Cape rocks Middletown early, scrimmage levels out late
The Cape football team scrimmaged defending state champion Middletown Aug. 24 at Cavalier Stadium and through 40 plays, 20 on offense and 20 on defense, Cape took Middletown apart. The Vikings scored a pair of touchdowns, the first on a trap play to Juan Saez and the next on a play action pass for a touchdown to tight end Andrew Grau.
Andre Flowers, Justin Lopez, Zach Stevenson, Juan Saez and Mike Williams all carried the ball for positive yardage.
Grau, D.D. Gooch, Maurice Mills and Jason Wiberg all caught passes. Tavon Scott and Todd Keen alternated with the first unit while RG4 Learris Griffin continues to look good running the second offense.
The Cape defense sacked Division I quarterback prospect Darius Wade including on the first two plays by Andrew Grau and Thomas Ott, recording four sacks against Middetown’s spread offense and completely shutting down their running game.
"If you saw us at practice on Thursday you wouldn’t have predicted such a solid effort here today,” coach Bill Collick said. “I am really proud how our kids responded.”
When a joke was pitched to Collick about the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang with all things coming to balance and that he should take his 40-play yin-only experience and get on the bus, Collick laughed and said, “That's a good point because we definitely ain’t looking for no yang. We want to keep everything on the yin upside.”
But after a first team break where Cape’s second teams on offense and defense held an advantage over Middletown, the Cavaliers woke up and played inspired football as each first unit ran 10 more offensive plays
Cape yielded a touchdown on a long home run streak pattern, and another pass on the last play of the varsity scrimmage saw the Middletown receiver go out on the 1-yard line.
“You know that is something that concerns me about this team is that we jump out to a three-touchdown lead then get hit with some quick strikes, and next you know it’s 21-14 and we’re in a dogfight,” said offensive coordinator Herky Billings.
Cape will have a home scrimmage at Legends Stadium at 5 p.m., Thursday Aug. 29, versus Delmar and J.M. Bennett.
