MIDDLETOWN >> Memo to Middletown”s football team: Beware of strangers with a run-and-gun passing offense out of the tough streets of Oakland. Beware of huge pass protectors riding an eight-game win streak.
Unfortunately, the Mustangs never quite got the message and as a consequence on
Friday night were done in by a team — the Strellar Prep Thunder — that few, if any, Lake Countians had ever heard of. The 22-14 loss for Middletown, coming in the quarterfinal round of the North Coast Section Division V Playoffs on Bill Foltmer Field, ended Middletown”s season at 8-4.
Sadly, it was a game that the Mustangs led for most of the first half. Cameron Burston, the much-discussed Thunder quarterback, pulled his team into a tie at 14 all in the half”s final eight seconds with some daring scrambling before connecting with wideout Chanlder Gumbs.
Sadder still was a 10-yard scoring pass for the win from Burston — again after scrambling — to running back Morico Williams in the final two minutes of the game.
Burston, who was racked up a minute earlier and led off the field, came back into the game. He also scored on a 5-yard run in the first quarter and generally proved he was the “real deal” that Foltmer talked about in pre-game interviews.
The word making the rounds at Foltmer Field was that the 6-4 senior will go directly from high school into quarterbacking San Jose State.
“It was just one of those games that we didn”t play well enough to win,” said Foltmer. “We had breakdowns. It was a close game. We did some things well. We just happened to make a few more mistakes than they did.
“We gave them too much time to throw and when we did try to pressure him (Burston) he would get out of the pocket,” Foltmer added.
“We weren”t out-athleted,” Foltmer said. “We playhed them tough, but like I say, we made too many mistakes tonight.”
If they can be termed “mistakes,” the Mustangs hurt themselves by not being able to follow up on the 14-6 lead they held just before halftime and failing to convert a scoring opportunity from the Stellar Prep 14-yard line in the second half, where they turned the ball over on downs.
