MIDDLETOWN — The slogan for the teams in the North Central League I South division might be “The South will rise again.” But it won”t be this season. Not with the way Middletown, Fort Bragg, Willits, Lower Lake and Kelseyville have been flattening them.
Case in point, Friday night”s 42-0 swamping of Clear Lake by Middletown”s Mustangs. Middletown”s utter and complete devastation of the Cardinals follows by one week its 42-0 annihilation of Cloverdale.
The rout, keyed once more by tailback David Pike — three touchdowns and 165 yards — was Middletown”s fourth straight victory.
The ease of the Mustangs” crushing victory creates the question of just how good are they? And how much better will they be when Jake Davis returns to action, which he is expected to do, perhaps as early as next week against St. Helela. And how good is Pike, who once again had only a minimum of carries ? eight in all ? in his performance on Friday night. Pike added 18 points to his county-leading scoring lead to give him 86 points on 13 touchdowns.
Pike scored on runs of 31, 6 and 57 yards.
“I think we”re a good football team,” reasoned Middletown coach Bill Foltmer, “but I think we”ve played some teams that have been a little bit down. Clear Lake lost a couple of players and a key lineman was hurt. They were down from earlier games. It wasn”t the same team that it was earlier in the season.
“What we”re doing now is trying to build a foundation for when we get into league. League”s going to be a little bit tougher. The North teams are beating the South teams.”
Beating, if applied to Friday night, would be a gross understatement. In what appears to be a cookie-cutter pattern, the Mustangs surmounted a 28-0 first-quarter lead, much as they did against Cloverdale, who they led 21-0 at the end of the initial period. Clear Lake, now 0-5, abetted its own quick dispatching by giving Middletown the ball on its own 2, the result of an errant snap from center on a punt. Jereomy Hoefer scored two plays later.
The Mustangs needed only three plays to score on their next possession from the Cardinal 38 on Pike”s first TD, and they scored again on a 94-yard, seven-play drive that was actually 99 yards after Middletown was penalized back to its own 1. A 14-yard Kyle Brown pass to Hoefer capped the drive.
Brown and Connor Chick hooked up on a 15-yard pass later in the first quarter to make it 28-0.
Another drive of 73 yards on five plays capped by Pike”s second TD from the 6 put the Mustangs up 35-0 at half.
Clear Lake seemingly couldn”t do anything right in the first half when it had only one first down and 17 yards offensive yards. Pike played just long enough in the second half to score his final TD on a 57-yard run.
By then, everyone agreed that the merciful thing to do was keep the clock running, which sped the rout to a welcomed conclusion.
The game was Middletown”s third shutout.
NOTES: ”Stangs placekicker Danny Cardenas made all six of his extra-point tries and is 24-for-24 on the year.
