The opening game of the 2016 season saw many of our young players and players new to our team getting their first varsity action for the "Cardinal and White".  Emotions were high and it was a great day to play the game but unfortunately for Middlesex, turnovers became the story throughout the entire game. Three turnovers in the first half and three more in the second gave Pingree outstanding field position all afternoon.  The defense has to be credited with keeping us in the game through the first three quarters with three fourth down stops and an interception in the end zone.

Pingree scored first on a two-yard run but the defense stopped their 2-point pass for a 6-0 score. MX answered after the special teams forced a fumble by Pingree on a punt. MX answered quickly on a pass play from QB Derek DeMarzo '18 to Rory Glavin '17. Pat McGann kicked the PAT for a 7-6 MX lead.
 
Then Pingree took advantage of two MX turnovers to gain an 18-7 lead. But just before half time, MX mounted a TD drive with DeMarzo connecting with Kabelo Tsotetsi '19 to cut the Pingree lead to 18-14 at half. 
 
The second half had both teams exchanging punts until MX broke through at the end of the third quarter on a 9-yard TD run by Gabriel de los Santos. With the kick, MX took a 21-18 lead.  But turnovers again hurt MX in the fourth quarter allowing Pingree easy scores to end the game for a 38-21 win.
 
Although the offense produced a 300 plus yard effort, turnovers continually stopped them from finishing drives.  The defense, which played outstanding football for three quarters, wore down at the end of the game. 

Middlesex will play St. Sebastian's in the second game of the season this coming Friday night.