[MIJB#19]

Maassluis At Frederick Recap
The odds were in favor of the Frederick Red Menace, but the Maassluis Merchantmen felt like they had a chance against last year's playoff team. And today was a good day for Justin McDavid to show how much he has really improved.
The Menace got first possession of the game but got off to a bad start. Jackie Percy saw his first pass blocked by Deon Chapa and on second and third down, Charles Gomez was the man with an assist on a 0-yard run and by hurrying Percy into a bad throw.
The Merchantmen got their first drive rolling with McDavid steering. Despite a sack early on, McDavid passes for first downs to Vincent Lopez and Gregory Monti, while Randy Harris and Jonathan Smith rotated well and ran for gains too. When Smith converted a third-and-one on the Frederick 25-yard line, he basically set up a pass from McDavid to Bryce Ewald to get the visitors 7-0 up. History learns that McDavid led the Merchantmen into early leads more often then not.
The Menace tried to get maniacal, yet came a little short and punted from the Maassluis 36-yard line. Despite hardly completing a pass, McDavid led the Merchantmen into a first-and-ten at the Fredrick 10-yard line. Yet, McDavid got overwhelmed by his succes and tossed an interception to Alton Steele. The Merchantmen defense forced a three-and-out to get possession back. Randy Harris ran twice, but on his second run, Harris fumbled and again Steele scored a turnover by recovering the ball.
James Cull and Daryl Layman started running, but a penalty led to a third-and-six situation. Percy stepped back, but center J.J. Burroughs let him down and Harold Wells and Charles Gomez sacked Percy to forc a punt.
The Menace defense then stopped the visitors. THe Merchantmen defense did the same, but the Dutch offense failed again.The Menace got the ball back with just over four minutes left to get back in. On a normal second-and-fourth situation around the middle line, Percy launched a bomb towards the Merchantmen redzone, yet linebacker Cody CLuff intercepted there and returned the ball unstopped for 68 yards and a 14-0 lead with just over two minutes left in the half.
Percy was shaking all over and failed to get all his passes catches. With a minute left, the visitors got the ball back on a punt. But when you expect them to end the half, Jonathan Smith ran for 10 yards, only to fumble the ball and see it returned to the Maassluis 11-yard line. The Menace got 52 seconds to advance 11 yards. Runs by Cull failed, but on third-and-eight Layman got it done and put the Menace closer at 7-14 down.
Just when the home team figured the half was over, Maassluis had a little surprise. Lonnie O'Reilley returned a short kockoff for 23-yards and got Maassluis going. On first-and-ten, a pass interference penalty was called and Maassluis had 4 seconds with the clock stopped to kick in a 54-yard field goal. THe insecure Cary COles kept it cool and put his team 17-7 up.
In the second half, the Merchantmen got the kickoff return, yet Devin Henson fumbled the ball after a 27-yard return and was backed up by teammate Charlie Martins. With Harris still on fire, McDavid hardly had to do something, yet the Merchantmen sailed into the red zone with ease. Vincent Lopez ran from 12-yards to the endzone to put his team 24-10 up.
Percy and Layman then kept the Red Menace moving, yet a sack from Wells on thrid-and-six forced a punt. The Merchantmen started the ball control game and ran like it was normal. When the punted, nobody expected that Darron Doyle would return the punt well, especially not for 92-yards and a touchdown, like he did. The Menace looked back in the game 14-24 down and with still 16 minutes left.
With McDavid failing to consume time, Percy got the ball back, but failed on third down. On fourth-and-ten, the Menace gambled with a fake punt and punter Cameron Funches couldn't connect as Desmond Craig defended the pass.
McDavid found Monti for 22 yards moving Maassluis back into the redzone and despite some misfortune, Coles kicked in a 29-yard field goal for a 27-14 lead.
With less then ten minutes left, Frederick needed two touchdowns to go ahead. Percy knew that and had a 31-yard pass to Marshall Fisher, but his men then failed and the home team settled for a 45-yard field goal.
On the next drive, Maassluis was forced to punt and Fredrick had close to five minutes. Percy converted a third down, but the team decided to punt from the Maassluis 42-yard line with just over three minutes left. The Menace got lucky and got the ball back with just over two minutes left.
Percy connected for a first down, and on fourth-and-five from the Maassluis 7-yard line, Percy went for it and found Todd Phillips to get back in the game.
Or not, the Merchantmen recovered the onside kick and two time outs were too little to get the ball back. Harris ran twice and McDavid kneeled to the victory.
Cody Cluff recorded 9 tackles, forced a fumbled and returned an interception for a touchdown to earn MVP honors. The Merchantmen end a 14-game losing streak to get rid of their bad name and for the first time ever have record not below 50 percent. Believe in the defense is back, yet McDavid didn't show he's the solution at quarterback. Who's gonna start next week is not sure, but McDavid was called the #1 for the road game already and this victory is unlikely to get Lyon back in the line.