MARTINEZ — Leading Salesian 21-7, less than eight minutes were all that separated Middletown from the North Coast Section Division IV championship, their first-ever shot at the state Division IV title and a school-record 13th consecutive victory last Saturday night.
It was at that moment that Big Mo, as inconstant as her sister Lady Luck, deserted the Mustangs. Shameless hussy that she”s often proven to be, she abruptly deserted Middletown and did not dance with the team that brung her to Alhambra High School”s Knowles Field.
The last waltz Big Mo saved for Salesian, a 28-21 overtime winner in the title game.
Sadly, it was the third year in a row that a last-second shift in momentum led to a devastating Mustang loss, two years ago to a field goal by the same Salesian team. But this one hurt the most. The prior two defeats were in quarterfinal play.
“The momentum just switched,” said Bill Foltmer. “With one team fired up and the other team kind of down like we had Salesian, momentum was on our side, and then all of a sudden — Boom! They get the short field and score and they”re right back in it.
“We were so close,” the Mustang coach added. “But you have to take your hats off to Salesian. They did what they had to do to win.”
Which was, briefly, as Salesian coach Chad Nightingale described the last seven minutes and 40 seconds, “score quickly, get a great defensive stop, score again and score on the first play of the overtime.”
The latter was a 10-yard pass from quarterback Ikaika Woolsey to wideout Davion Mize. The 10-yard-line is the regulation spot from where the California overtime tiebreaker is played out. Following Mize”s decisive catch, the Mustangs were allowed the same opportunity to score from the 10, but in four downs could advance no closer than the 4, where David Pike was swarmed over on the final play.
Before that, the Mustangs pulled out all the stops to win. And win was what it appeared they were going to do with a second half in which they were dominant until the fateful shift in fortune.
Middletown”s second-half rally followed a first half in which Mustang defensive tenacity enabled them to escape with a 7-7 tie, after being limited to 17 offensive plays and 49 yards vs. 30 plays and 150 yards for Salesian. The Mustangs” lone TD in the opening quarter was a response to a 47-yard, six-play drive culminated by the Pride”s workhorse running back Aaron Prier as he scored the first of his two TDs from the 4 with 1:10 left in the quarter.
Jereomy Hoefer returned the ensuing kickoff 62 yards to the Pride 30 and from there the Mustangs eventually scored as Jake Davis made a 1-yard dive over a mass of players four minutes into the second quarter.
Middletown”s defensive grit was as good as it was a week earlier in its 10-0 win over Healdsburg in the mud of Foltmer Field. Twice they held off the Pride inside the red zone. Determined Salesian drives of 69 yards on 13 plays to the Mustang 14 and 68 yards on 11 plays to the 8 went unrewarded.
“Middletown did a phenomenal job of mixing up its plays defensively. They really got our offense out of sync in the first half,” said Nightingale. “They gave us fits like no team has given us fits. The fact is, we”re very fortunate to get out of here with a win.”
Said Foltmer: “We”ve always played a better half against these guys. We were just hanging in. They chewed up a lot of clock, but they didn”t get in the end zone.”
Unfortunately for Middletown, that held true only until the last quarter. It looked good for the Mustangs went up 14-7 on Davis” second of three TDs from the 3 to cap a 7-play, 43-yard drive with 22 seconds left in the third quarter. It looked better after John Wesley Davis” interception set them up at the 32 from where Pike immediately carried to the 1 and Jake Davis took it in on the next play.
But a moment later, momentum switched sides. The Pride”s Marcial Malic tiptoed the kickoff down the Middletown sideline for 42 yards. A 15-yard chop block penalty assessed against Luke Parker gave the Pride a first down at the Mustang 25, leading to a 4-yard scoring run for Prier four plays later.
After forcing the Mustangs to punt with 5:15 left, Woolsey drove the Pride 80 yards and scored the tying TD from the 1, which preceded two unresponsive minutes for Middletown.
“We kind of rallied together and we thought we had it,” said a glum Jake Davis.
Malic”s fateful kickoff return, he said, was a matter of “guys out (of the game) from being tired … Some people weren”t in there and some people over-ran it “
Middletown”s residents, who assembled along the main drag to cheer the busload of Mustangs as they departed for Martinez, doubtlessly took the end of an otherwise spectacular season hard.
As a footnote, Foltmer asserted, “It”s been a great season and I”m thankful for that — but a tough way to go down. The measure of a coach is when your kids play hard for you. I couldn”t ask for more from these kids and the community was so supportive. Personally I feel like I let them down. We had a golden opportunity to go onto state.”
