MIDDLETOWN — In a solemn ceremony on Friday night, the place where the Middletown Mustangs play their football officially became Bill Foltmer Field. But visiting teams to this plain will continue to know it as hell.
The Cloverdale Eagles, Friday night”s opponent, are no exception after being soundly trounced, 42-0, in North Central League I interlock action.
Bedeviled by Mustang tailback David Pike, the Eagles were in a hopeless hole by the end of the first quarter, when the score stood 21-0. Pike ran for touchdowns of 1, 19 and 60 yards on three of his first four carries. In all, Pike scored four TDs and rushed for 179 yards on six “touches.”
As has become almost expected when the Mustangs (3-1) play on their home turf against just about anybody, it was just one more rout in which they were dominant throughout — even after the starters were retired with 8:25 remaining in the third quarter.
“You”re damn right it is,” the Eagles veteran coach Rick Berry responded to the question of whether the Middletown turf is a tough place to play. “But I just know that Bill”s over there and his kids are going to play good football no matter what field we”re on.”
… And Berry made that assessment before ther game even started.
The Mustangs may have risen to the occasion because of the ultimate honor bestowed upon their coach. But who can tell. In all likelihood, they”d have won by the same score without any spike in emotions.
Foltmer, clearly, was moved by a pre-game ceremony in which many of his former players from 25 years of coaching at M”town returned to honor him.
“Aw, man, it brought tears to my eyes,” he said. “It was just real emotional seeing those kids and remembering some good times. They were happy for me. There were smiles on their faces. That”s a good feeling.”
Alluding to the scoreboard, which identifies the site as “Bill Foltmer Field,” Foltmer added, “They should all know that they”re the reasons why the name went up.”
The Mustangs, in winning their third straight game, ran only 15 offensive plays in the first half as compared to the Eagles” 30. Cloverdale gave the Mustangs the ball in propitious field position on their first two possessions — at the Eagles” 28 and 34 from where M”town scored in three plays and two plays. Pike, who ran his county scoring lead to 68 points, added his third TD on the last play of the first quarter with his 60-yard jaunt.
Middletown also scored on the last play of the half to make it 28-0, on a 3-yard Kyle Brown to J.W. Davis pass, capping a 62-yard drive in seven plays.
Then, Pike scored again three plays after M”town received the second-half kickoff, this time from 70 yards.
The Mustangs” second offensive unit concluded their scoring with a 10-play 81-yard drive with fullback D.J. Brookshire running over from the 2.
Foltmer sounded almost apologetic that Pike played for such little time.
“He got only six carries, but he made the best of it,” he said.
