Middleton makes impact with Mustangs

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This article was published 11/09/2017 (3044 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lynden Middleton was back on the gridiron for the Westman Wolverines’ home opener Saturday at Vincent Massey.

The only difference was he had traded in the familiar Westman burnt orange for the bold red of the St. Vital Mustangs, but the 21-year-old from Neepawa left off right where he ended last season’s Manitoba Major Junior Football League campaign.

Middleton didn’t compile 267 total yards and four touchdowns like he did in Westman’s final home game last season, a 41-38 loss to the St. James Rods, but his two second-half majors was exactly what the first-year Red River College business administration student was hoping for as St. Vital pulled away late for a 50-6 victory.

“All off-season I was like, ‘Week four, that’s the game we need to win,’” the five-foot-11, 185-pounder said. “It was a very meaningful game to me and I’m glad we got the outcome we had.”

After playing with the ’Reens as a receiver in 2014, Middleton jumped up to play in the Prairie Football Conference with the Winnipeg Rifles the following year. He returned to Westman last season as a dependable running back for Brady Dane’s squad.

However, it was a few of Middleton’s former Rifles teammates that encouraged him to come to camp with St. Vital (3-1).

“Right from there I pretty much knew I wanted to be a Mustang,” he said. “It was the best decision for me going to school in the fall.”

But Middleton wasn’t the only St. Vital running back who gashed the Wolverines (1-2) on a day when the temperature flirted with the 30-degree mark.

Logan Thacker jump-started the Mustangs’ ground game when he ripped off a touchdown run less than two minutes into the game.

Following a missed field goal by Amanj Palani that produced a single, Peter LeClair fired a deep pass down the left sideline to Brenden Cowan who hauled it in and found the end zone for a 61-yard major.

Westman struggled to engineer first downs and a blocked punt by St. Vital gave the visitors the ball back. The Mustangs couldn’t do anything with it but a roughing the kicker penalty on the Wolverines the following drive resulted in Palani booting a 23-yard field goal to make it 18-0.

The Wolverines forced a punt when Casey Conrad and Eugene Lawanga combined for a sack of LeClair with under three minutes left in the half. Westman drove it 52 yards for a TD, with quarterback Matthew Mott punching it in from two yards out on the final play.

The extra point was muddled and Westman trailed 18-6 at halftime, but that was as close as it would get.

Domenico Slobodian burst through the middle of Westman’s defence for a 39-yard TD run 5:32 into the third quarter and Middleton crossed the goal-line from one yard out less than four minutes later to extend the Mustangs’ lead to 32-6.

“The first half sucked,” Middleton admitted. “I was stressing all game, but once our offence got going and I put it in the end zone the first time it was fun from then on.”

A wind-assisted kickoff single by Cowan and another field goal from Palani pushed St. Vital’s lead to 30 points, as its running attack continued to wear down the Westman defence.

“You definitely noticed their defence slowed down a little bit and get tired as the game wore on,” Middleton said. “They were trying really hard to stop the run and it was noticeable. Even when they were faking the handoff to me I was getting tackled by two or three guys.”

Dane also thought his defence looked gassed in the second half.

“We get to the point where the defence is on the field for a 10-play drive, they get off for two plays and then they are back on,” Dane said. “It wears guys out and you saw in the second half we started slipping a little bit and gave up a little more and a little more and it just gets away from you.”

It didn’t help that the offence was stagnant for much of the second half.

Mott only completed 6-of-12 passes for 51 yards — Dustin Everett snagged three of them for 35 yards — and a late interception, while also fumbling the ball away once. Running backs Ty Rowan and Gage Martinook struggled to break free to the outside, recording 51 and 56 yards on the ground, respectively.

“We are definitely a team that leans on the run and they did a great job of shutting it down and keeping it bottled up inside,” Dane said of the St. Vital defence. “We didn’t break a lot outside and didn’t break a lot of big runs. I think our longest run was about 12 yards and that was the difference maker right there. We use the run to set up the pass and we weren’t able to get out of the backfield.”

Owen Roche hauled in an eight-yard TD pass early in the fourth before Middleton struck again, this time bouncing a carry to the outside before speeding past the Westman defenders to the end zone for a 61-yard score.

On the sidelines, his teammates yelled, “It’s personal.”

“Absolutely it was personal,” Middleton said. “I told Brandon’s coaches in the off-season that I was coming here (to St. Vital). They told the boys that they have a running back he can break tackles but he’s not going to break anything on us, he’s slow.

“When I broke free I was making sure they weren’t catching me.”

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