Saturday’s game
What: Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown, Lima Senior at Middletown, 7 p.m.
Where: Barnitz Stadium, 1211 South Main St., Middletown
Last meeting: Middletown won 49-14 in 2010
Middletown High School’s football season will begin Saturday night with excitement and uncertainty.
The Middies face high-powered Lima Senior in a Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown contest at Barnitz Stadium, and the hosts won’t be at full strength.
Running back Allante Simmons and wide receiver Xavier Peters are out for disciplinary reasons, with Simmons sitting three games and Peters one. Offensive tackle Matt Muterspaw will be sidelined around six weeks with a broken fibula.
“Tough decisions and move on. We’ve got to keep marching,” Middletown coach Chris Wells said. “I don’t see anybody hanging their head because of a little adversity. We’re optimists.”
This is a renewal of an old Greater Miami Conference rivalry. Lima’s last season in the GMC was 1999, though the Spartans and Middies played eight times between 2001 and 2010.
“To us, Middletown is probably the biggest rival we have because there’s no close schools our size,” said Lima coach Mike Fell, whose team plays in the Toledo-based Three Rivers Athletic Conference.
The Spartans were Division II playoff qualifiers last year (losing to Harrison 37-36 in the first round) and return a stable of offensive weapons in the spread.
They include quarterback Darius Gordon, who threw for 3,011 yards and 36 touchdowns with six interceptions, and his top three targets — Pittsburgh commit Ruben Flowers (65 catches, 1,314 yards, 13 TDs), Rico Stafford (23 catches, 545 yards, 11 TDs) and Demontay Liles (35 catches, 464 yards, five TDs).
“We’re pretty explosive,” said Fell, with Lima scoring 47 points per game last season (while giving up 28). “We’ve also got a brand-new offensive line. They’ve done a nice job in two-a-days, and they know how important it is that they do a good job. But they have almost no varsity experience among them.”
The Spartans’ 3-5-3 defense gives up a lot of points, but as Fell pointed out, Lima doesn’t have a lot of long drives, so the defenders are on the field quite a bit.
Middletown’s defense is keyed by Vincent Calhoun in the secondary. Wells said he might go to a cornerback position in certain situations, but mostly he’ll be in the middle of the field at free safety.
“I think we played pretty good defense in the preseason,” said Wells, mentioning tackle Soulin Fowlkes, inside linebackers Jamar Thomas and Zach Rose, and defensive backs Eethan Edwards and Marquise Petty.
“I think they’re physical on defense, and against a new offensive line, we don’t want our quarterback getting hammered,” said Fell, a 1979 Lima graduate and former Spartan quarterback. “I know they’re going to blitz like crazy and try to play us tough man, so we’ll see what we’ve got.”
The Middies have transitioned to the Wing-T offense this year. On Wednesday, Wells said he didn’t have a clear starting quarterback in the battle between Conner Patterson and Blake Marshall.
Calhoun, Petty and Jaevan Wright are expected to be among the running backs who will see action against Lima.
“We like to spread the ball around and not be so one-dimensional,” Wells said. “I think our backfield action is going well. We really need to work on our blocking assignments.”
Middletown holds a 34-17-2 edge in this series and has won the last eight meetings. The Spartans’ last victory was a 49-7 decision in 1999, and their last win at Barnitz Stadium came in 1995 (30-3).
About the Author