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Middletown coach Eric Marszalek went further.
"Spievey is a once in a lifetime kind of back," he said. "He’s that good. We knew we’d have to defend him, but we couldn’t do it. Not only is he very good, Xavier’s offensive line did a nice job of opening up holes for him. In the end, Xavier was just better than us."
Spievey, who was the choice as Xavier’s outstanding offensive player, was quick to credit his line.
"I saw the holes before I got the ball," he said. "The line did a real great job, all I did was run hard."
For a while this game looked like the close one most in the crowd of 4,000 expected. Middletown scored the first time it touched the ball when Shamar Carr threw a 52-yard touchdown pass to Jashone Cunningham, who was named Middletown’s outstanding offensive player.
But on the ensuing drive, Xavier was smart enough to keep giving the ball to Spievey. On the second play, Spievey went 64 yards for an apparent touchdown, but a blocking in the back penalty -- the infraction occurred well behind the play -- negated the score. No matter.
Xavier ran the ball right down the Blue Dragons’ throats -- Mike Campbell carried twice for 20 yards on the drive -- and Spievey erased the penalty with a 10-yard touchdown run that tied the score at seven.
On Middletown’s next possession, Marszalek made a call that came back to bite him. On fourth and one from his own 42, he went for the first down out of a punt formation. But it fooled no one and Jaron Murphy lost a yard. That gave Xavier and Spievey the ball at the MHS 41.
On third down, quarterback Joe McDowell (3-6-1, 59 yards) hit Spievey in the right flat, and he zipped 40 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.
"I would do that again," said Marszalek. "It was clear we weren’t doing a good job of stopping them and I didn’t think position on the field would have much to do with the outcome. I wanted to hold on to the ball."
Middletown came right back on another lightning-stike TD from Carr to Cunningham (five receptions, 119 yards) from 41 yards out. Fran DiStefano’s conversion kick tied the score 14-14 with 9:04 left in the half.
"I was nervous at that point," said Marinan. "I thought then this might be a game in which whoever had the ball last would win."
But in big games, a mistake can mean the ballgame, and later in the quarter, MHS committed a deadly one. The Dragons stopped Xavier on fourth down at their own 41 for what looked like a momentum turning play. But on the first play, Carr fumbled the snap and Xavier recovered.
With Spievey on the bench, Halibozek (three carries, 25 yards) and Campbell (two carries, nine yards) got the ball to the one from where McDowell scored the go-ahead touchdown.
MHS (5-5-1) went nowhere on its next possession and Xavier marched 59 yards in eight plays to score a crushing touchdown on a 19-yard halfback option pass from Spievey to Halibozek with 34.6 seconds left in the half.
"The fumble was big," said Marinan. "And I thought it was huge to get that score just before the half. That was the second time we’ve used that play (the other was against East Haven) and both went for touchdowns."
The second half was all Xavier. Until Middletown’s closing drive against the Xavier subs, the Falcons held MHS to a minus three yards in the second half. The Dragons wound up with 70 yards in the half and 227 for the game.
"We felt if we could stop Middletown and get a score, the game would be ours," said Marinan. "That’s what happened."
MHS had an awful series to open the second half, going from a first and 10 on its 35 to a fourth and 34 at its own 11. JR Bagley’s punt from the goal line gave Xavier great field position at the MHS 39. It took just six plays for the Falcons to score, this one coming on a McDowell to Elijah Heckstall pass of 11 yards.
"I never thought the game would be close," said McDowell, who was starting his first game at QB since junior varsity ball due to the injury to regular QB Mike Crescimanno. "We had an excellent week of practice and I was 100 percent confident we would bury them."
Xavier (4-6-1) wrapped up its fourth win in a row over MHS by scoring twice more on runs of 41 and 32 yards by Spievey. MHS got a late touchdown on a three-yard run by Hampton Watson, who was named Middletown’s outstanding defensive player. Anthony DelMastro was named Xavier’s outstanding player on defense.
Xavier’s ability to run the ball -- and Middletown’s inability to do anything about it -- was the key to the Falcons’ overwhelming win. Xavier had 330 yards on the ground, almost eight yards per carry.
"You know, I didn’t think we played badly," said Marszalek. "From the point of view of doing the right things, we were OK. But we’ve struggled at tackling all year. I think it finally came down to physical things. Hey, it’s a lot to ask a good tackling team to stop Spievey and it’s a lot tougher when maybe you’re not that good a tackling team."
