Middle Creek football coach Mike Castellano refused to take the game ball after the Mustangs’ 21-7 win over Northern Durham Friday night. Instead his passed the “trophy” to his assistant coaches. But he’ll take the victory.

By Bonitta Best

Correspondent

DURHAM -- Middle Creek football coach Mike Castellano refused to take the game ball after the Mustangs’ 21-7 win over Northern Durham Friday night. Instead his passed the “trophy” to his assistant coaches. But he’ll take the victory.

“It wasn’t a good first win, but we got the win,” he said. “We played well enough to win and that’s a start. Northern is a good team and we knew they’d come out hard.”

The Mustangs scored all their points in the first half, galloping out of the gate in their first possession of the game.

The team drove 81 yards in 10 plays that culminated in quarterback David Salmon scooting in from the 19 with just 9:32 left in the first quarter.

Running back Naylaan Lopez gave Middle Creek its final two touchdowns with runs of seven and three yards for a 21-0 lead.

Meanwhile, the Mustangs defense held the Knights to 38 first-half rushing yards and intercepted QB Brandon Brown twice, the second a disappointing one in the end zone just before the half.

But the Knights regrouped at halftime, putting together their best drive of the game – an 11-play, 77-yard drive that Brown finished with a 14-yard strike to wide receiver Caleb Stocking.

“That’s why we start every second half thinking the score is 0-0, whether we’re up or down,” said Middle Creek QB David Salmon, who completed 17 of 24 passes for 147 yards and one interception. “We didn’t score in the second half, and we needed to come out and start fresh.”

The Knights had a couple of opportunities to make things even more interesting but Mustangs’ D had other ideas.

After holding Middle Creek to 3-and-out, Northern had a little momentum going into the final period. With a 1st-and-goal from the 9, the Mustangs not only held but pushed the Knights back to a 4th-and-22, which they couldn’t capitalize.

Northern’s final drive ended with a fumble recovery by Drew Mcbeth, who ran it back 38 yards to the Northern 44.

“We got rolling in the first half and picked up some momentum, but we couldn’t sustain it in the second,” Castellano said. “We have much to work on.”