Next game
What:
Division I, Region 4 football quarterfinal
Who: Middletown Middies (9-1) vs. Moeller Crusaders (9-1)
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7
Where: Lockland Stadium
Radio: WPFB-AM (910)
Series: Moeller leads 5-1
MIDDLETOWN — For some Middletown High School football fans, the details of the last playoff game the Middies competed in might be a little hazy, but not for those who played the game.
The year was 1990 and the Middies, making their third appearance in four years in the state playoffs, had to face Moeller — a team they had not beaten in four previous meetings — in the first round.
None of them knew at the time that nearly 20 years would pass before another Middletown team would reach the postseason.
“It was exciting,” said Chris Wells, a senior linebacker who now is an assistant coach on the Hamilton High football staff working under Jim Place, who was the Middies coach in 1990. “We knew about Moeller because we had lost to them the year before in the playoffs, but we had dedicated ourselves to the weight room in the offseason.”
The Middies went on to win that playoff game 21-17 — the program’s only win against the Crusaders — but then lost to Princeton the following week.
“We never thought about being underdogs,” Wells said. “I remember being asked by a reporter after we beat Moeller if we thought coming into the game if we could win. I told him I had better have thought that.
“It was the best victory of my career. It’s one no one can take from us.”
Fellow Middie defender Scott Wills agreed.
“I remember that game to this day,” said Wills, who would go on to play at Morehead State University after high school. “It was the greatest time in my life.”
“It’s great to see them back on top,” Wills said. “Twenty years has been long enough. I hope they lay it all on the line.
“They are going to remember this for the rest of their lives. I wish them all luck. I hope it’s not another 20 years before the next one.”
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