Knighttime smothering: Middletown defense stifles Walkersville

Apr. 10—MIDDLETOWN — As the curtain fell on the scheduled portion of this most-unusual Frederick County football season, the unit that stood the tallest among the tangled web of teams was the Middletown defense.

The Knights smothered the highest scoring offense in the county this season for a 21-7 victory over Walkersville on Friday night.

The Lions managed their only points on a blocked punt by senior lineman Alus Mbella that junior teammate Jeremiah Franklin scooped up at the 6-yard line and carried into the end zone.

Otherwise, they weren't able to get anything else going after averaging 37 points through their first four games.

Franklin, a 6-4, 230-pound Boston College recruit at wide receiver, finished with one catch for 4 yards.

"Middletown played great. They deserve all of the credit," Walkersville coach Joe Polce said. "Our kids learned a hard lesson tonight. But hopefully we have a good week of practice. We have another game. So, hopefully, we can redeem ourselves next week."

Walkersville (4-1) will get that chance against Middletown (4-1) in what will amount to the de facto county championship game for the season.

Frederick County Public Schools tweaked the original format for the Week 7 games that was going to pit the champions of the two five-team divisions against one another and then match the rest of the teams across the divisions by record.

Instead, FCPS went with the two best teams, regardless of division, for the championship game and then matched the other teams comparably by record.

The tiebreaker between Walkersville, Middletown and Linganore, which all have the same record, was points allowed against common opponents. The common opponents were themselves, as they all played each other, and Urbana.

In the three common games they played, Walkersville surrendered 35 points, Middletown gave up 42 and Linganore allowed 58.

"Every year, Middletown and Walkersville is going to be a dog fight. We know that," Knights coach Collin Delauter said. "The great thing about this community is these guys grow up playing against each other. We knew all season long it was going to be a showdown, and it sure was."

The Middletown defense, which had been stout all season, shined, holding talented Walkersville running backs Naseem Pacheco and Josiah Jones in check and harassing Lions quarterback Andrew Stroka just about every time he dropped back.

The Knights won the battle along both lines of scrimmage. They finished with six sacks, with junior defensive end Vince Flook III playing a role on most of them.

"He's a beast on the end," senior teammate Matthew Mancini said. "He works hard in practice. He works hard outside of practice, and he gets it done."

Outside of a 29-19 loss to Linganore on March 19, the Middletown defense has not allowed a point.

The Knights shut out Brunswick in Week 1. They allowed an interception return for a touchdown against Oakdale, a kickoff return for a touchdown against Urbana and the blocked punt for a touchdown against Walkersville. They have only allowed 48 points all season, which is the second fewest in the county to Walkersville (42).

"We play as a team," senior quarterback and defensive back Gage Queen said. "As soon as one person starts wrapping up the ball carrier, six more people come and hit him."

Middletown has now won five games in a row against Walkersville, dating to 2017. It includes two games in 2019, when they met in the regular-season finale and then again in the playoffs.

With the defense humming, the offense proved to be opportunistic enough against a good Walkersville defense.

Queen found senior receiver Jayson Houck on the third play of scrimmage for a 48-yard touchdown. Senior running back Kadin Fisher scored on a 2-yard run up the middle midway through the second quarter, and Mancini took a short pass from Queen, broke some tackles and turned it into 32-yard touchdown with just over 8 minutes left in the game.

"It shows we are the best team in this county," Queen said. "[Walkersville] was talking. They were like, 'We are the best. Everybody looks up to us.' We came in and smacked them in the mouth when I threw that touchdown to Jayson. Then, it was over from there."

Follow Greg Swatek on Twitter: @greg_swatek