Week 11 games
Friday
Middletown 56, St. Helena 0
Tomales 26, Upper Lake 6
Saturday
El Molino 35, Kelseyville 0
Statistics
Rushing — Middletown”s David Pike rushed for 137 yards and three more touchdowns in a 56-0 rout of St. Helena. Also for the Mustangs, Jake Davis had 113 yards on five carries and a TD and Nolan Tkachenko added 92 yards on nine carries and a TD. Kelseyville”s Geno Poloni had 87 yards on 17 carries in Kelseyville”s 35-0 loss to El Molino, putting him over 1,000 for the season.
Passing — Middletown”s Kyle Brown didn”t need to throw much but he did complete four of six passes for 64 yards and a touchdown against St. Helena.
Receiving — Middletown”s John-Wesley Davis had three catches for 64 yards, including a 44-yard TD grab late in the first quarter to give the Mustangs a 28-0 lead.
Highlights
Special teams — David Pike of Middletown returned a punt 80 yards for a touchdown on his first touch of the night to get the Mustangs rolling against St. Helena. Middletown placekicker Danny Cardenas converted all seven of his extra-point tries against the Saints. Tyler Drew booted the final extra point for the Mustangs.
Defense — Middletown limited St. Helena to two first downs (one in each half) and 21 first-half yards while recording its seventh shutout of the season.
Defense, Book II — Middletown”s Andres Fernandez returned an interception 30 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter, his fourth interception and third interception return for a TD this season.
Records, records and more records — Middletown”s David Pike scored four touchdowns against St. Helena, pushing his total to 206 points, a new single-season county record. He also broke the single-season county record for total touchdowns, which is now at 34 ? and counting. He already holds the county record for most rushing touchdowns in a season (32) and he”ll break the school record for most rushing yards in a season with 30 yards Saturday night against quarterfinal-round opponent El Molino.
Two touches, two TDs — Pike”s first two touches on Friday night produced touchdowns ? an 80-yard punt return and a 38-yard run on the Mustangs” first play from scrimmage.
In the 60s — Middletown fullback Jake Davis broke off a 61-yard run in the second quarter, the Mustangs” longest play from scrimmage until Pike broke loose for a 66-yard run in the final seconds of the half. Time had already expired when Pike crossed into the end zone for his fourth TD of the night.
Nearly unstoppable — Middletown scored on its first four offensive possessions. On the fifth, a 15-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Brown to Connor Chick was wiped out by a holding penalty and Danny Cardenas missed a 35-yard field goal.
That”s 1,000 — Kelseyville junior Geno Poloni needed 80 rushing yards to reach 1,000 for the season and finished with 87 against El Molino. Both Poloni and senior teammate Nick Rodrigues rushed for more than 1,000 this season, a feat you won”t see too often. The last time two teammates reached 1,000 in the same season was 2001 when Middletown”s Thomas Schmitz (1,539) and Chris Hunsaker (1,298) did it. It also happened in 1998 for Clear Lake”s Elijah Calder (1,298) and Ronnie Cruz (1,224), and in 1992 for Upper Lake”s Mike Robbins (1,287) and Cord Browning (1,040). The Middletown, Clear Lake and Upper Lake squads all went on to win section titles.
It”s all in the family — Kelseyville”s Geno Poloni is the second member of his family to rush for 1,000 yards, joining older brother Kyle, who led the county with 1,224 yards in 2005.
Third time the charm? — Middletown is making its third straight trip to the North Coast Section Division IV quarterfinals and is looking for its first win. The Mustangs lost on a last-second field goal to Salesian in 2008 and lost in overtime to Valley Christian last season. Both Middletown and El Molino will know by kickoff what team awaits the winner in the NCS semifinals the following weekend. That”s because No. 1 seed Healdsburg hosts No. 8 Fort Bragg on Friday night at Recreation Park in Healdsburg. The other three quarterfinal-round games all take place Saturday.
They”ll be back — St. Helena, the NCL I South champion, returns nearly its entire squad next season and should be back in the Division IV playoffs, and should be able to do some damage.
Ouch — With its quarterfinal-round loss to Tomales in the Division V playoffs on Friday night, Upper Lake (1-10) joins the winless Lower Lake 2000 and ”05 squads (both 0-10) as the only Lake County teams to finish a season with 10 losses.
Yeah, yeah — It”s almost basketball season.
Meltdown of the week — Former Tennessee starting quarterback Vince Young.
Meltdown of the week runner-up — Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini.
Meltdown of the week third place — Houston Texans.
Got his $25,000 worth — Oakland defensive lineman Richard Seymour for his open-handed slap of Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger. No doubt a few women around the country would have paid as much to do the same only they wouldn”t have dropped “Big Ben” in the process.
Man, like we care — 49ers head coach Mike Singletary takes full responsibility for a 21-0 home loss to Tampa Bay.
Try this one on for size — Jim Harbaugh, new head coach of your San Francisco 49ers.
24th isn”t bad — Upper Lake”s Chris Cisneros finished 24th out of 144 runners Saturday during the Division V boys” race at NCS Cross Country Championships in Hayward, the best finish by a Lake County runner.
Man, did it really happen? — San Francisco Giants, World Series champions.
Giants-related note — Dear Santa, can we have Jayson Werth?
God, just realized ? — Middletown”s football team is the only thing that stands between me and winter sports. Keep winning, Mustangs.
Here”s a clue — If you need a schedule for the Record-Bee Hoop Classic on Dec. 13-18 in Lakeport, maybe check out the paper, the Record-Bee. We tend to run it a lot since we”re the tournament”s sponsor.
Nothing wrong with that — Kelseyville coach Rob Ishihara led the Knights to a winning season and a playoff berth in his first season.
