times in the third quarter and had four touchdowns overall in the final 24 minutes to pull away for a 36-0 victory over Hughesville on Military and First Responder Appreciation Night.
"Unfortunately, it took a halftime of a lot of uncomfortable conversations to force what we did in the second half. That (29 second-half points) is what we're capable of doing all year," said Botts.
"We've been committed to the run game all year, and we just haven't been that physical and we haven't been that excited and just full of effort, and we did that in the second half. We obviously put some points on the board, and the guys were having fun and loving the game of football, and that's what it's all about."
Landon Moser, who was held to just 10 yards in the first half, kickstarted Mifflinburg's offense in the third quarter.
In the opening series of the second half, the Wildcats (2-2, 1-1 HAC-III) handed the ball off to Moser six times, with the last carry going for five yards and a touchdown after he spun out of a tackle at the 4 to give Mifflinburg a 14-0 lead.
"Moser is one of the captains I challenged at halftime. He's not a vocal guy naturally, and that's fine, but he's going to lead this team by the way he runs the football, and he came out and he had a mentality of he's going to run guys over and he's going to fight for every extra yard, and he did that," said Botts.
"The offensive line was excited, our quarterback was excited, our receivers were excited, and we just continued to do the same thing. Moser led our offense in the second half and put it away."
But it wasn't just Moser who turned it on in the second half, sophomore quarterback Brennen Snyder and his receivers did as well.
Snyder threw three touchdowns on the night, one of which followed Moser's score - a 6-yard dart to Luke Brubaker.
Later in the quarter, Isaiah Kurtz intercepted a pass from Hughesville's Nick Stubbs and returned to the house to make the score 28-0.
Then in the fourth, Brayden Resseguie caught a seven-yard strike from Snyder before later catching the conversion pass from his QB for the final margin.
"Again, it was a difficult conversation at the half; we challenged our leaders, we challenged our captains, and we challenged all 42 guys," said Botts.
"We said, 'You are capable of so much more and you are gonna go through these high school years and have regrets, and you shouldn't do that. You should be all in all the time, and at 7 p.m. it's flip the switch and we're on for the entire game."
Defensively, the Wildcats held the Spartans to just two first downs (both on penalties) and 37 total yards in the first half. When it was all said and done, Hughesville had a mere 20 yards total for the game and eight first downs.
"After we scored first in the second half, the defense responded," said Botts. "The energy just feeds off each other and the momentum continued to push in our favor in the second half.
"We just have to continue to stack more and more good plays together," added Mifflinburg's coach.
Snyder, who also threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Cam Schneck on its opening series of the night, finished with 130 yards on 11-of-21 passing.
Moser meanwhile racked up 167 yards on 15 carries.
More importantly, however, is the fact Mifflinburg is back to .500 on the year after some early struggles this season.
"Being here, we're only taking things one week at a time, but the second half showed what we are capable of doing the rest of the year," said Botts. "Looking back at weeks 1, 2 and 3, we put really good quarters or halves together, and today we put a good (second) half together, but it's about how we can get better next week and put a full game together."