Barons’ Middlebrooks ends it

COSTA MESA — It took a great effort by Kyle Middlebrooks to finally put Fountain Valley in command of Thursday night’s nonleague football game against Palos Verdes.

The junior tailback took a direct handoff from quarterback Dominic Ragland, first had to hurdle a would-be tackler at the line of scrimmage and then squirmed his way past a host of Sea Kings and sprinted toward the end zone. Middlebrooks finally reached it but not before he twisted and turned his way the final seven yards to paydirt.

The 41-yard touchdown run with 11:41 to play allowed the Barons to finally put away the Sea Kings and was the final score in a 17-3 Fountain Valley victory in its homecoming game at Orange Coast College.

The mad dash by Middlebrooks sent him on his way to a 148-yard performance on 19 carries.

Middlebrooks has rushed for more than 100 yards in each of Fountain Valley’s four victories.

The Barons improved to 4-1 overall although they gave a somewhat lackluster performance against a winless Palos Verdes (0-4) team. Fountain Valley never trailed yet couldn’t shake the Sea Kings.

The Barons took a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter when Ragland hit Artie O’Keefe with a five-yard touchdown pass on third and goal. Bryan Erskine provided the point after at the 2:58 mark of the quarter.

Palos Verdes, which hasn’t scored a touchdown in three of its four games, answered the touchdown with a 35-yard field goal by J.R. Aguirre with 8:42 left in the first half. Fountain Valley got those three points back on its ensuing drive as the Barons moved from midfield down to the Sea Kings 15-yard line where the drive stalled and Erskine came on to boot a 22-yard field goal with 3:53 left before halftime.

The Barons took a 10-7 lead at the break.

Although neither team was able to score in the third quarter, Fountain Valley’s defense had a big hand in keeping the Sea Kings out of scoring range. Palos Verdes caused a turnover on the first Fountain Valley possession of the second half when Aguirre intercepted Ragland at the Barons’ 45. The Sea Kings went nowhere, though, as Awwad Yasin had two tackles for loss and Scott Bailey dropped running back Scottie Trudnowski for a two-yard loss on third down.

The Barons also made a big stop on Palos Verdes’ next possession. This time, linebacker Dylan Itkoff took down Sea Kings quarterback Max Balz on a four-yard loss on third down from the Palos Verdes 41 to force a punt with 3:58 left in the third quarter.

That stop set up an 88-yard drive by the Barons that culminated on Middlebrooks’ 41-yard scoring run.

In all, the Barons recorded eight tackles for loss. Yasin had three of those tackles and O’Keefe two.

Bailey also had an interception.

Fountain Valley is idle next week. The Barons open Sunset League play on Oct. 16 against Esperanza at Valencia High in Placentia. Kickoff is 7 p.m.

In other Thursday games:

Marina 41, Orange 0

Sam Wilson rushed for 225 yards and five touchdowns as Marina rolled past the winless Panthers at Fred Kelly Stadium at El Modena High.

John Taylor ran for the final touchdown of the night for the Vikings who won their second-straight game to improve to 2-2.

Last week, Marina was a 21-14 winner of Huntington Beach.

The victory was the first shutout recorded by Marina since a 12-0 win over Paramount opened up the 2003 season.

The Vikings play at Western Oct. 10 in their final nonleague game.