Rob Grant — Special to the Record-Bee
MIDDLETOWN — Whatever else can be said about the unknown quantity that is the Middletown 2007 football team, one factor is ringing clear. It”s passing game is in good hands in, well, the good hands of sophomore Dylan Galusha.
Galusha, who is big at 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, just keeps coming up bigger.
Friday night, it was with still another lengthy touchdown reception, his third in two games — this one a 55-yarder from quarterback Matt Outen. The catch, with 2:28 remaining in the game at Middletown, was the difference in a 14-7 victory over St. Vincent of Petaluma in a North Central League I interlock varsity football game.
It came as a direct response to a 53-yard, five-play St. Vincent drive that had tied the score at 7. Galusha, a young man who seems to thrive on pressure, caught a 25-yarder one play earlier to enable the Mustangs to move 75 yards in two plays. For the game, he had six catchers for 120 yards.
And, while Middletown coach Bill Foltmer, whose heart is in the ground game, all but grimaces when the subject of airing the ball comes up, he grudgingly acknowledged, “It”s good to have that weapon out there.”
Still, he wondered aloud why St. Vincent tried to cover Galusha one-on-one with a linebacker.
The pass, in fact, has been the weapon that has produced all four of Middletown”s touchdowns so far this season.
They broke from a scoreless first half to score first on a 10-yard Outen-to-Tony Zagajowski connection with 1:36 remaining in the third quarter — albeit that 50 of the 67 yards in their 10-play scoring drive were the result of six of fullback Eric Tomko”s bullish smashes into the belly of the St. Vincent defense. Tomko, in fact, drove the ball from his 33 to the St. Vincent Mustang 11.
With 21 carries for 112 yards Friday night, Tomko is showing the characteristics of the physically punishing backs that have been the signature of Foltmer”s offense.
Zagajowski was impressive, too, as he took Outen”s pass at the 2, then zigged around cornerback Jake Garcia and zagged past safety Will Kesler.
Foltmer called the victory for the Mustangs, who moved to 1-1, “a win that they needed.”
But he was still dissatisfied with his offensive and defensive lines.
“We look OK at times, but we”re still soft and not getting the job up front done,” he said.
In point of fact, Outen was sacked four times.
What the victory meant in the big picture for the Mustangs is not clear. Game, but outsized student body-wise against Middletown, St. Vincent has lost nine straight games to the Mustangs dating back to 1998.
Friday night, the Mustangs of St. Vincent played one-man football for the entire first half, running just-up-from-the-JVs sophomore running back Kris Farinha 16 times and passing to him once in 24 offensive plays.
The game had a tense and frightening moment in the second quarter when Middletown running back Noel Martin didn”t get up after being flattened by two St. Vincent tacklers who hit him simultaneously at warp speed. Taken from game by an ambulance, a doctor”s diagnosis was that he suffered a “stinger.”
Tomko anchored Middle-town”s defense as he was in on 18 tackles, including one of the team”s six sacks.
