RICHMOND — “Once I get everybody healthy and playing in their regular position I think this is going to be pretty good football team,” said Bill Foltmer.
Until then, well, the patchwork team the Middletown coach fielded against Salesian will have to do. And on Saturday it did just fine. Indeed, nothing could have been finer than the Mustangs” nerve-rattling, last-minute 21-14 vanquishing of the always-tough- to-beat Pride.
With just 43 seconds remaining, fullback Brad Beckwith followed his blocking over left tackle for the last six yards of a nine-play, 59-yard drive that began with only 4:21 remaining on the clock and followed a go-ahead touchdown for Salesian on a clock-eating 69-yard drive.
Middletown”s own drive for the decisive TD — replete with a fourth-and-11 conversion — was one for the memory bank. In his first game as Mustang quarterback, Josiah Amos escaped pressure from a pass rush that dogged him through the entire second half by rolling to his right at the Salesian 39 and then finding wide receiver Anthonie Guzman with a pass that covered 33 yards. Beckwith scored bullishly on the next play.
“We knew (Amos” pass) was coming,” said Salesian coach Chad Nightingale. “When (Amos) stepped up he had a good solid pass rush from the outside.”
Before the pass to Guzman, the Pride had sacked Amos four times in the second half.
Guzman played a sizable role in the win, snapping up a fumble by Pride running back Jordan Cole and scampering 54 yards for a first-quarter TD and a 7-0 Middletown lead that held up through the first half.
Guzman also had a hand in the Mustangs” second TD with one of his two picks on the day, the first coming in the second quarter. Three plays later Brad Bologna, in full stride, looked back over his left shoulder on a fly pattern and gathered in a pass from Amos in scoring play that covered 54 yards.
Overall, the Mustangs kept a fairly tight rein on Pride quarterback Dominic Parella, who was 5-for-17 with three interceptions and only 55 yards. Amos” stats were not very impressive either — he was 10-for-29 with 132 yards, two interceptions and the four sacks.
But, Foltmer reasoned, it was Amos” first varsity performance and, with injured All-League running back Austin Benson out of action, there was no solid running game behind him. Bologna, a tight end, was out of position in filling in for Benson.
“We were just not able to run things smoothly today,” Foltmer said. “The guy at tailback on one play in the next moment was moved to tight end and we were moving Guzman out to wing on one play and then out to flanker on another.
“We try to run things smoothly, but every play you gotta tell a kid to go here or go there. It was just hard to get the kind of flow we needed. It wasn”t total confidence. Certain plays we knew we could run with them and other plays we knew we couldn”t.”
Also leading to a game without much flow to it was a shower of penalty flags from the guys in stripes who took their roles seriously enough to penalize the Mustangs 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct when an assistant coach, Kurtis Woodard, stepped over the white stripe onto the playing surface (it”s a new rule this year).
Middletown”s season-opening victory was only its second in the 10 times the two teams have met in a series that began in 2006 and ended Salesian”s five-game winning streak in the series. Most of the losses to Salesian during that stretch have been bitter pills for the Mustangs to swallow.
Through it all, however, Foltmer and Salesian”s Nightingale have a bond of mutual respect.
“We told our kids all week long that we expected this to be a dogfight and it came down to the last 15 to 20 seconds,” said Nightingale.
There were, in fact, 15 seconds remaining when the Mustangs” pounced on a fumbled snap by Parella at the Mustang 25.
Foltmer played the big opening-game win conservatively, but not overly so.
“You have to consider how good a Salesian team this is,” he said. “But you know it”s going to be one of the top teams in the division. Any time you look at them you”re seeing one of the premier programs in the North Coast Section for all these years. So I think it”s quite an accomplishment for us.”
