LAKE COUNTY — The last time Upper Lake High School hosted a North Coast Section playoff game in football, Bill Clinton was President, a gallon of gas cost an average of $1.22, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, E.R. and Friends were three of the top-rated TV shows.
If you guessed 1999 without using a lifeline, you”re right.
“In 1999 I was coaching at Durham High School,” Upper Lake first-year head coach Alex Stabiner said. “I didn”t know where Upper Lake was. Ukiah, Santa Rosa, but not Upper Lake. I hadn”t even heard of Lake County.”
When Stabiner”s No. 4-seeded Cougars (7-2-1) take to the field Saturday at 2 p.m. against No. 5 California School for the Deaf (7-3) in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division V playoffs, it will mark the first time they”ve played before the home fans in the postseason since being upset 21-12 by Salesian in a first-round game 12 years ago.
Until last year, when a 1-9 Upper Lake team slipped into the Division V playoffs by virtue of a 1-1 record in divisional play, the Cougars had gone 10 years without a playoff appearance. From 2000-2010, the school had 10 losing seasons and one .500 campaign (5-5 in 2006).
That all changed this year for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the arrival on the varsity scene of a group of talented juniors who had gone 18-2 in two seasons at the junior varsity level, including 10-0 in 2010. Players such as running backs Ward Beecher (991 yards, 16 touchdowns) and Joe Valdez (711 yards, 9 TDs), lineman Jon Karlsson and defensive back Travis Coleman, all of whom were recently honored on the All-North Central League II first team, have made a tremendous impact in a short amount of time.
A new coaching staff led by Stabiner and assistants Tom Cox (offensive coordinator) and Frank Gudmundson (defensive coordinator) blended the abundant incoming talent with the returning talent — such as All-League seniors Bradley Brackett (MVP on offense as a running back), linemen Bruce Tucker and Anthony Woodcock, linebacker Robert Simondi and defensive back Travis Floyd — to create the best team the Cougars have fielded since the 1992 squad went 11-1 and claimed the school”s last sectional championship. Brackett might be the best story of the year for the Cougars after a 2010 campaign in which he was almost an afterthought — just 50 carries for 369 yards.
This season, Brackett enters the playoffs as Lake County”s rushing leader with 1,327 yards on 139 carries and 12 TDs.
“I”ve been blessed with really good assistant coaches. Frank and Tom could be head coaches somewhere else and (assistant) Ron Campos, well he”s Ron Campos,” Stabiner said of the longtime wrestling coach who stepped into football this season to give the Cougars a hand.
“I also have a group of kids who are really football savvy. Their football vocabulary is just crazy. We can talk about it and they can go out and do it,” Stabiner added.
Moving from the NCL I to the NCL II also helped reverse a decade of losing football although the all-Division V league certainly proved to be no picnic for the Cougars with the likes of Tomales and St. Vincent, two schools with solid football programs and successful histories, in the four-team NCL II mix. Tomales ended up winning the league title by virtue of a 1-0-1 league record against Upper Lake and is the No. 3 seed in the Division V playoffs. If the Cougars and Braves meet a third time this season it will be in the championship game the weekend of Dec. 2-3.
Tomales is the type of program — and Middletown is another — that Stabiner would like to pattern Upper Lake”s after.
“The true test of a program is what your coaches can do and what your program can do in the years when maybe you don”t have that talented group of kids like we have this year. You don”t see those programs take many 1-9s or 2-8s. They”re competitive even when they”re not on top.”
While the Cougars are enjoying their most success since 1992, they”ve got plenty of unfinished business left, such as avenging regular-season losses to Hoopa (7-3), the No. 1 seed in the playoff field, and the aforementioned Tomales Braves (7-2-1). Before they can do that, they have to get past CSD in first-round action Saturday.
A win on Saturday would not only put Upper Lake into the semifinals against Hoopa on Nov. 25 at Hoopa, but it would mark the Cougars” first home playoff victory since a 40-7 triumph over Salesian in the 1992 semifinals — 19 long years ago (the Cougars beat Willits 40-18 the following week in the Class A title game at Ukiah High School, which is their last playoff victory).
