The Medina cheering section was silent. It seemed as if they couldn’t believe what they were watching.
Losing has become a rarity in Medina, and when it happens, it’s certainly not to a league opponent. The Mustangs hadn’t just won those games the last four seasons, they’ve dominated.
But after a 16-game winning streak in league play that dated back to 2019, Medina committed five turnovers — including four interceptions — in a 23-6 loss to Newfane in Week 2. While some people were wondering what was wrong with Medina, the Mustangs knew they just needed more time to come together.
But since losing to Newfane, a team it had beaten nine times in a row, Medina has found a late-season surge ahead of its contest at WNY Maritime/Tapestry at 2 p.m. Saturday. A four-game winning streak has the Mustangs sitting in first place in the Section VI Class C North division at 5-1.
With one divisional tilt left, Medina is keeping an eye on the rest of the league, with Newfane, Cleveland Hill and Alden all at 4-1. If the Mustangs win Saturday, they will clinch a share of the league championship in every scenario but one.
If Medina and Newfane are the only C North teams with one loss, the head-to-head tiebreaker goes to Newfane.
“Just facing a little bit of adversity for the first time,” Fry said. “Because, the past few years we’ve continued to win every league game. … We just don’t want to lose again.”
Heading into the season, Medina had to replace 12 players, many of which were veterans, on both sides of the ball. The loss to Newfane gave the Mustangs a wake-up call to pick up the pace after being outplayed physically.
But in the last four games, Medina has found its stride. Offensively, Medina has scored 18 of its 25 rushing touchdowns and are averaging 407 yards per game as a unit, while the defense has only allowed 25 total points.
Against its last four opponents — Cleveland Hill, Tonawanda, Akron and Alden — Medina has scored 33 points per game. And running back Christian Moss is ranked third in the section with 1,073 yards and has scored nine of his 13 touchdowns since the Newfane loss.
“We just made some tweaks on our offense and, with our line pulls and some of our misdirection things that just weren’t meshing right,” Valley said. “We really worked on our timing, our mesh points. Our goal is to force the defense to defend the entire field, horizontally and vertically. And, getting everyone to move at the varsity speed takes a little while as well. They’re working hard and getting better everyday.”
Quarterback Preston Woodworth has also taken strides as part of Medina’s offense the last four weeks. During training camp, the sophomore was in a three-man race for the job with classmate Hadrian Batista and junior Jerrell Nealy before throwing for 104 yards, two touchdowns and an interception against Roy-Hart/Barker.
Since throwing four interceptions against Newfane, Woodworth has thrown four of his seven touchdowns and no interceptions, along with completing 58.8% of his passes, including a season-high 159 yards against Akron in Week 5. Compared to where he was at the start of the season, Woodworth feels more relaxed when on the field.
“I’m just listening to Coach Valley and listening to what he’s teaching me to do,” Woodworth said. “… Coach Valley’s working with me more on my reads down the field and the O-line definitely with pulls and making sure we’re going the right way.”