Golf: Knights stay hot; "roll" over Westminster, 159-164

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

                         

WESTMINSTER-The Middletown High School Knights Golf team is on an absolute roll. After a tough start to their season which reached a head when they came in second place in a tri-match between the South Carroll Cavaliers and the Smithsburg Leopards they have managed to flip what easily could have been a season that begin to fly off the rails into a season that appears to be in a good spot to make it back to a state championship that they’ve desperately wanted to have a spot in.

And, that roll continued on Tuesday August 30^th as Middletown knocked off the Westminster Owls by a score of 159-164 at Westminster National Golf Course.

More impressively is that the level of play for the Knights has not dropped off the table from last year to this year, something that would be tough to accomplish after losing two college bound golfers in Jake Darr (Washington & Jefferson) and Nick DeSimone (Shepherd).

Darr had one of the most illustrious careers in Middletown golf history qualifying for all four of the state championships that happened while he was on the Golf team. DeSimone had a career, that while not at the level of Darr’s, was still a solid career with DeSimone being called on to deliver for the Knights season after season.

The remnants of last years’ team included sophomore Joey Weiland and seniors Andrew Heon and Robbie Houck but even with three returning team members, questions about what the Knights were abounded.

Could Weiland and Heon continue to play at the level they played at last year?

Who would step up and fill in the shoes of DeSimone and Darr?

Could Houck take the role as one of the top three golfers on the team?

Who would be the #4 golfer for the Knights to help get them to Districts?

After their first two tri-matches, Middletown really didn’t have the answers to those questions. The Knights, whether it was rust or inexperience were not playing the high level of golf that has become commonplace for that team and it showed in the results that came back in those early matches.

And, then something in how the Knights played changed drastically from August 22^nd to August 24^th. On August 22^nd, the Knights had just lost to Smithsburg and South Carroll, two teams that didn’t qualify for states as a team. On August 24^th, the Knights went out and shot a 157 on the way to dismantling the Boonsboro High School Warriors and the Brunswick High School Railroaders.

All of the questions that were being asked of the team above have been answered emphatically over the past two matches by the Knights.

Both Weiland and Heon have regained their form completely shooting a 38 and 36 respectively yesterday to lead the Knights.

Robbie Houck has become the hottest golfer on the Knights so far; covering up for Darr and DeSimone quite nicely as Houck has dropped his score in every match and dropped his score down to a season-low 40 yesterday.

The #4 spot has also been filled up well for Middletown, as a litany of golfers from Justin Arnold to Nick Bradley to Noah Leidig yesterday have chopped their scores down low enough to slide in the #4 spot on the scorecard.

Life is good for the Knights right now and yesterday’s match was the perfect indication of how good things are. From the top to the bottom, the Knights were playing confident golf yesterday whether it was in their tee shots (which were long and usually on fairways) or their putting (accurate and precise), Middletown looked like a team who was on a mission to win and cut down anything that got in the path of that.

Now, Middletown will have a quick one day turnaround as on Thursday September 1^st they will take on the Frederick Cadets from Clustered Spires Golf Course. More importantly for Middletown, it will give them another game to soak up the fact they are playing as good a golf as Middletown has seen in a while.