The Cougars who take to the field Saturday against CSD do have some things in common with the Cougars who won the school”s last section crown under former head coach Craig Kinser. Just like 19 years ago, Upper Lake faces CSD in a first-round game at Upper Lake — the score in 1992 was 50-0 Cougars. And both Upper Lake squads boasted a pair of 1,000-yard rushers. In 1992, they were Cord Browning (1,040 yards, 20 TDs) and Mike Robbins (1,287 yards, 12 TDs).
Yet another similarity was a viable third option on offense. For the current-day Cougars it”s fullback Valdez, for the 1992 Cougars it was quarterback Adam Breazeale (581 yards, 10 TDs rushing, 647 yards, 5 TDs passing).
Beating CSD is the only thing the Cougars are concentrating on right now, according to Stabiner.
“Keep working toward that goal and that”s beating CSD,” Stabiner said when asked about his team”s focus in practice this week. “Stay focused at the task at hand. Our practices earlier in the week weren”t as good as they could have been, in part because I think the kids are excited about being in the playoffs. Today”s practice (Thursday) was the best one we”ve had this week.”
While the Cougars have made some travel arrangements for next week in the event they do play Hoopa in the semifinals, Stabiner said that in no means suggest his coaching staff or players are looking ahead.
“That game (Hoopa) would take place on the day after Thanksgiving ? that”s a short school week and we have to take care of some things now because next week is too late,” Stabiner said.
Middletown at Fortuna
While the Upper Lake Cougars are just getting back into the playoff swing of things in football, the Middletown Mustangs are appearing in the postseason for the fourth year in a row and for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons (their only miss since 1998 was in 2007).
Middletown (6-4) is the No. 14 seed in a 14-team field in the Division IV playoffs and heads north tonight to play the No. 3 Fortuna Huskies (9-1) at 7 p.m. Third in the NCL I this season behind St. Helena (10-0) and Willits (8-2) — seeded fifth and 10th, respectively, in Division IV — the Mustangs are a long shot to reach this year”s quarterfinal round.
“Fortuna is similar to St. Helena in balance of attack but a little more physical,” Middletown coach Bill Foltmer said. “They”re an option team that runs a lot of different formations … trips, twins, shotgun, unbalanced.”
The catalysts for the Huskies on offense are senior running back Zach Cahill and quarterback Brady Shaha, according to Foltmer.
“He”s the kid you”re going to have to deal with on both sides of the ball,” Foltmer said of Cahill, who also starts at linebacker on defense.
“The guy who is their big playmaker is the quarterback,” Foltmer added of Shaha.
“With the option it”s all about quarterback, dive and pitch. They”ve got the quarterback, Cahill is their dive guy and they pitch it just enough to keep you honest.”
Crowding the Huskies at the line of scrimmage is a risky proposition, according to Foltmer, because Shaha can pass the football.
“He completes over 50 percent of his passes … so you just can”t go up there looking to stop the run,” Foltmer said.
While the Mustangs are the decided underdog against a Fortuna team that enters the playoffs on a seven-game winning streak, Middletown isn”t conceding a thing, according to Foltmer.
“We”ve been so up and down with our physicalness and our (field) discipline,” Foltmer said. “We”re going to have to be more disciplined than we”ve ever been and play as physical as we were earlier in the year against Lower Lake and St. Helena. It will take both of those things.”
Young and inexperienced to start the season, the Mustangs promoted a handful of players early in the 2011 campaign to plug some holes. Even with those losses, the Middletown junior varsity team went on to post a 10-0 record and many of the stalwarts on that JV club have since been moved up to the varsity for tonight”s game.
Victor Montanez, who rushed for well over 1,000 yards at the JV level, is one of those players.
“He”s quick and has been pretty impressive,” Foltmer said.
Ozzie Rodriguez, a running back/linebacker, has added “a spark” in practice this week, according to Foltmer.
“He”s given us something we really haven”t had that much of this season,” Foltmer said.
Barrett Southern, a special teams star (four punt returns for TDs), will have the opportunity to return his first varsity punt against the Huskies.
Brad Beckwith, another call-up, will do the long snapping when necessary. Ryan Carey will provide depth on the offensive and defensive lines, and Josiah Amos will give the Mustangs an extra quarterback in case of an emergency.
“My hope is the kids just play hard, just play physical,” Foltmer said. “If they do that I”ll be happy.”
Middletown left for Fortuna on Thursday afternoon.
“I”m trying to make it a fun trip, something the kids, especially the younger ones, can enjoy,” Foltmer said.
