CORSICA — On a very blustery night, the Corsica/Stickney football team jumped out to a 24-6 lead after three quarters and hung on for dear life to defeat Mount Vernon 24-22 in first-round playoff action on Tuesday.

The Jaguars raised their record to 8-1, while the Mustangs ended the season at 4-5.

C/S coach Jason Broughton knew it would be a tough Class 9A battle.

“We knew it would be a battle with the rivalry between Stickney and Mount Vernon,” Broughton said. “(Mount Vernon) came to play and they whacked us a round. But our kids stepped up and made plays when they had to.”

It was the Mustangs who took the early lead.

After recovering a blocked punt at the C/S 4-yard line, Mount Vernon’s Kyle Gerlach scored and the Mustangs held a 6-0 advantage going into the second quarter.

The Jaguars turned the tables on the Mustangs, blocking a punt of its own and recovering at the Mount Vernon 4-yard line,

Three plays later, running back Wylie DeLange scored from four yards out. The 2-point conversion was good and C/S led 8-6.

Late in the second quarter, the Mustangs drove to the C/S 17-yard line, but the Jaguars’ Tyler Anthony picked up a Mount Vernon fumble and raced 85 yards for a touchdown and after the conversion C/S took a 16-6 lead into halftime.

The bad news for C/S on the big return was starting quarterback Adam Bormann hurt his hip. He didn’t return, forcing sophomore Lane Thomas to take over.

With just more than five minutes left in the third quarter, the Jaguars looked to take control of the contest.

On fourth-and-6 on the Mount Vernon 10-yard line, Kiefer Johnson caught a scoring strike from Thomas and with the conversion, C/S led 24-6.

“He (Thomas) won the game for us with the pass to Johnson,” Broughton said. “He stepped up and made plays when he needed to.”

But the game was far from over.

With 10 minutes to play, Kody Weiss scored from 26 yards out to get to within 24-14.

On the next series for C/S, the Jaguars fumbled and Mount Vernon recovered on the C/S 25-yard line.

Three plays later, Tim Deinert scored from 23 yards out and with eight minutes left, the Mustangs trailed 24-22.

Mount Vernon forced a C/S punt, but DeLange intercepted a Deinert pass and returned it to the Mustang 12-yard line. On a fourth-and-3 at the Mount Vernon 5-yard line, Deinert intercepted a Thomas pass and returned it to the Mustang 45-yard line with three minutes to play.

But an illegal man downfield penalty followed by an unsportsmanlike like conduct penalty put Mt. Vernon into a hole it could not climb out of.

After getting the ball back on downs, the Jaguars ran out the clock.

DeLange led C/S with 156 yards rushing on 12 carries.

The Jaguars defense was led by Myles Van Vuuren with 19 tackles, Eric Vanden Hoek with 13 tackles and Zach Connor with 11 tackles.

“We dug ourselves a hole and we found a spark and came back and made it a game,” Mount Vernon coach Ryan Kristensen said. “We made a couple of bad mistakes late in the game that put us in a hole we couldn’t get out of.”

Kyle Gerlach led the Mustang defense with 13 tackles followed by Weiss with 10 tackles.