“They played a good game against Elder in the opener,” said the Middies coach, who will lead his team onto the field at West for a 7 p.m. kickoff. “They’ve got some talented players on that team, a number of Division I (college) commits. They’re a real athletic team, and their defense is real solid.”
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West needs a win in one of its last three games to at least match last season’s total. Middletown (0-7, 0-5) is trying to snap a losing streak that has reached 17 overall and 12 in the GMC dating back to a 36-13 win at Princeton in the 2015 regular-season finale.
Firebirds coach Larry Cox believes Engleka’s tough completion theory has up and down sides.
“I don’t think you could look at our record and think much different,” he said. “There’s no lesser of two evils there. Inherently, what we try to teach our kids is to compete all the time — not just because of our opponents, but because you owe it to yourself. You owe yourself your best effort, no matter what happens. On top of that, it’s a GMC school, so you know you’re going to be playing a tough opponent.
“We don’t look down our nose at anybody. It’s going to be tough They’ve got some tough, hard-nosed kids who are going to play hard the entire game. We have to worry about ourselves.”
“All I can tell you is this — every week, we’ve got to show up. That’s by design. You want to play the best competition week in, week out if you want to see how good you can be. That’s what you have to do. You have to fight every week, but you leave yourself open for seasons like this. That’s a double-edged sword. You’ve got to learn in years where you’re not as successful as you’d like to be how to handle that, how to handle adversity.”
Both offenses are struggling. Middletown, led by senior quarterbacks Zach Maloney and Blake Marshall, is ninth in the 10-team GMC in total offense and scoring. Maloney ranks fourth among GMC quarterbacks with 761 passing yards, just ahead of the 746 compiled by sophomore quarterback MyJaden Horton while piloting a West offense that ranks 10th in total offense and scoring.
Cox is impressed by Middletown’s senior defensive tackles, 6-foot-2, 260-pound Ayron Thompson and 6-1, 260-pound Keion Williams, who share the team lead and rank second in the GMC with 55 tackles each.
“They’re very good up front,” said Cox, whose Firebirds have won four straight and eight of the last 10 against Middletown. “It’s pretty impressive when a defensive tackle leads the team in tackles. Usually, it’s a linebacker or maybe a strong safety. We believe games are still won up front, and those two are playing really, really hard.
“From an offensive-skill standpoint, they’ve got kids who can go the distance at any time. We’ve got to limit their big-play capability. We’ve got to tackle well.”
Engleka is happy to have two senior quarterbacks. He hopes their experience will help Middletown handle a West defense that tries to keep opponents guessing.
“They like to jump into and out of different fronts and different coverages,” he said. “We’ll have to play assignment football on offense. Zach’s a pretty sharp kid. Blake is smart as well.”
Engleka expects Maloney to be back this week after missing the second half of last week’s 41-14 loss at Mason with an injury.
Cox just hopes his players maintain their enthusiasm.
“I like our kids and the way they keep coming out and fighting,” he said. “We’ve got some young kids. We started nine sophomores last week. We’ve just got to hang in there and keep coaching them up, do the right things fundamentally and keep fighting.”
Friday’s game
What: Middletown (0-7, 0-5 GMC) at Lakota West (1-6, 1-4 GMC), 7 p.m.
Where: Firebird Field, 8940 Union Centre Blvd., West Chester Township
Last year: Lakota West won 33-7
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