MIDDLETOWN — From a 15-point deficit early in the fourth quarter, Middletown came from out of nowhere on Friday night to tie Valley Christian with a minute to go in the quarterfinal round of the North Coast Division IV football playoffs.
Unfortunately, the Mustangs lost in a California tiebreaker, 30-29. So, while Valley Christian advances to the next round, Middletown will be going nowhere from here. Their season, as impressive as it was with a 10-2 record, including a 10-game winning streak, is officially over.
All things considered, though, it was a good ride for Middletown right up to the last moment.
“I was really proud of the kids,” said Middletown coach Bill Foltmer. “They had their hands full up front. But they battled back and had an opportunity to win the game.”
It was indeed an amazing feat, considering that for the first three quarters of this taut struggle the guys who came from out of nowhere were getting nowhere against the Vikings (8-5), who outsized them up front offensively and defensively.
“The running game was totally shut down,” Foltmer said. “Bottom line, they packed the box. They manned up on our receivers and didn”t have a free safety and they had the athletes to enable them to cover us one-on -one.”
Aside from a 65-yard, four-play scoring drive in the first quarter, it was a night in which six of the Mustangs” first seven offensive series were three-and-outs
Before their second touchdown with 9:14 remaining in the game, Valley Christian ran 64 plays to Middletown”s 20.
The domination ended right after the Vikings went up 22-7 on an eight-play, 60-yard yard drive ? the last 25 of it on a TD jaunt by quarterback Nick Rubio — three seconds into the fourth quarter. At that point, the Mustangs had only two first downs for the game.
But suddenly showing life, Middletown responded to that TD by marching 71 yards in a little over two minutes (with the aid of some costly Viking penalties) to their second TD. One of Kyle Harmyk”s few completions on a night in which he was an uncharacteristic 9-for-26 for 161 yards found the hands of Danny Beckwith from the Viking 3-yard line.
Still, matters didn”t look too promising for the Mustangs — until they put together their most amazing drive of the season, driving 73 yards with only three minutes remaining. In these desperate moments Harmyk took charge, even though he completed only four of 10 passes during the march. Twice, Harmyk came through on fourth-and-10 plays — first by pulling the ball down and running the necessary 10 yards on his own, then by completing a pass for just enough yardage to Jereomy Hoefer.
A second completion to John Wesley Davis covered 24 yards for the TD. Then, to tie the game, Harmyk rolled to his right and ran in the two-point conversion.
The tying drive followed the game”s only turnover, the interception of a Rubio pass by Beckwith. Why Viking coach John Parrella elected to put the ball up late in the game with an eight-point lead and Middletown out of timeouts was a subject of wonderment.
“They (the Mustangs) were putting 10 men up on the line and there was the mud and all that, so we thought we”d take a shot,” Parrella said. “It didn”t work out, but in the end it did.”
The California tiebreaker consists of having each team run four plays from the 10-yard line. Foltmer said he felt “pretty good going into the overtime,” particularly after Jake Davis scored his 23rd rushing touchdown on the Mustangs” first shot and Beckwith converted the extra-point kick to give Middletown its first lead of the game at 29-22.
But Valley Christian”s Ryan Toney ran in untouched on the first play of the Vikings overtime possession, then he added the two-point conversion and one-point margin of victory.
Parrella said he never thought of playing it safe by going for a game-tying extra point.
“We have good backs and a great line and we”re thankful for that,” he added.
