LAKE COUNTY — It”s week four of the high school football season and that means those preseason hopes and expectations are in the process of being realized … or not … for the area”s five teams as they near the mid-point of the 2006 campaign.
In tonight”s action, the Clear Lake Cardinals (1-2), held scoreless in each of their last two games against North Central League I North schools Willits and Middletown, venture to another North venue, Fort Bragg, to play the 3-0 Timberwolves, and Kelseyville (1-2), the reigning NCL I North champion, will be looking to build on the momentum of last week”s 34-16 victory over Upper Lake.
In Saturday”s action, Upper Lake (2-1) will try to rebound from its loss to Kelseyville against the Middletown Mustangs (2-1), who are coming off back-to-back shutout victories over Cloverdale and Clear Lake; and the Lower Lake Trojans (1-2), their 19-game losing streak now nothing more than a memory, will try to make it two wins in a row as they venture south to play the St. Vincent Mustangs (0-3) in Petaluma.
Taking a look at where some of the county”s teams stand going into week four:
Clear Lake Cardinals
“We”ve added a few twists (to the offense) and hopefully the kids will get it,” Clear Lake coach Glenn Meyer said. “It”s the same offense we”ve always run and the kids know it. We just haven”t done a very good job executing the plays.
“The same kids that play on defense play on offense and our defense has been respectable,” Meyer added. “Maybe they like playing defense better.”
The Cardinals will see a typical Fort Bragg team — big up front with good running backs.
“They get some points on the board and that”s something we haven”t been able to do,” Meyer said, “although we”ve played some pretty good teams.”
Clear Lake”s first three opponents of 2006 — Pierce, Willits and Middletown — are a combined 8-2.
Comparing the NCL I South, of which Clear Lake is a member, to the North schools, Meyer added, “All the North schools seem to be big in size while the South schools are smaller and quicker. I”m not sure where we fit in.”
n Middletown Mustangs
The Mustangs won”t have their leading rusher and scorer, senior running back and outside linebacker Ryan Peterson, in the starting lineup Saturday at Upper Lake. He”s serving a one-game suspension for disciplinary reasons, according to Middletown coach Bill Foltmer.
“It”s minor,” Foltmer said, “but he won”t play.”
Once the kings of Saturday football before the Middletown High School field was outfitted for lights beginning in the 2001 season, the Mustangs haven”t fared so well in their last two Saturday games — a season-opening 32-6 loss to Salesian back on Sept. 9 and a less-than-impressive 14-0 win at Point Arena last year.
“It”s been a long time since we played well on a Saturday afternoon,” Foltmer said. “If we play our game we”ll be fine.”
And that means avoiding stupid penalties and costly turnovers, according to Foltmer.
The return of running back Zack Davis, the team”s top rusher last season, is getting closer, according to Foltmer, but don”t expect to see him Saturday against the Cougars.
“I think he”ll be cleared and OK”d to go for St. Vincent (another Saturday road game on Oct. 7), but I don”t see him playing until Lower Lake (Middletown”s NCL I North opener on Oct. 13). We”ll just take it real slow with him.”
Through the first three weeks of the season, Foltmer said the jury is still out on the Mustangs.
“We still haven”t had our entire team out there for a game,” Foltmer said of the injuries that have sidelined Middletown starters the first three weeks of 2006.
Upper Lake Cougars
The Middletown Mustangs won”t have star running back Peterson in their starting lineup. That”s the good news for the Upper Lake Cougars. The bad news?
“You have to stop him and we”ve worked on stopping him all week in practice,” Upper Lake coach Craig Kinser said.
So what does Kinser expect to see from the Peterson-less Mustangs?
“They”ll have to balance up a little more,” Kinser said. “Their backup halfback probably won”t carry the ball as much as Peterson. That means their fullback and wingback are going to carry it more. And they”ll be a little more inclined to throw the ball … they threw the ball quite a bit in the first half against Clear Lake (last week). In the second half they just fed the ball to Peterson.”
The Cougars also are missing personnel. Halfback Jayce Meri is out for the second week in a row and linebacker Joe Ogulin isn”t expected to suit up.
“And we have three others who are banged up,” Kinser said.
The Cougars will beef up their thinning ranks at halfback by moving JV star Antonio Diconza up to the varsity. He rushed for three TDs last week in a win over Kelseyville”s JV squad.
Heading into week four, Kinser said a 34-16 loss to Kelseyville a week ago exposed weaknesses that the Cougars” first two opponents weren”t able to.
“On defense there were some technique flaws,” Kinser said. “And if we don”t take care of that it won”t matter what else we do. We”re a small team and and when you”re small you have to be quick and stay low (on defense). If you”re up high you”re going to get killed by the bigger teams.”
