Midway Middle’s girls dazzle with defense in a game Wednesday against Union, shutting down the middle school Spartan offense and taking the win 36-8.

“They played great on defense,” an elated coach Selena Joseph said. “We had a tremendous number of steals. It’s one thing I’ve tried to instill in my girls — you should always want the ball and go after the ball. And they do.”

A pressure defense by Midway and constant pressure on the ball left Union rattled and unable to score.

“I really think they had a hard time with our press,” Joseph said.

Despite the strong defense, the young Raider girls didn’t capitalize on as many opportunities as their coach would have liked to see.

“We seized some opportunities to score, but we also missed our share too. In fact, we missed too many layups.”

But overall their coach was proud of the Raiders’ play.

“It was a great team effort, no question about it,” Joseph said.

Midway led the entire game, jumping out to a strong 12-1 lead in the first quarter and capitalizing on it to take a 26-1 lead into intermission.

Union matched Midway in the third period with 4 a piece, but the damage had already been done.

In steals, alone, Midway amassed well over 20, with Alex Canady getting 13; Hannah Lucas, 6; Leah Williams, 5; Brittany Rodriguez, 3; and Haley West, 3.

Canady also led scoring for the middle school girls with 16 points. Williams had 8 points; Casey McLamb, 2; Blythe Best, 2; Rachel Hodges, 2; West, 2; and Lucas, 4.

Midway Middle’s record moves to 2-1. They return from Christmas break to face the unbeaten Sampson Middle Lady Horses, the only team so far to beat the young Raiders.

That game is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 10.