LAKE COUNTY — Hey, it”s nothing personal, but after sustaining a season-opening loss to Salesian, you can forgive the Middletown Mustangs for trying to make sure no one else goes undefeated in 2009.
Going into Cloverdale tonight to face the 3-0 Eagles, the Mustangs (2-1) will try to give an opponent its first loss of the season for the third straight week. They did it to Upper Lake in week two, winning 62-0, and they handed St. Vincent its first loss in week three, 56-23. Now it”s week four and Middletown will do its best to give Cloverdale its initial defeat.
Once one of the best rivalries in the NCL I, Cloverdale and Middletown get reacquainted tonight at Daly Field on the Cloverdale High School campus. Middletown is trying for a third straight win and its first on the road in 2009. Cloverdale has beaten, in order, McKinleyville, Kelseyville and Willits to reach 3-0. The Eagles, St. Helena and Fort Bragg are the three remaining undefeated teams in the NCL I going into the weekend.
Back in the late 1990s and into the early part of this century, Cloverdale and Middletown was one of the must-see games in the Redwood Empire”s small-school ranks. The teams even met twice in the old North Coast Section Class A championship game, Middletown winning both times ? in 1997 at Lower Lake High School and in 2001 at Elsie Allen High School in Santa Rosa.
In other football action tonight involving Lake County teams, Clear Lake (2-1) hits the road and will try to hand Willits (0-3) its 14th straight loss, and Kelseyville (0-3) will try to accomplish two things ? win its first game and hand host St. Helena its first loss. On Saturday, the Lower Lake Trojans (0-3) visit Upper Lake (1-2).
Middletown at Cloverdale
Middletown”s offense is on a pretty nice roll after scoring 62 and 56 points in back-to-back wins against Upper Lake and St. Vincent.
“And Danny Beckwith is close to 100 percent,” Foltmer said of his All-Redwood Empire tight end. “Beckwith gives us another weapon. I can split him out or go double-tight. He”s our best receiver but he can also block. That”s just going to help the offense even more.”
How legitimate is Cloverdale”s 3-0 record?
“We”re going to find out Friday night,” Foltmer said. “After this week, it”s going to be a lot more clear where everybody is (in the NCL I South and North).”
Middletown lost 18-0 to Cloverdale the last time the two teams met in Cloverdale (2007).
“They”re physical, they run an I (formation) and I-toss, they”re fairly balanced,” Foltmer said of the Eagles.
“They”re going to have to stop us, too,” Foltmer said. “And I have a powerful fullback in (Jake) Davis. He”s the real deal, I don”t care what size school you”re talking about. And I have a good scatback in Max Dixon. I haven”t had that kind of speed in awhile. Max can break one any time.”
Health-wise, the Mustangs are as close to 100 percent as they”ve been all season.
“We”re in good shape,” Foltmer said.
Clear Lake at Willits
“We don”t want to be the Washington Redskins of the NFL,” Clear Lake coach Schad Schweitzer said while comparing the Cardinals” situation tonight against Willits with that of the Washington Redskins last weekend when they lost 19-14 to the Detroit Lions, snapping Detroit”s 19-game losing streak.
Detroit was home for that game and Willits is home to face Clear Lake. Schweitzer said he hopes that”s where the comparisons end.
“We”re hoping to gain some momentum,” Schweitzer said with an eye toward Clear Lake”s opponent the following week — Middletown. “We”re not taking anyone lightly.”
Schweitzer was not pleased with his team”s effort a week ago despite a 14-12 win over archrival Kelseyville.
“I think one of the areas we need to improve is in practice,” Schweitzer said. “We need to do a better job of focusing.”
Willits, 0-10 last season and 0-3 so far this year, runs a toss offense, according to Schweitzer, who said the key to stopping it rests with the Cardinals” defensive line.
“The defensive line needs to get down, make piles and let our linebackers and secondary clean up. You need to plug it up and hope they don”t go outside.”
Willits” defense has done a better job than the offense through the first three weeks of the season, according to Schweitzer
“Their strong point is the defense and it concerns me a little bit. If they keep us from running the ball and doing the things we do well, we could be in for a long night.”
n Kelseyville at St. Helena
Nothing short of a win will do for the Kelseyville Knights and head coach Thad Owens, who didn”t expect to be 0-3 after the first three weeks of the season.
“We need it, we need it bad,” Owens said of a win.
St. Helena will certainly test Kelseyville”s run defense. The Saints are led by 219-pound, battering-ram senior running Ezequiel Valdivia, who is averaging more than 171 yards a game. For the season, Valdivia has 513 yards and five TDs.
Miguel Calderon is the Saints” other primary backfield weapon with 210 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
“He”s a good back, both of them are good backs,” Owens said of Valdivia and Calderon. “But Clear Lake had two good backs and we did a good job of shutting them down.
“For us, getting rid of the mental mistakes (on offense) is what we need to do,” Owens added.
While the Saints are primarily a ground-it-out team, quarterback Cole Ballentine has thrown four touchdown passes, which is four more than the Knights have this season. Calderon has two TD receptions and Valdivia one.
“They”ll spread it out and throw the ball here and there,” Owens said. “If we keep playing defense like we have been, we should be OK. Offensively we have to put some (points) on the board and cut down on the mistakes.
“Hopefully we”ll play the same physical game we”ve been playing and have a better mental game,” Owens said.
n Lower Lake at
Upper Lake
The last thing Lower Lake coach Stan Weiper wants his players to be is overconfident going into Saturday”s action at Upper Lake.
“We haven”t won anything yet so I don”t know why we would be (overconfident),” Weiper said.
Upper Lake has been pounded in the last two weeks by Middletown, 62-0, and Fort Bragg, 66-0, but Lower Lake isn”t Middletown or Fort Bragg, though the Trojans showed signs of life a week ago in a 27-12 loss at St. Helena.
“We did do some things well,” Weiper said. “We made some improvement and we hope to make more improvement (Saturday).”
Sickness sidelined a handful of Lower Lake players early in the week, a source of concern for Weiper.
“You move one kid in one spot and the next thing you know you”re moving other kids around,” Weiper said.
“We have to play well against anybody to perform and I hope the kids are taking this game seriously,” Weiper said.
Upper Lake is healthier this week at the skill positions but still hurting a bit up front.
“We”ve got most of our skill positions back where they”re supposed to be but we still have three linemen out,” Guerrero said.
Upper Lake”s coach is quite impressed by Lower Lake”s speed at running back and wide receiver. He”s also impressed with the Trojans” ability to throw deep.
“You”ve got to have a good arm if you”re going to overthrow those wide receivers because they”re so fast,” Guerrero said.
The Cougars need to do a better job breaking down and pursuing on defense, according to Guerrero.
“We did a pretty good job on Fort Bragg”s first series but not after that,” he said. “Even if we get 14 points behind, we can”t give up.”
Bottom line, according to Guerrero, is that the Cougars “can”t beat themselves” with penalties and turnovers. They”ve already turned the ball over 19 times this season.
