MIDDLETOWN — With no common opponents to gauge the other against, you can bet the Middletown Mustangs and St. Patrick/St. Vincent Bruins are asking the same question as they prepare for tonight”s first-round game in the North Coast Section Class A football playoffs.
And that question is, “Just how good are those guys, really?”
Tonight”s game, which kicks off at 7 p.m. in Vallejo, will mark the end of the road for one of these two league champions. Middletown, the No. 5 seed in the eight-team Class A field and the North Central League I North champion, brings a 9-1 mark into the contest. St. Patrick/St. Vincent, the No. 4 seed and champion of the Bayshore Athletic League, is 8-2.
“We”ll find out Friday night how good they are,” Middletown coach Bill Foltmer said.
In what could be the most competitive Class A field ever — the worst record of any of the eight playoff teams is 7-3 — the Mustangs are looking to extend their season by at least one more game with a victory over the Bruins, who have the 10th-ranked scoring offense in the state at 44 points per game.
“Without a doubt this is one of the toughest fields I”ve seen,” Foltmer said of the quantity of quality teams trying to capture this year”s sectional title. “There are five league champions in the field.”
And four of those league champions are squaring off against each other in the first round. Besides Middletown and St. Patrick/St. Vincent, NCL I South champion St. Helena visits Humboldt Del Norte League champion Ferndale on Saturday in another first-round contest.
Because Middletown was paired up with another league champion that is a higher seed, the Mustangs failed to land a home game in the first round despite a 9-1 record, the only blemish being a 32-6 loss to Salesian in week one (Salesian is the No. 3 playoff seed).
“Salesian is the team everyone was comparing themselves to,” Foltmer said. “They (Chieftains) went out of their league to play a lot of people, so they were almost a measuring stick (for this year”s playoffs teams).”
And that hurt Middletown to some extent, according to Foltmer.
“Everyone went back to that Salesian game because we lost to them,” Foltmer said. “We feel like our league didn”t get much respect.”
On the other hand, Foltmer said he had no quarrel with the committee members who made the Mustangs travel in the first round.
“No complaints from me, I thought everything was fair,” Foltmer said. “And I thought they (Bruins) deserved it (No. 4 seed).”
The silver lining for either Middletown or St. Patrick/St. Vincent is the winner of tonight”s game will be home team next week in the semifinals. Even if No. 1 seed Justin-Siena (8-2) beats No. 8 John Swett on Saturday, the Braves can”t host next week because they are not a league champion. That means Middletown or St. Patrick/St. Vincent won”t have to travel.
St. Patrick/St. Vincent won the BSAL title this season with a 5-0 mark and the team”s strength, without a shred of doubt, is its running attack led by Jason Garcia and Javon Carrington. Garcia has 1,611 yards and 19 TDs and Carrington is right behind with 1,402 yards and 14 TDs. The Bruins are averaging better than 350 yards a game on the ground.
Middletown”s defense hasn”t come close to allowing that many rushing yards in a single game since its week-one loss to Salesian (when Jahvid Best burned them for 277 yards all by himself). And here”s another stat of note — in the nine games since the loss to Salesian, all wins, Middletown hasn”t allowed more than seven points to any one opponent and has four shutouts in that span.
And Foltmer is quick to caution that the Middletown offense has been scoring some points of late, too — 41 last week against Kelseyville and 35 the week before against Fort Bragg.
“We”re putting up some points, too,” Foltmer said. “And they”re allowing 24 points a game.”
Foltmer lists two keys to the game for the Mustangs.
1) “They (Bruins) crack off a lot of big plays (out of a veer offense). They run only about four plays but they run them all well. We need to stay away from the 40- or 60-yard big plays.”
2) “We have to have our offense on the field for some long, sustained drives. And we need to finish those drives. We need to put points up on the board, too.”
Added Foltmer, “That sounds simple enough but we have to go out there and do it. That”s the way we”re looking at it.”
Middletown has watched plenty of game film this week and the Mustangs, while at first being a bit upset about not landing a first-round home game, have long since moved past that, according to Foltmer.
“They”ve had a good week in practice,” Foltmer said. “These kids have just been great and I”m proud of the way they”ve gone about things all season.”
And so it comes down to tonight.
