Firing on all cylinders and mounting a first-half stranglehold, the Mustangs ran roughshod over the Burlington Central Trojans — steam-rolling their way to Halton Division 2’s semifinal with a 41-13 victory.

In a commanding follow-up to last Friday’s 26-0 regular season-ending rout of Iroquois Ridge, MD completely dominated things until well into the third quarter.

From there the visitors could only spoil shutout hopes, with their second touchdown coming inside the last three minutes of play. By then running time had been enacted and the verdict had long-since been decided.

“It feels awesome to win,” said quarterback Darren Prong, referring to last season’s 1-4 campaign that saw him and a largely ninth grade contingent miss the playoffs. “We learned a lot from last year and really matured.”

Emerging as a late-season force, workhorse rusher Ben Millar tore up the field all afternoon and had his second two-touchdown performance in as many games. Prong also reached the end-zone twice.

Squashing any would-be momentum, lightning-quick Eric Cunningham returned a kickoff 70 yards to the house — with a nifty bit of scrambling and an explosive final burst — right after Central got onto the score-sheet.

Adam Blay punched in the final major, while Dale Murdych made good on all but his last convert attempt, with a botched snap putting the only blemish on his extra-point efforts.

Despite a third-quarter lapse, the Mustangs’ defence delivered another formidable outing.

Led by linebackers Mitch Turner and Tyler Walter, they held the Trojans to a single first down through the entire opening half and kept them well out of the red zone while the game was still up for grabs.

Having finished atop the Division 2’s East ranks at 4-1-1, MD has home-field advantage for the semifinals as well, with the Georgetown Rebels providing the opposition Wednesday at 2:30 p. m.

Milton District’s seniors will be playing their own semifinal at that time.

Unfortunately that Division 3 championship hurdle comes against the toughest of opponents, as the Mustangs fell to 2-4 with last week’s 15-14 heartbreaker against the White Oaks Wildcats.

Finishing fourth, MD will now have to face top-seated Burlington Central.

The Mustangs did give the defending champ Trojans a run for their money three weeks ago, holding them scoreless until the final two minutes of play in a 7-0 loss.

Last Thursday they jumped ahead 14-0 on White Oaks, but couldn’t build on their early production and were sunk by a late touchdown. Cameron Freelen and Andrew Cerny did the scoring.

MD has been severely short-staffed this season, competing with fewer than 20 players.

Going 2-5 this season, Bishop Reding’s rebuilding seniors were dumped 25-0 by St. Thomas Aquinas in Wednesday’s Division 2 quarterfinals.