UPPER LAKE — Like too many well-placed schemes of mice and men, Upper Lake coach Airic Guerrero”s game plan against heavily favored Middletown went astray on Saturday.
Give the plucky Cougar coach this: It worked well for one quarter. But after that the Mustangs gave no quarter. It was strictly lights out in the only Lake County high school stadium that has no lights as Middletown coasted to a 35-0 win in a North Central League I interlock varsity football game.
“There were a lot of things that looked open — we thought they were open — but they stopped us from doing everything we thought we were going to be able to do,” was Guerrero”s assessment.
Guerrero should not be judged harshly for such idealistic thinking. Under his direction earlier this season, the up-to-now perennial luckless Cougars had, after all, upended Lower Lake and Kelseyville. What”s more they were dominant in the first quarter against the Mustangs when everything they did worked — including going for a first down and making it on their own 8-yard-line.
Then, with a creative array of sweeps, pitchouts and ends around, they drove 91 yards to a fourth-and-three at the Middletown 8. Sadly, that”s where Guerrero”s scheme — and the football — went astray. Quarterback Brandon Mendoza”s pitchout to running back Joe Barnes was off the mark and there the Mustangs took possession of the ball and, as it developed, the contest.
That much was made abundantly clear in a 21-point second quarter in which Middletown scored on its first play — a 22-yard scamper by Tyler Owen — and the last one, when, with a single tick left on the clock, wideout Dylan Galusha hauled in Matt Outen”s 30-yard strike.
Sandwiched between was a 60-yard, seven-play Mustang drive that culminated in a 2-yard blast by sophomore fullback Jake Davis.
Owen ran at will, averaging more than 10 yards a carry for 157 yards and scoring two of the five Middletown touchdowns. Davis, meanwhile, served further notice he is a fullback of the future Foltmer style, toting for 40 yards on six carries.
There”s not much doubt that Davis can carry the future Mustangs. In one instance on Saturday, he bulled his way ahead for 15 yards while carrying four Cougars.
Not to be overlooked was Middletown kicker Danny Beckwith”s five-for-five day on extra-point kicks.
Although his charges were dominant for 75 percent of the game, Bill Foltmer didn”t give them an A-rating in their fourth win in five outings.
Noting Middletown”s three turnovers — two fumbles and an interception — the Mustang coach asserted, “I thought we kind of played sloppy. But you gotta give credit to them (Cougars); they caused the turnovers.”
Even so, Upper Lake was hapless against the Mustangs.
“They”re Middletown,” said Guerrero, who knows his adversaries too well after playing for Foltmer in the early ?90s. “They did everything we expected them to do ? come and play hard,” Guerrero added. “They got leverage on us. We tried everything we could to stop the quickness on the line and we just had a hard time doing it.”
“We”re a bigger school and I think we had them outmanned a little bit,” Foltmer allowed.
