By ERIC FORTUNE

sports@vindy.com

VIENNA

A pair of one-point losses to Windham and Newbury hurt the Mathews Mustangs’ chances of advancing to the postseason for the third straight season in 2016 as they finished 5-5.

Mathews will look to return to the success of 2014 and 2015 with 10 starters back on offense and six on defense.

Despite those numbers, the Mustangs will have just 23 players on the roster.

“This is the smallest number in recent years,” Mathews coach John Protopapa said. “You would think success would breed more success and you’d have more kids come out.”

Offense

The Mustangs will have a ground game-by-committee setup with running backs Daniel Canter (750 yards) and Andrew Simon (392 yards) and quarterback Dillon Canter (332 yards) all possessing the ability to run the ball.

Dillon passed for 1,016 yards and nine touchdowns. He’ll have receiver Chris Ritz back in the fold as he had 15 receptions for 355 yards.

Also, Mathews will have its entire offensive line back to lead the way for a unit that averaged 27.7 points.

“Daniel has had over 2,500 yards rushing over the last two years and 27 touchdowns,” Protopopa said. “He’s made all-conference. Dillon has started for us the last two seasons. He played most of our playoff game as a freshman after our starting quarterback got hurt in the first quarter. Dillon came in and handled it pretty well.”

Defense

The Mustang’ defense wasn’t as efficient last season as it was in 2015, but Protopapa felt inexperience contributed to a lot of those issues.

Santino Lamancusa, linebackers Andy Miller, Tanner Hunt, and Daniel Canter along with help in the secondary from Ritz and Simon will offer some balance to a unit that Protopapa expects to shore up its deficiencies from last season.

Special Teams

After those narrow losses kept the Mustangs out of the 2016 playoffs, Mathews might have shored up its kicking game when Emily Strama tried out.

“She came out and can do it pretty well,” Protopapa said. “She will probably be handling the extra points.”

Brian Prentice and Tanner Hunt are battling to handle kickoff duties.

Outlook

With just 23 bodies, avoiding injuries will go a long way in seeing if the Mustangs can get back to Week 11.

The Mustangs will start the season against Ashtabula St. John, Leetonia and Sebring. All of those teams have their own issues with low numbers. From there, Windham and Grand Valley will be roadblocks Mathews must overcome to get back to the playoffs.

“I think Windham is going to surprise a lot of people this year,” Protopapa said. “They made the playoffs last year. They had a lot of young kids and they beat us here, 42-41.

“We play our last three games at home. That’s good for us.”