Rob Grant — Record-Bee staff
MIDDLETOWN — Reruns.
Nobody really likes them, but that”s what they got in this Lake County football season. It was once again Middletown and the Four Dwarfs as the Mustangs completed another sweep of its four county opponents with a 53-0 whitewash of Lower Lake on Friday.
If it looked strikingly familiar to last season it”s because it was the same outcome. With the romp on a muddy Middletown field surface, the Mustangs completed a blitz of Upper Lake, Kelseyville and Lower Lake by a composite score of 157-0. Only Clear Lake managed to score against the M”towners, who won their eighth straight and need only a win at Willits next week to close out their regular season at 9-1 and secure the undisputed North championship after clinching a tie on Friday.
Stan Weiper”s Lower Lake squad has had more than its share of difficulties this season and such was the case again on Friday as the Mustangs led 41-0 at the half. Middletown coach Bill Foltmer began running in his second unit in the second quarter.
The outcome was clear in the first 2 1/2 minutes, during which time Middletown scored twice on an 82-yard run by Max Dixon and defensive back Dustin Clark”s 43-yard return of an interception. Ryan Johnson converted another pick into a 56-yard TD to put M”town up 27-0.
Foltmer ostensibly approached the game as nothing more serious than a chance to tune up the Mustang passing attack. Eleven of Middletown”s 15 offensive plays in the first quarter were Kyle Harmyk passes. Harmyk used the opportunity well, completing seven of 11 for 125 yards. He was retired early in the second quarter and replaced by John Wesley Davis, whose regular position is not quarterback..
“We just wanted to make sure we had passing in our program,” Foltmer said.
All but two of the Mustangs” eight touchdowns were from beyond the 20-yard-line. A reserve running back, David Pike, also scored on a 33-yard run in the second quarter and on a four-yard run in the third. Danny Beckwith scored on a 21-yard pass reception and Jereomy Hoefer on a 25-yard gallop to round out the scoring.
Pike, Hoefer and Brian Holt more or less mopped up the ball carrying in the second half, when, contrasting with the first quarter, the Mustangs didn”t throw a single pass. Not a bad strategy under the circumstances.
The game”s first quarter took an hour to complete because of a delay resulting from an injury to Trojan running back E.J. Jermany, who was taken from the game site by ambulance.
Looking ahead to Willits, Foltmer would not be baited into discussing recent reports of the Wolverines running up scores with tactics like onside kicks after scoring touchdowns. According to one source, the issue is apparently serious enough that the Willits principal has contacted other principals in the league in an effort to retain good will.
But Foltmer said, “They do what they do and we do what we do, I”m just worried about winning, the weather and stuff like that.”
