By Andy Walter

SMYRNA — Streaks can be funny things.

Middletown High football fans, no doubt, are proud of the fact that the Cavaliers continue to dominate Smyrna’s football program during the regular season.

On the other hand, Eagles’ fans would tell you their team is 2-0 against Middletown in the state finals.

Likewise, the Cavs have reached the state title game nine times since 2010. Then again, Middletown has lost its last six appearances.

All of which means there’s probably no genuine favorite on Saturday when top-seeded Smyrna (10-2) squares off with No. 2 Middletown (9-1) on 3:30 p.m. in the DIAA Class 3A state finals at Delaware Stadium.

It’s the second of three state championship games under Delaware’s new classification system on tap in Newark.

The Eagles have lost their last four meetings with the Harvest-Bowl rival Cavs. That includes a 28-14 setback to Middletown on Sept. 17 which makes the Cavs 5-2 against Smyrna since the Eagles’ rise to prominence in 2015.

But Smyrna also has the confidence of knowing that in each of its previous Division I state-championship seasons (2015-17), it came back to beat a team it lost to during the regular season.

“If we just happened to luck ourselves into this position, I would feel a lot different,” said Smyrna coach Mike Judy. “But I know the amount of work and how these kids attended to the details to get better over this season.

“The ultimate goal is you take them from point ‘A’ to point ‘B.’ How far away from point ‘A’ is point ‘B’? Did they grow exponentially? I felt like they did. Offensively and defensively we’ve done a tremendous job of just getting better. That gives you comfort.

“Honestly, going into a game like this, if you do not have those feelings, you’re in trouble,” he added. “But I feel really good about this team.”

In this season’s first meeting, the contest was tied 14-14 before Middletown scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to take the victory. Running back Michael Pearson scored the last two touchdowns.

The reason the Cavs had a chance to win the game in the end, though, was because they kept the Eagles’ potent offense bottled up for much of the night.

Outside of the six points Smyrna put up in a season-opening loss to national top-10 team Bergen Catholic, N.J., the Eagles have scored at least 28 points in each of their other 10 contests. In its 10 victories, Smyrna is averaging 42.4 points per game.

Senior running back Wayne Knight is putting up 167.8 all-purpose yards per game (109.6 rushing) while scoring 34 touchdowns. Quarterback Cameron Edge is throwing for 232.3 passing yards per game with 27 touchdowns and just two interceptions.

Edge was the Offensive Player of the Year in Class 3A. One key for the Eagles is giving the highly recruited junior quarterback time to throw.

“I think we just need to be more efficient all-around,” said Judy. “We gave a really good team easy plays. We gave them things we shouldn’t have given them.

“The game was really tight and at the end we ran out of gas — not from a conditioning perspective. It was just knock-down, drag-out (fight) early in the season. I think this time around we’re going to get a 12-round slugfest and that’s fitting of these two programs.”

The Cavaliers have a pretty good quarterback of their own in South Carolina-bound senior Braden Davis. He spent last fall playing in Florida so he wasn’t on the Middletown squad that fell to Sussex Central in the Division I state finals.

Middletown also has the Class 3A Defensive Player of the Year in senior defensive end Tomiwa Durojaiye as well as the Lineman of the Year, center/defensive tackle Kody Harris-Miller.

It’s been something of a strange season for the Cavs, who had two-and-a-half games canceled during the regular season for various reasons.

Middletown has reached more state championship games than any Delaware program — 18. But, with a 7-11 record in those games, the Cavs also have the most title-game losses.

Middletown’s last state championship came in 2012. Smyrna’s was in 2017.

Only one of the two programs can end their drought on Saturday.

“Saturday at 6:30 or seven o’clock, it’s over,” Judy said earlier in the week. “So we only have so many days left together. They’ve been continually rising to the occasion to try to buy more time together.

“The main thing to keep in mind is not to hold anything back, to play like there is no tomorrow — because there is no tomorrow.”

Extra points

After Middletown, Newark has the second-most championship-game appearances with 16. And Archmere has the second-most finals’ losses with 10. ... Since 2010, only one big-school state championship game has not included either Smyrna or Middletown. That was in 2018 when Sussex Central beat Salesianum. ... Bergen Catholic is 12-0 and currently ranked No. 4 in the country by Maxpreps. ... Fans are reminded that they will have to adhere to the University of Delaware’s COVID protocols to attend any of Saturday’s state championship games. That includes showing proof of vaccination or a negative PCR COVID test within 72 hours of the game. Full details are available on the DIAA website. ... The games will be shown online, for a fee, on the NFHS Network and are being carried on WDEL radio (1150-AM, 101.7-FM).