MIDDLETOWN — It was over as soon as it started on Friday night at Middletown. Sixteen seconds into the game, Middletown”s Tony Zagajowski crossed visiting St. Helena”s goal line to conclude a 90-yard return of the opening kickoff.
For all intents and purposes, the Mustangs didn”t need any more than that to dispose of the Saints. That they scored 27 more points in a 34-0 rout was all but incidental.
The Saints became fodder for Middletown”s homecoming game and the third straight victim in what has become a turnaround season in which the Mustangs improved to 4-3.
On a field better suited to mud wrestling, Middletown used the power running of fullback Eric Tomko and a game-long series of St. Helena blunders to post its second straight impressive shutout.
Tomko scored three times on runs of 3, 40 and 24 yards and rolled up 81 yards on 11 carries in just a little over a half.
Conversely, St. Helena got stuck in the mud, turning the ball over five times — four times on fumbles. Two of the fumbles thwarted the only scoring opportunities the Saints were presented. The first time was after they drove 62 yards to a first-and-goal at the Mustang 6-yard line in the second quarter. At that point, Middletown”s Nick Pion pounced on a loose ball. It was much the same for St. Helena in the fourth quarter when Chris Yankee fumbled on a first-and-10 at the Mustang 14, thus ending a drive of 52 yards.
Because of the Saints” miscues at inopportune moments, Middletown coach Bill Foltmer found it hard to gauge the Mustangs” performance against a 35-0 shutout of Willits in the preceding week, which Foltmer, taskmaster that he is, clearly enjoyed. He was not as ebullient after the manhandling of the Saints.
“They beat themselves,” he said.
If the opening kickoff return wasn”t enough to convince St. Helena it was in for a long night, the Mustangs soon followed with a dominant drive of 99 yards on 13 plays capped by Tomko”s 3-yard scoring plunge with 39 seconds left in the first quarter, giving Middletown a 14-0 advantage. The drive was highlighted by Zack Peterson”s sudden emergence as a running threat. The younger brother of last year”s Lake County offensive leader, Ryan Peterson, and lightly used as a ball-carrier before Friday night, Peterson had runs of 24, 13, 22 and 8 yards in the drive.
“We needed to have somebody step up so they couldn”t key on Tomko,” Foltmer said.
Mission accomplished.
Middletown made it 21-0 with 9:47 remaining in the first half when linebacker Ryan Bower scooped up a fumble and ran it in from 65 yards out. On the second play from scrimmage after another St. Helena fumble later in the second quarter, Tomko found daylight from the Saints” 40 and scored his second TD to make it 28-0 at the half.
Despite holding the ball less than two minutes in the second quarter, the Mustangs still scored 14 points in the period.
Tomko”s scored the game”s final touchdown from the Saints” 24, capping a five-play, 35-yard Middletown drive, the advantageous field position resulting from, you guessed it, another St. Helena fumble.
When the Saints were not turning the ball over they were otherwise self-destructing. Three successive penalties in the third quarter, for instance, pushed them back from the Middletown 49 to a second-and-32 on their own 24.
What didn”t click for the Mustangs on this dismal night was their passing game. County passing leader Matt Outen had just 14 yards passing and threw only five times. The 14-yard completion was to county leading receiver Dylan Galusha, who uncharacteristically dropped two balls that should have been receptions.
“I thought the passing game was there for us,” Foltmer said. “Outen threw the ball well and we had guys open, but we also dropped some passes that we should have caught.”
Outen threw what appeared to be a third-quarter scoring pass to Zagajowski from the St. Helena 20, but an illegal block made the play null and void. Didn”t matter. Tomko scored on the next play.
Outen said he didn”t care.
“It was fun playing in the mud,” he said. “We ran the ball so well that we didn”t need any passing.”
Middletown hosts Fort Bragg next week in a key NCL I North game.
“Fort Bragg will be tough on us, they play come-at-you football, but they”re going to have to stop us, too,” Foltmer said. “We”re playing our best football at the right time.”
