WALNUT CREEK >> Dillon Tingle’s 3-yard touchdown run with three minutes remaining and the extra-point kick by junior varsity call-up Jorge Fonseca lifted the Middletown Mustangs to a 14-13 victory over the Berean Christian Eagles in non-league varsity football action Saturday afternoon in Walnut Creek.
Playing shorthanded because of the participation of a half dozen players at the Lake County Fair and further handicapped by the inability of starting running back Drake Harbison to play more than a couple of downs because of injury, the Mustangs (2-0) nevertheless found a way to bring home the road win.
“For us to go down there missing some of our starters, with not much depth and with Harbison not able to go, that’s a pretty nice road coming behind the way we did,” Middletown head coach Bill Foltmer said.
Nico Barrio sealed the victory with an interception in the final seconds after Berean Christian moved the ball to the Middletown 30-yard line.
“That’s as unorganized as we’ve been in the last 10 years,” Foltmer said. “With all the people we were missing, we had a hard time targeting the right combinations of players for different plays.”
The depth factor also came into play given that the game took place on Berean Christian’s artificial turf field on a warm September day. Given the tight nature of the game, Foltmer said there wasn’t much of an opportunity to sub in fresh legs.
“It was 90-100 on that turf and we had a lot of gassed kids by the end of the game,” Foltmer said.
Several key plays helped Middletown escape the Eagles’ homefield with a win. Perhaps the most important was a touchdown-saving tackle by middle linebacker Tingle, who ran down Berean Christian’s speedy Justice Jackson after he intercepted a Middletown pass in the end zone and had a chance to return it the length of the field for a score.
“That was a crucial play,” Foltmer said. “That kid has already gained 60-70 yards when Tingle caught him.”
While several combinations of Middletown players failed to click, that wasn’t the case for quarterback RH Hess and tight end Brad Clevenger. They were on the same page all game, according to Foltmer.
Hess completed 6 of 11 passes for 100 yards, almost all of that going to Clevenger, who finished with four catches for 86 yards and a touchdown, that coming on a 20-yard reception in the first quarter as Middletown jumped ahead 7-0.
“They worked well together,” Foltmer said.
Berean Christian closed to 7-6 on the ensuing kickoff when Jackson raced into the end zone for the score, however, the Eagles missed the extra-point kick. Berean Christian went ahead 13-7 in the second quarter on a 12-yard touchdown pass, with the extra-point good this time.
That was all the scoring until Tingle’s short run in the closing minutes, a play set up by a 20-yard completion from Hess to Clevenger on a critical third-and-12 conversion.
While the likes of Tingle, Barrio, Hess and Clevenger figured prominently in the win, so did sophomore Fonseca, who was called up from the JVs to replace Casey Chicoine, one of the missing Middletown players and the Mustangs’ regular placekicker.
“We don’t make both of the extra points and we don’t win,” Foltmer said. “That’s a lot of pressure to put on a kid who was just called up.”
Harbison, the featured back in Middletown’s offense, sustained a hamstring pull in practice on Wednesday and Foltmer said he didn’t know how effective the senior would be going into the game. The answer was not very as he carried the ball twice for eight yards but clearly wasn’t right, according to Foltmer. Barrio, Tingle and Nash Field helped fill the void Harbison’s absence created. Barrio led the Mustangs with 55 rushing yards while fullbacks Field and Tingle combined for another 63.
“Tingle got some really tough yards for us,” Foltmer said.
The Mustangs’ defense also came through at critical junctures of the game. Besides Barrio’s game-ending interception, defensive tackle Jared Pyzer had a big sack in the second half that helped turn the game’s momentum in Middletown’s favor.
“Pyzer’s sack really shook up the quarterback,” Foltmer said. “It came at a good point in the game for us.”
Middletown plays its first home Friday night against a 3-0 Moreau Catholic squad coming off a 50-21 victory over Salesian.
