RICHMOND — Well, no mystery about how long it will take to score on Middletown this season. Last year it took until week eight. This year it took about nine seconds the amount of time it required for North Coast Section Class A defending champion Salesian tailback Jahvid Best to motor to his right on the Chieftans” first play from scrimmage, cut downfield, and slip into a high-speed gear that is not standard equipment in most football players en route to scoring from 90 yards out.
In the gentlest of terms, it was a “sanitary” touchdown, because Best, a 10-second man in the 100 meters, was untouched by human (read Mustang) hands on the play. For any latecomers who might have missed it, Jahvid repeated the feat on Salesian”s first play from scrimmage in the second half this time zooming straight up the middle from 70 yards away.
That gave him four touchdowns and a stunning 277 yards in 17 carries, which, when added to his pass receptions, totaled more than 300 yards in offense. At that point, with the score 31-0, Salesian coach Chet Nightingale, gave Best the rest of this chilly, gray Richmond day off.
Middletown”s only response to all of this was a 96-yard, 13-play fourth-quarter drive against Salesian”s second team, capped by a five-yard quarterback draw by Jake Strickler.
Mercifully, 3:43 later the 32-6 opening-game shellacking that Middletown coach Bill Foltmer called one of his worst defeats ever was finally over.
“I”ll just call it like it is,” he said. “We haven”t had our ass handed to us like that in all the years I”ve been here.”
There was nothing in this game that was encouraging for the Mustangs. While badly overmatched by Best, who, with his blazing speed seemed to terrorize them every time he touched the ball, Middletown could muster no offense of its own. The Mustangs were held to 26 yards total offense in the first half and didn”t advance the ball for a first down until late in the third quarter. Until their scoring drive against the Salesian subs in the waning moments, Strickland, quarterbacking his first varsity game, didn”t have a completion of more than nine yards.
“I think we”re lacking in toughness right now,” Foltmer reasoned. “We played poorly in all aspects of the game. They”re a good football team, but I wasn”t happy with the way some of our better players didn”t step up to fill the void caused by the couple of players we were missing.”
Mainly, the Mustangs missed running back Zack Davis, who is hoping to be recovered enough from summer foot surgery to play in Middletown”s home opener Friday night against Cloverdale.
Nightingale said his team was simply blocking well and Best was hitting the holes. The lane created for Best on his game-opening 90-yard run was “enormous,” said Nightingale, “and he just ran down the field.”
He added, “I don”t think they (Mustangs) played that poorly. They came out and they hit us and they were aggressive. Those are all things I expect from a team coached by Bill Foltmer.”
Regarding Best, he said, “It”s gotta be difficult for coach Foltmer to prepare his team for that kind of speed because of the fact they don”t have anyone to simulate him in practice.”
Saturday, Best acknowledged he has been contacted by more than 20 colleges, including USC, but said he will take his time making up his mind which offer he”ll accept.
Foltmer acknowledged the “obvious concern” of Best”s ball-carrying talent and speed.
“… But what about the six-yard out the kid caught and scored on?” he said, referring to a pass from quarterback Josh Smith that wideout Paolo Ocampo caught and then dashed past Mustang defenders to score from 55 yards out. Foltmer also criticized his secondary for a 25-yard Smith-to-Ocampo completion of a pass he called a “floater” that set up Best”s second touchdown at the Mustang 4-yard line.
“They let the kid get behind them,” Foltmer said. “That”s something that didn”t happen last year.”
Earlier fears about the talent of the Middletown line, he said, crystallized into genuine problems.
Perhaps Nightingale simply wanted to see how his team handled certain plays, but his respect for Foltmer and the Mustangs was not entirely reflected on the field. After the Chieftans went up by three touchdowns, he called for an onside kick in the second quarter. Just before Mason Giovannoni intercepted a pass with seconds left on the clock at half, Nightingale had called for his field goal unit to be ready to add to a 25-0 lead rather than just ride out the time.
Earlier in the same quarter, Salesian went for it on a fourth-and-16 play. Epitomizing the day for Middletown, on the first offensive play after the Mustang takeover, Ryan Peterson fumbled the ball back to Salesian. Four plays later the Chieftans scored from the Middletown 45.
Giovannoni rushed for 55 yards and intercepted a pass in his first game as a Mustang. But Foltmer drew no solace from that.
“That”s a playoff-caliber team right there and we weren”t ready for them. But in all honesty, it”s not how you play at the start of the season, it”s how you play at the end,” he said.
“I”ll have to hang my hat on that.”
Editor”s note: You can contact John Lindblom at jlwordsmith@mchsi.com
