It was a great night for football. The temperature was dropping, “Football Weather” was finally here and the Coalfield Yellow Jackets had brought their self-proclaimed state bound team to SOR for the most anticipated region match-up of the season. As we rounded the final curve on highway 72, we found that parking was hard to come by since the fans from both schools were out in full force. The valley, the field, the stands and the fences were covered in a sea of Green and White and a large swath of burnt orange.
The game started quickly with the Midway Defense, decked out in their brand new uniforms (complete with names), forcing a 3 and out. Coalfield’s Defense returned the favor and the Greenwave was also forced to punt on their opening drive.
Coalfield got on the board first with a 3 yard run by Brandon Davis, but the extra point failed leaving the score at 6-0. Midway responded by putting together a solid drive with Seth Lyle getting loose to the one yard line. This would be one of many times that Coach Moser would call upon the fence walkers to give him a good read on where the ball was. Lyle and the Waves punched it into the endzone and tacked on the PAT to go up 7-6 with 2 minutes left in the half.
Unfortunately for the Greenwave fans, that was just enough time for Coalfield to drive the ball down into field goal range, allowing them to take a 9-7 lead at the half thanks to a 20 yard kick.
After forcing a Coalfield punt early in the 2nd half, Midway got the ball back on the 35 yard line. Several good plays, including some good runs by Poe and a nice catch by Stansbury, brought the ball down inside the five yard line. Seth would again try the keeper, using a fake handoff to Ray to try to pull the defense away. At least one Coalfield defender was not fooled and sent Lyle into a helicopter spin as he tried to go up and over the pile. The ball, which popped out in the middle of Lyle’s spin, happened to fall right into the hands of a Coalfield defender and it was a foot race to the other end of the field. Following a little pitch back to Coalfield’s Davis, it went into the books as a 99 yard fumble return. That brought the score to 15-7 Coalfield.
A turn of events like that could be tough to over come, but the Waves did just that. Another good drive with nice runs by Lyle and Poe moved the ball down the field. The drive was capped off by a big 46 yard TD by Ray Ray Robinson, which brought the score to 15-13.
This is where it got a little nasty. As Ray was running into the end zone, a Coalfield player took a shot at Midway’s Chinn (not sure which one) who was trailing the play 30+ yards. Coach Moser began to yell because no flag was thrown and screamed for a penalty for the cheap shot. A flag was thrown however it was on Coach Moser not the opposing team. No foul language was used, he wasn’t 20 yards on the field, yet the ref dropped the flag. A flag which caused the 2-point conversion, which could have tied the game, to be converted from the 18 after an unsportsmanlike conduct call.
But the Waves weren’t done just yet, the defense stood strong again and got the ball back giving Coach Moser a chance to engineer a 2 minute drill. Midway had the ball with roughly 2 minutes on the clock and around 80 yards to the endzone. The Waves went to the air 4 consecutive times, leading to 4 incompletions and Coalfield being able take a knee to run the clock out. Final score 15-13, Coalfield.
Penalties plagued the Green Team yet again. After 2 games of seeing the number of penalties against Midway be more than double the number of their opponents, one starts to wonder if the Boys from SOR are possibly being watched more closely than others by the men in stripes.
On a brighter note, the Midway crowd came to life in the 4th and final stanza. With some help from Tyler Stockton, it was the loudest I’ve heard the fans in a couple years and was almost enough to help push their team to a win. T he Waves also played one heck of a ball game. The defense continues to play strong and the offense looks better with each game. Throughout the night, Poe & Lyle were always just that one missed tackle or block away from the dance floor. Take away the fumble on the 1 and several dropped passes (not to mention the 2-point conversion attempt from the 18) and it would have been a different outcome.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Waves this week. Midway plays host to Watertown this Friday night.