Football: Junior Chemics steamroll Oilers

by Cory Butzin

The Midland junior varsity football team used a suffocating defense and a power running attack to maul visiting Mount Pleasant, scoring 26 second-quarter points, en route to a 47-0 victory over the Oilers Wednesday at Midland Community Stadium.

“I’m very pleased with our effort,” said Midland coach Matt Starling. “I didn’t expect this type of score. We got on the right side of the momentum and were able to capitalize off of that.”

It took a little while for the Chemics to find that momentum, though, as Mount Pleasant came out and matched their defensive tenacity early in the first. The two teams traded punts until late in the first when Midland took control of the ball and Chemic running back Paulo Balanza took control of the game.

Midland kept giving Balanza the ball and he kept running it over, around, and through Mount Pleasant all the way to the goal line where he plunged in from inches out to put the Chemics on the board. Matt Frazier’s extra point made it 7-0 Chemics with 2:20 left in the first.

That got the ball rolling for a huge second quarter.

On Midland’s first possession of the second, Balanza was toting the rock again, and again he couldn’t be stopped as he scampered 18 yards for a score to push the Chemics’ lead to 14-0 following Frazier’s extra point.

From there the route was on.

Midland turned to some trickery on the ensuing kickoff and it paid off as Alex Albrecht was able to recover a pooch kick and give the Chemics the ball near midfield.

Alex Rapanos then found Albrecht for a 44 yard gain through the air, followed immediately by Balanza’s third touchdown, this one from 12 yards out. The point after try was no good.

With just over four minutes remaining in the half, T.J. Wilson added a score, and it seemed like the onslaught was nearly over.

But not yet.

Mount Pleasant turned the ball over on downs with :38 left in the half, and on the first play from scrimmage Rapanos found Albrecht deep along the sideline for a 33-yard touchdown to give the Chemics a 37-0 lead going into intermission.

“We rode our defense,” Starling said. “We got ahead, got going downhill on them, and they had a hard time stopping us. We were really physical up front and I loved to see that.”

Chris Schreiber and Jackson Fisher added touchdown runs in the second half as Midland’s defense kept up the pressure to record the shutout.

“We’ve got to make sure we learn from this and continue the process of getting better every week,” Starling said. “We’ll enjoy this one tonight, but we’ve got a big game next week in Bay City, so we’ve got to get them ready for that, starting tomorrow.”

Midland (1-0) will take to the road Thursday, September 4 when they travel to take on the Wolves of Bay City Central. Game time is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Photos by Cory Butzin & Dave Williams