The 6:00pm forecast from WIVK said that “The rain is moving over the mountains and into North Carolina. More rain is on the way, but it will be late tonight when it gets here.” They were wrong. Shortly after the game started on Friday night so did the rain, making it a wet first half for the Greenwaves and the Watertown Purple Dinosaurs Tigers.
The first half was a back and forth struggle with neither offense being able to get much done. During the 2nd quarter Midway was finally able to put a drive together and pushed the ball down inside the 5 yard line. Watertown’s defense held strong and the Waves were turned away after attempting 4 plays from the 3 yard line. Midway’s defense stepped up, forcing the boys in purple (yes, I said purple) to punt from deep inside their own territory and giving MHS excellent field position. The Green Team drove the ball inside the 5 again and were able to tack on 6 as Ray Ray pounded the ball past the pylons.
The big story for the boys from SOR continued to be their defense. Watertown had an offense capable of putting up a lot of points, but the MHS defense held them to less than 40 yards of offense for the entire first half. Having the deadly combination of Lyle’s speed and Robinson’s power on offense didn’t hurt either.
As the rain ended and the fog rolled in, Watertown opened the 2nd half with an onside kick which caught everyone off guard. Watertown took full advantage of their first possession of the 2nd half and quickly put 7 on the board. Later on in the 3rd, the Waves were again blessed with good field position and drove the ball down inside the 5. This time it was Seth Lyle who would take it in and push the score up to 12 – 7 in favor of SOR.
The score and the game remained close through the entire 2nd half. There needed to be a big play to help turn the momentum in either teams favor. That play came mid-way through the 4th quarter with Watertown going for it on 4th down. In stepped the man known only as Cupcake. Cupcake, seen here taking the Watertown QB for a ride, had a solid game, made this important stop and brought much needed energy and enthusiasm to the team in the 4th quarter.
The Waves had good field position yet again and were clinging to a slim 5 point lead when disaster almost struck. Lyle took the snap and went left to hand the ball off, the only problem was that the back and the entire offense went right. Seth improvised and made the most out of a bad situation, tucking the ball and scampering 40 yards down a wide open field for the touchdown that put the game away for the Greenwave.
The following extra point attempt was pushed back due to a penalty, which the Waves had very few of in this game(Thank the LORD and this new officiating crew). The Green Team put 2 on the board with a beautiful pass from Seth to Poe and put the score up to 20-7 MHS. The Waves defense got in on the action at the end of the game with HD, Harley Davidson sealing Watertown’s fate with a drive ending interception.
Congratulations Midway! The Waves travel to Oneida this week to begin a long stretch of region games in the 2nd half of the 2006 season.