Football: Middletown takes on Manchester Valley in unique atmosphere

By Ben Spector
\Winning After MidKnight

 

MIDDLETOWN-Home-field advantage is a very real thing when it comes to sports. Pulling up on a bus and hearing a hostile crowd coming in your direction can lead to some of the toughest and most cocky teams getting shaken to their core.

The atmosphere on Friday September 2^nd when the Middletown High School Knights Varsity Football team heads to Manchester, Maryland to take on Manchester Valley High School will be unique for a completely different reason.

The game on Friday will be the first time that the students of Manchester Valley High School and North Carroll High School, which closed after last year, will play in a major sporting event together.

It would’ve been a unique atmosphere to begin with but adding to the strangeness of the situation is the fact that up until last year the Mavericks and the former North Carroll Panthers were bitter rivals and that there are still a number of parents who had children who went to North Carroll High School that are actively in litigation against the Carroll County Public School system in an attempt to prevent their children from attending Manchester Valley.

With all that providing as close to a political backdrop as you can get in high school sports Middletown and Manchester Valley will take on each other from the Carroll County school at 7:00 p.m. as the Knights look to start their season in the same way they did last year – with a massive win.

Last year, the Knights played North Carroll in the first game of the season and took down the Panthers with ease by a score of 31-0 in a game that was completed at halftime due to a thunderstorm.

From, there on neither North Carroll’s nor Manchester Valley’s season would go as planned as both teams would end up with a 3-7 record to end the regular season. But, due to the state playoff rules and a weak 1A West Region the Panthers and the Mavericks would end up playing each other in the playoffs with the Mavericks winning 16-0.

Both, teams were essentially in a rebuilding mode last year but even with them combined together the Manchester Valley program is not going to be a powerhouse in Carroll County and shouldn’t give the Knights a too much of a game.

If things do go sour for the Knights it will be because the running game of Middletown did not succeed. On paper the Mavericks are a team that will give up a lot of yards on the ground, something which plays right into Middletown’s strengths with the Knights hoping to force their run game on opponents throughout the year.

Middletown on the other hand is looking to use that running offense to reverse their fortunes and take what have been two straight years under .500 into a winning season and possibly a playoff berth for the Knights.

For the Knights, they’ll head down to Manchester to start what they hope will be a long, positive ride that ends deep in playoffs even though the opening step is starting under dark clouds and tumultuous times for the Mavericks.