LAKE COUNTY — There”s one thing Middletown head coach Bill Foltmer and Clear Lake head coach Milo Meyer are in complete agreement about as their two football teams prepare for tonight”s first-round game in the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs at Middletown High School.
All of the pressure — or at least 99.999 percent of it — is on No. 2 seed Middletown (9-1) to win and advance to the next round. There”s really no getting around that, especially when you consider that the Mustangs beat the No. 7-seeded Cardinals 34-0 back on Oct. 3 at Middletown, where the Mustangs are undefeated this season.
“Oh yeah, without a doubt,” Meyer said. “I know they beat us pretty handily earlier in the year, so they”re supposed to win … and we”re supposed to lose. The bottom line is he does have the pressure,” Meyer added of Foltmer.
“With all that, we look at it like we should win the thing, but we”re not overlooking Clear Lake, we can”t just show up and expect to win,” said Foltmer, who said there are plusses and minuses to being the favorite.
On the plus side: “Pressure”s good, you”re a little more focused in your preparation,” Foltmer said. “We”ve approached this like a championship game, just like the Fort Bragg game earlier this season.”
On the negative side: “If you”re Clear Lake, you can come in loose, you can change things and take some chances. If I change things and they don”t work, people will say, ”Why did you do that for?””
Clear Lake, a team comprised mainly of juniors, has exceeded all expectations this season. A squad Meyer hoped would be around .500 at season”s end takes the field tonight with a 6-3-1 mark, and with half the North Central League I South co-championship in its back pocket. The Cardinals never expected to be in this position 10 weeks ago, so they really have nothing to lose, according to Meyer.
“We were having fun in practice this week, maybe too much fun,” Meyer said. “I had to refocus them a little bit the other day.”
Clear Lake won”t change its base offense or defense in tonight”s rematch, but the game plan will be slightly different, according to Meyer.
“We know we have to adjust some things on offense and defense,” Meyer said. “We can”t go in there with what we did last time because it didn”t work last time.”
In regard to Clear Lake”s defense versus Middletown”s offense, Meyer said the Cardinals have to slow down the Mustangs” running game … somehow.
“Don”t get me wrong, their passing game is very good, but we have to try and take something away from them when it comes to their running game,” Meyer said.
What would it take for Clear Lake to upset Middletown?
“We need to get ahead of them somehow and put a little more pressure on them,” Meyer said. “Maybe that would take them out of their game plan a little bit, but I doubt it.
“Keeping it close is important because who knows what could happen in a close game?” Meyer said. “I”m just hoping the kids go out and play their best because we”re not as bad as 34-0.”
“I know Clear Lake is gong to play a much better game this time,” Foltmer said. “They”re a small, quick team and the last time we played it rained. This time it will be a dry field, different conditions and I”m sure they”re feeling a lot better about it.”
The senior-dominated Mustangs are feeling pretty good, too, and so is their coach after a rough start to his week.
“I couldn”t sleep (earlier this week) and I got up at 4:30 a.m. to watch game film,” Foltmer said. “But we”ve had a great week in practice and that”s taken away some of the nervousness. I”m feeling a whole lot better about it now.”
Middletown has won eight straight since falling 21-14 to St. Vincent in week two of the season. The Mustangs haven”t played in a close game since, winning 35-14, 34-0, 35-0, 56-0, 35-7, 22-8, 56-0 and 62-8.
“We”ve gotten a lot of mileage out of the loss to St. Vincent,” Foltmer said. “There”s a game on paper where we probably should have won, but we make four or five turnovers and lose by a touchdown,” Foltmer said. “Turnovers are the great equalizer.”
If that isn”t a good enough example of what can happen if you don”t play your game, Foltmer said his coaching staff provided Middletown”s players with several others on Monday.
“We gave them all kinds of examples about teams that lost in the regular season and then beat that same team in the playoffs,” Foltmer said.
One of those examples was the 1997 season when Middletown dropped a 22-20 decision to Clear Lake in the regular season and then came back to beat the Cardinals 31-19 in the playoffs.
“Our kids are very aware that if you lose this game, you”re done, we”re collecting gear,” Foltmer said.
While Middletown has strung together a series of blowout victories since losing to St. Vincent, Clear Lake has played in nothing but close games the last four weeks, beating Cloverdale (32-29), St. Vincent (8-7) and Upper Lake (20-14), and losing to St. Helena (7-0).
Over the last three weeks, Clear Lake”s defense has allowed just two touchdowns.
“The defense has played well,” Meyer said. “We”ve improved a lot since we played Middletown last and they”ve improved a lot, too.”
Middletown”s defense has surrendered only seven points in the first quarter the entire season and only 78 overall, or just 7.8 a game. Even so, Foltmer said he couldn”t compare this unit to other great defenses the Mustangs have fielded down through the years, at least not yet.
“They”re good, but if they”re going to rank up there with the best we”ve had they need to win a few games in the playoffs,” he said.
Tonight”s game marks the third postseason meeting between the two teams, all of which have taken place in the first round. Middletown is 2-0, winning in 1991 and ”97.
“If Clear Lake comes down here and beats us it”s because they outplayed us,” Foltmer said.
“This would be the biggest upset in Lake County history,” Meyer said of a Clear Lake win.
Tonight”s winner will meet either Salesian or Fort Bragg in next weekend”s semifinal round.
