KELSEYVILLE — To look at the final score you might not believe it, but the Kelseyville Knights played a competitive first half of football Friday night before the Middletown Mustangs took control in the second half and pounded the Knights 43-6 in a North Central League I varsity football game at Kelseyville.
“It was a lot tougher game than 43-6,” Middletown coach Bill Foltmer said. “They were moving the ball on us. They did a good job in the first half and had a good gameplan.”
“When you watch them,” Kelseyville coach Mike McGuire said of the Mustangs, “you notice that their kids do a great job for four quarters. That”s how you win championships. We wanted to play physical with them and we did a good job early on. We played two good quarters, but not four. We”re in the early stages of our program and our kids have to learn how to play four quarters.”
Middletown (4-0 league, 6-1 overall) became the only undefeated team in the league with its victory. The other undefeated team going into play Friday, the Clear Lake Cardinals, fell 41-6 at St. Helena. With three weeks of league play remaining, the Mustangs own a one-game lead over four 3-1 teams — Clear Lake, Cloverdale, Fort Bragg and St. Helena.
Kelseyville (0-4, 3-4) lost its fourth straight and will look to next Friday”s Bass Bowl IV in Lakeport against Clear Lake for that elusive first league victory.
After forcing a Kelseyville punt, Middletown scored on its third play from scrimmage, quarterback Josiah Amos finding Brad Bologna all alone deep down the field for a 51-yard touchdown that made it 6-0.
Amos and Bologna would hook up for two more touchdowns before it was over and Bologna would finish with five catches for 129 yards.
“He”s a good player and they did a good job moving him around in the second half,” McGuire said.
Kelseyville made the most of a line drive kickoff that traveled only a few yards before David Simonson smothered it at the Kelseyville 47. Given a short field to work with, the Knights took advantage. After moving the ball down to the Middletown 34, Kevin Duty broke loose on a 34-yard run on third-and-eight, breaking tackles in the process, to get the Knights even on the scoreboard at 6. They were the first points of any kind allowed by Middletown”s defense since Sept. 7.
Duty carried the ball 16 times in the first half for 95 yards, pounding the ball right at the strength of the Middletown defense.
“Duty is a real good back,” Foltmer said.
Kelseyville was on the move again after forcing a Middletown punt but Middletown”s Brad Beckwith recovered a fumble at midfield. The Mustangs needed only four plays to cover the distance to the end zone, a 42-yard run by Austin Benson (16 carries for 139 yards) setting up a Benson 3-yard touchdown run on the next play and making it 12-6.
Kelseyville tried to answer and used up a lot of clock in the process, moving the ball from its own 14 to the Middletown 32, where the drive finally stalled on downs.
Middletown came back with its own time-consuming drive, moving 68 yards in 10 plays and going up 20-6 on a Benson 4-yard run following by Amos” conversion pass to Anthonie Guzman.
Middletown twice converted on third-and-long to keep its scoring drive going — Benson catching a 20-yard pass on third-and-16, and Guzman hauling in a 16-yard pass on third-and-13.
Kelseyville moved the ball to the Middletown 20 in the closing seconds of the half but the drive ended when Guzman intercepted a Noah Lyndall pass with 19.7 seconds remaining.
“You can”t make those kinds of mistakes against good teams,” McGuire said of Kelseyville”s first-half turnovers.
The second half was all Middletown. The Mustangs went three-and-out on their first possession but otherwise owned the final two quarters whether the measuring stick was offense or defense. While their defense was limiting the Knights to just 40 second-half yards and two first downs, the Middletown offense scored on its final three possessions, the first two on Amos passes to Bologna of 35 and 19 yards in the third quarter. Nick Borissenko”s 2-yard run in the fourth quarter added the final touches.
