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Middies lose game, but not their pride

Fans applaud Middletown’s historic season

Middletown High School’s Nick McKnight (left) comforts Jerry Gates near the end of their 41-20 Division I playoff loss to Anderson on Saturday, Nov. 14, at the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium.

Staff photo by Nick Graham Middletown High School’s Nick McKnight (left) comforts Jerry Gates near the end of their 41-20 Division I playoff loss to Anderson on Saturday, Nov. 14, at the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium.

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By Skip Weaver, Staff Writer 2:04 AM Sunday, November 15, 2009

CINCINNATI — The Middletown High School football team’s season ended prematurely Saturday, Nov. 14, but there remains plenty of reasons to be happy.

This year’s Middies ended a 19-year playoff drought when they beat Princeton on the final day of the regular season, and they had the program’s first 10-win season since 1934.

Middletown also had big wins over East St. Louis (Ill.) and Moeller, but that doesn’t ease the pain of losing 41-20 to undefeated Anderson in the Division I, Region 4 semifinals Saturday at the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium.

“It was devastating,” MHS senior quarterback Caleb Watkins said. Watkins completed 13-of-26 passes for 85 yards and one touchdown, but the Middies had just 211 total offensive yards in the game and were held scoreless for the final 18 minutes and 10 seconds of the game.

But none of that kept the thousands of Middies fans on hand from cheering their team after the final seconds ticked off the clock.

“We want to say thanks to everyone for all their support,” Watkins said. “They helped us a lot this year. We gave them a good season and, hopefully, we’ve got this program going back to where it needs to be.”

Middletown coach Jason Krause felt the same way.

“It hurts,” Krause said of the loss. “It hurts to lose any football game, but especially one at this level when you felt you had a good chance to win.

“But there are a lot of positives to take away from this,” he continued. “This program is going in the right direction, and a lot of that is because of the senior leadership we had. All I said to the seniors after the game was, ‘Thank you.’ They put this program in this position. We faced ups and downs, but their great leadership will help us move on from here. It’s going to hurt for a few days, but down the road they will look back and realize how great of a season this was.”

Krause also thanked the many fans for their support. “Tremendous,” he said. “They made this run so much more enjoyable. They showed a lot of Middie pride.”

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