MIDDLETOWN — All things being equal as they were for Lower Lake and Middletown in their North Central League I North championship showdown, somebody had to have a gimmick to tip the balance. On Friday night it was Lower Lake coach Stan Weiper who had the ace in the hole. Actually, as it turned out, it was a deuce — a two-point conversion that proved to be the difference in the Trojans 15-13 victory over Middletown.
Weiper allowed himself a satisfied grin over the strategy, which the Trojans employed after their first touchdown with just under two minutes remaining in the first half of a taut defensive battle.
“We go two all the way,” said Weiper, regarding a run for the two-pointer by the game”s offensive star, running back Jake Sanders, who also scored the touchdown on a 4-yard run, his sixth straight carry during a 69-yard, seven-play drive.
“Our game is to score two and they”re not used to doing it. We do it all the time. That kind of worked out,” Weiper added.
The strategy paid off when Middletown, trailing 8-0 at the end of the half, attempted to even the score following a typical Bill Foltmer drive following the second-half kickoff. The Mustangs consumed 7 minutes, 25 seconds on their journey to the end zone and Eric Tomko cut the deficit to 8-6 with a 3-yard run. But Tyler Owen was stuffed on the Mustangs” two-point effort.
“It was a fairly even game, but it boiled down to an extra point,” Foltmer acknowledged.
The implications of the outcome were immense for both sides. By virtue of the win, Lower Lake won the North championship and an automatic berth in the North Coast Secton 2A playoffs. Of greater significance, the Trojans finished the regular season 6-3-1 and Weiper became the ultimate rainmaker in his first season at a school that suffered through a 10-year-long drought of losing seasons.
“I”m just real happy for the kids. Ten years of not winning and finally winning a championship and making it into the playoffs. Maybe even getting a home game.” Weiper enthused.
The loss for Middletown snapped a five-game winning streak, fashioned after a dismal 1-3 start. Time and any hope of postseason berth ran out for the Mustangs on a fourth-and-11 Matt Outen incompletion from the Middletown 24-yard line. The Mustangs have to settle for a 6-4 season, which is hardly chopped liver given Middletown”s less than luminous start this season.
“I”m not disappointed we”re not going to the playoffs,” said a bloodied but unbowed Foltmer, who lost a rubber match to Weiper in the third straight season-ending game when the league title was on the line. “I”m just disappointed we didn”t cap off the season after we made a nice little comeback. We started off so slow, but we started to play so good. This would have been a nice win for us, but Stan was the same way. Both of us were playing to cap off a nice season. They”re (Weiper”s teams) are notorious for that. They start slow, but they start playing better when it counts.”
Never better this season, perhaps, than Friday night when the Trojans held Middletown to 61 yards in the first half, neutralized the Mustangs” leading ballcarrier, Tomko and rendered the Mustangs” county-leading passing attack null and void.
Lower Lake”s Angel Macias picked Mustang quarterback Matt Outen twice, the second time with a little over a minute left in the third quarter, leading to the Trojans” second touchdown on a one-yard quarterback sneak by A.J. Harris on a third-down play.
Indicative of the give-no-quarter game that it was, the TD capped a 30-yard Lower Lake drive that took 11 plays and required two fourth-down conversions to complete. Jorge Menjivar kicked the extra point to give the Trojans a critical nine-point cushion at 15-6.
“We were manhandled up front,” Foltmer said of a game in which Lower Lake”s superior size was clearly a factor. We knew that before the (expletive) game started. We said from the beginning it was going to be won in the trenches and we were outsized. We were outsized all year, but we moved the ball, too, as big as they were.”
To their credit, the Mustangs slugged it out with two relentless drives. In addition to the third-quarter sustained drive, they crafted a 66-yard campaign on 12 plays, scoring for the last time this season on a two-yard off-tackle run by the tackle-breaking Owen.
But no one shone brighter than Sanders, whose 30 carries for 161 yards put him over the top for a 1,000-yard rushing year.
Are there yet more stories ahead for the Trojans in this storied season? Well, their defense is peaking approaching the playoffs, and defense will be the coin of the realm. Will it help Lower Lake in the postseason?
“Yeah, it will,” Weiper mused, “but we”re going to be going into some tough sledding in 2A and we”ll need that.
“We have some offensive weapons, too. I think we have a chance if we can get a decent game in the first round and not get the top seed. I think we have a shot at it.”
