LAKE COUNTY — If they”re still talking about your team in mid-November, it”s a good sign.
Such is the case for the Middletown Mustangs (9-1) and Kelseyville Knights (6-4), who did well enough during the regular season to merit at least one more football game in the North Coast Section playoffs, which get underway tonight. And if you can keep on winning, you can keep on playing right through late December if you”re good enough to capture a section championship and perhaps earn a berth in a CIF State Championship bowl game.
There”s also another rule about the playoffs that veteran teams and especially veteran coaches take to heart: You never, ever look ahead.
In two games under the lights tonight, the North Central League I-champion Mustangs are home to face the Emery Spartans (6-3) out of the NCL II in a Division V first-round contest, and Kelseyville gets another shot at St. Helena, this time in the opening round of the Division IV playoffs, hoping to improve on the first meeting between the two teams when the Saints smacked the Knights 42-12 in the NCL I opener for both teams.
Middletown
Emery and Middletown did not play a common opponent this season. However, among the Spartans” three losses was a 22-18 loss to John Swett of Crockett, a team that lost to Kelseyville 60-16 a few weeks later.
Emery did make an appearance in Lake County, hammering Upper Lake 72-0. While it”s hard to draw much from such a lopsided game, the Spartans do have a top-flight quarterback in Nate Walker, who passed for 154 yards and four touchdowns against the Cougars.
Walker is the absolute focal point of the Emery offense. He has passed for 1,542 yard and 16 TDs while throwing only one interception, and he also is the team”s leading rusher with 870 yards and four TDs. Walker”s favorite target down the field is 6-foot-2 Elijah Lucy, who has 34 catches for 872 yards and 10 TDs. Emeree Robinson is another of Walker”s go-to guys with 22 receptions for 287 yards and three TDs.
Team speed and quick-strike capability are Emery”s strengths.
“He”s a great athlete, good speed and has a couple of tall receivers to throw to,” Middletown coach Bill Foltmer said of Walker. “My concern is not giving up the big play.”
Middletown”s defense should be a real eye-opener for the Emery offense. The Mustangs aren”t exactly the most charitable bunch when it comes to allowing points — just 46 in 10 games and no more than 14 to any one opponent.
“It”s not a team that”s going to chip down the field 60 or 70 yards,” Foltmer said of the Spartans. “I”m more concerned with the pocket breaking down and the quarterback taking off for a big play.”
Combine Middletown”s defense with an offense that is averaging 41 points a game and the Mustangs, seeded No. 1 in the eight-team Division V field, figure to present the Spartans with many challenges.
“They have to stop us and they”ve given up some points this season (183),” Foltmer said.
While the 10-week regular season is a long haul, the playoffs are a different beast, with so much riding on each game, according to Foltmer.
“The intensity level, the excitement level … each week it”s going to grow,” Foltmer said.
The Mustangs are playing the Spartans for the first time in Foltmer”s 29 years at Middletown.
Kelseyville
The St. Helena Saints pretty much took the Kelseyville Knights out of their game plan back on Sept. 27 in St. Helena where they jumped out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead. Sebastian Segura powered the Saints” offense with 196 rushing yards and three touchdowns while the St. Helena defense bottled up Kelseyville running back Kevin Duty, who was held to a season-low 56 yards and no TDs. Not many people have slowed down Duty since then. He enters play tonight as Lake County”s leading rusher with 1,477 yards, 25 TDs and 194 points scored.
Kelseyville takes a three-game winning streak into tonight”s game while St. Helena has won seven of its last eight, the only loss in that stretch a 21-6 setback at Middletown.
The Knights are making their first trip to the postseason since 2010 and are looking for their first taste of playoff success since beating St. Vincent 31-0 in the opening round of the 2000 playoffs.
St. Helena is making its fourth straight trip to the playoffs. The Saints were eliminated in the first round (by Middletown) in 2010, reached the quarterfinals in 2011 and made it as far as the semifinals last season before falling to San Marin.
On the health front, St. Helena wide receiver/defensive back Gatlin Blakeley is nursing a hand injury, which could limit his availability. He is St. Helena”s leading pass-catcher with 30 receptions for 516 yards and four TDs.
