PINOLE VALLEY — Middletown coach Bill Foltmer put his newly minted Mustangs through the acid — also known as Salesian — test on Saturday and they passed. And passed some more. The ball. Not the test.
Using the same tactic as it did in holding off the ”Stangs by a single point in last year”s North Coast Section playoffs, Salesian claimed a heatedly contested 23-15 victory.
The tactic, Foltmer and Pride coach Chad Nightingale agreed, was stuffing Middletown”s running game. One of the reasons Salesian controlled things up front was 6-foot-8, 290-pound sophomore Freddie Tagaloa, who looks like a Goliath amongst a field of Davids and is already being pegged as a future NFL player by Nightingale.
Against this formidable front, the Mustangs were able to gain only 76 yards from scrimmage in nine rushing attempts, 43 of them on a fourth-quarter burst up the middle by fullback Jake Davis. Davis also rumbled in for a fourth-quarter TD with a do-or-die fourth-down-and-5 pass in which he broke three tackles.
“The first half they pretty much manhandled us up front. We couldn”t run the ball at all,” Foltmer acknowledged after the opening-game setback, played on day that began under leaden skies but wound up sunny.
“We really did control the line of scrimmage and that was the difference,” Nightingale assessed. “The thing with Bill, though — and this is what I really appreciate — his kids are so disciplined that when they”re not doing one thing well they do something else.”
That”s where the passing enters the equation. When it was clear that Salesian owned the ground, the Mustangs took what the Pride would give them. Although they led by 23-7 entering the fourth quarter, it looked like the Pride might even be ready to give the Mustangs the game.
After the Mustangs closed the gap to 23-15 — the final score — Davis got off his 43-yard burst that carried to the Pride 3-yard-line. But a 5-yard motion penalty set M”town back to the 8. There, Kyle Harmyk threw three incompletions — one sailing through the hands of an intended receiver. A mix-up on the snap from center on fourth down resulted in a fumble.
There were seven minutes remaining. Would a field goal try at that point followed by taking a chance on putting together a scoring drive on the Mustangs” next possession have been a better choice?
“The thought was there. It did run across my mind, but I dismissed it,” said Foltmer. “I”ll ask you the same question. If that kid in the end zone catches the ball that went right through his hands, would I take that play over a field goal? Yes!”
While the Mustangs were adept at taking what they were given, they gave away too much on their own. Eight Salesian points resulted from turnovers.
Salesian got a “gift” touchdown in the second quarter when a Harmyk pitchback on an option play went awry and the ball, with the aid of a 15-yard penalty, wound up on the Middletown 9. Shoved back to the 18 by a sack, the Pride nonetheless scored on a Ikaika Woolsey to Andrew Ambion pass. Salesian got two more points on a safety when a center snap sailed over the head of punter Danny Beckwith.
Nightingale marveled over how the Mustangs “never gave up” and hung in with their passing.
Harmyk threw 27 times and completed 14 for 208 yards with no interceptions. Eighty-four of those yards came on back-to-back completions to John-Wesley Davis and Beckwith, who rambled 49 yards after a “wheel-play” catch for the Mustangs” first TD in the second quarter.
“We knew the play-action pass was going to No. 6 (Beckwith), but he”s a heckuva football player,” said Nightingale. “I”d love to have you write that down in the paper.”
Far from humbled, Foltmer acted like a proud poppa. He purposely schedules Salesian, more often than not the toughest team the Mustangs will play all season, to learn their strengths and weaknesses. The Pride will also be Middletown”s opening opponent next year.
“We were able to throw the ball and I thought the momentum shifted in the fourth quarter,” he said. “We had our chances. I was real proud of the kids. I thought they played well.”
But Nightingale paid the Mustangs the ultimate compliment.
“I fully expect they”ll go 9-0 from here and we”ll probably see their asses in the playoffs,” he said.
NOTES: The game was played on a neutral field because Salesian”s field was committed to other purposes. … The Mustangs” All-League receiver last season, Dylan Galusha, said the leg he broke in an offseason motorcycle accident is healing nicely and he could be ready to play in two weeks. Foltmer was silent on that prospect.
