Charles E. Shoemaker/
The Gazette
Avery Graham broke a 57-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, but that would be all Clarksburg could manage in a 21-7 playoff loss to Middletown Friday.
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In compiling consecutive 10-0 regular seasons, the Clarksburg football team adhered to a tried-and-true formula: Control the clock, play staunch defense and, above all, stay fundamentally sound.
The Coyotes paid the price for straying from those principles in Friday's 21-7 home loss to Frederick County's Middletown (8-3). The defeat knocked second-seeded Clarksburg (10-1) from the Class 2A West Region playoffs at the semifinal stage.
"All the power to Middletown, they came out and did a better job than we did tonight," Clarksburg coach Larry Hurd said. "We didn't play disciplined football."
The Coyotes showed a susceptibility to such outings during the regular season. On opening night, Sept. 5, they trudged to a 12-7 win over Walter Johnson (1-9). They were again sluggish on Oct. 10, a 25-14 win over B-CC (2-8).
For the most part, Clarksburg was brilliant during 2008; when it wasn't, it was still good enough to win. That was, until it ran into the third-seeded Knights and their red-hot senior quarterback, Rob Michels.
Michels finished 17 of 32 for 202 yards and mixed in a handful of plays with his feet. His three touchdowns (and one interception) all came during a first half in which he autopsied the Coyotes' defense for 146 yards on 14 of 23 passing.
Middletown held the ball for 8 minutes and ran 22 plays in the second quarter, all on two touchdown drives.
"We just kept finding holes in their defense," Michels said. "Their linebackers were shooting out, and the curls were open, the wheels were open. It was just perfect. If there was a film that we could work every day and say, ‘That's how you run an offense,' it would be that first half."
Clarksburg managed just four first downs in the entire half. Three were on an impressive 11-play drive to open the game; the fourth was Avery Graham's 57-yard touchdown run on the Coyotes' next possession.
But that score, which gave the Coyotes a 7-0 lead, would be their last. They didn't threaten in the rest of the first half. Senior Mark Small put them on the doorstep in the third quarter with a 53-yard run, but Clarksburg couldn't punch it in on four plays from the 7-yard line.
"Our strategy was to hit them," said Michels, also a safety on the Knights' defense. "We knew if we hit them real hard, we had more physicality than they did. They had the speed on us, but the bigger guy won today."
So much for staunch defense and controlling the clock. But the Coyotes also fell victim to themselves.
Increasingly frustrated as the game wore on, Clarksburg lost 64 yards on seven penalties, including two personal fouls. The team also fumbled three center-quarterback exchanges and turned the ball over three times.
It was an unfitting end to what had been a third season of progress in Clarksburg.
Graham became the first Coyote to commit to play at a BCS Conference program when he chose the University of Maryland last spring; he averaged 10.8 yards per carry this season and was a terror at linebacker.
Quarterback Cody Martin broke out in his third varsity campaign, completing 58 percent of his passes for 1,659 yards and 24 touchdowns, against just three interceptions. He found two go-to targets in Myles Daughtry (30 catches, 773 yards) and Andrew Veith (28, 562), while Small (982 rushing yards) paced the ground game. The defense yielded just 7.4 points per game.
"It's sad to see [the seniors] go; they deserve better," Hurd said. "But then again, we didn't do it when it came time. … We talked about it all week long, not being able to make those mistakes in a playoff football game. But we did. And hopefully our program learns a lesson from that."
