LAKE COUNTY >> Middletown plays its third road game in four weeks tonight when it travels to Timberwolf Stadium to take on the Fort Bragg Timberwolves. The winner will emerge with at least a share of the North Central League I lead and with one major obstacle to a possible championship in the rear view mirror.
While the NCL I race is entering only its second week out of seven, it”s never too early to build some momentum for what lies ahead. Four teams enter tonight”s round of games 1-0 while the other four are 0-1. Though many are looking for a tight race this season, starting out 0-2 is not likely to get you to the promised land of first place. On the other hand, 2-0 will keep you in that discussion quite a bit longer.
In other action in Week 5, all of the NCL I games taking place outside of Lake County, St. Helena (1-0) hosts Lower Lake (0-1), Clear Lake (0-1) calls on Willits (0-1), and Kelseyville (0-1) visits Cloverdale (1-0). In NCL II action on Saturday, Upper Lake (0-4) returns from a bye week to play the Tomales Braves (3-1) in the league opener for both teams. Tomales has no junior varsity team this season so the varsity-only action begins at 1 p.m.
Middletown at Fort Bragg
Middletown and Fort Bragg, both 3-1 overall, certainly went about winning their league openers a week ago in contrasting styles. Middletown routed Willits 54-6 in a game that ended with a running clock. Fort Bragg fell behind Lower Lake 28-7 in the first half before rallying for a 29-28 victory. Both teams lost their season openers before winning their next three.
And one of those teams will make it four straight tonight.
“We”ve played well at Fort Bragg historically,” Middletown coach Bill Foltmer said, “but we”ll be going up against their passing attack, which is pretty good.”
Fort Bragg junior quarterback Kaylor Sullivan enters play having completed 66 percent of his pass (102-for-154) for 1,544 yards, 15 touchdowns and six interceptions, three of those picks coming last week against Lower Lake, including two returned for scores by the Trojans.
“The kid is real dangerous,” Foltmer said. “Even when he”s outside the pocket he”s looking down the field the entire time, waiting for a receiver to come open. He”s not a big runner but he”s athletic enough to pick up yardage when he needs to.”
Sullivan spreads the ball around, too — his fullback is among his favorite targets. The team”s top receiver is Lucas Triplett with 27 catches for 444 yards and six TDs.
While the Mustangs ran in to a pretty good passing team in El Molino in week three and shut it down, Fort Bragg”s air attack is a notch above the Lions”, according to Foltmer.
“It”s a good challenge for our defense,” Foltmer said of a unit that has played a little bit better each week. “I was real pleased with how well we shut down Willits, a team that had been scoring some points. But with Fort Bragg it”s just a little bit different with their passing game.”
Middletown”s offense is also locked into improvement mode as the team”s many juniors gain experience and the team”s veterans, such as Wyatt Hall and Anthonie Guzman, continue to perform at a high level.
“We”ve gotten better every week on offense and we”re going to continue to get better,” Foltmer said.
While Middletown remains a rushing team first, Foltmer said he has no problems with throwing the ball if and when the need arises, as the Mustangs did in a 12-0 win against a Healdsburg team that loaded the box with defenders.
“Connor Armstrong is having a very good year,” he said of his junior quarterback. “I have no problem throwing the ball when we need to throw it.”
Armstrong”s season numbers prove that. He”s 39-for-63 for 503 yards, three TDs and three interceptions.
It”s the first of two huge road games for the Mustangs, who play at St. Helena on Oct. 10.
Lower Lake at St. Helena
First Fort Bragg and now St. Helena. The Lower Lake Trojans will certainly know where they stand in the NCL I scheme of things after tonight”s road trip to the Napa Valley. Lower Lake coach Justin Gaddy had nothing but praise for his team after pushing Fort Bragg to the very limit a week ago at Gordon Sadler Field.
Can they duplicate that kind of performance tonight, possibly even score an upset against the undefeated Saints (4-0)?
Gaddy thinks so as long as they take care of their own business first.
“We need to execute on offense and defense and be disciplined,” Gaddy said. “We did that last week against Fort Bragg. We didn”t win that game but we learned a lot about ourselves, more than if we had won 28-7. Those lessons will help us out the rest of the season.”
While the Trojans have spent all week preparing for the Saints, the two teams first met up this past summer at an offensive line and defensive line camp. Gaddy said he was impressed with what he saw from the Saints linemen.
“They”re not an imposing group to look at, but they”re quality kids. When they get off the ball they make contact and drive, they play to the whistle,” Gaddy said.
While the Trojans are entering tonight”s game with the “right mindset,” according to Gaddy, the question is will they enter play with running backs Mason Sanders and Johnny “Bubba” Egger in the lineup. Both players were knocked out of the Fort Bragg game with injuries right before haltime.
“I think they”ll play but they are both game-time decisions,” Gaddy said.
Clear Lake at Willits
One team will get out of Maize Field tonight with a 1-1 league record and feeling pretty good about itself. The other will be 0-2 and behind the proverbial eight ball as far as the league race is concerned.
Clear Lake, coming off a turnover-ridden 26-0 loss at home to Cloverdale last week, hopes to get back into the win column following victories in each of its first three games this season. Willits, which played the role of speed bump a week ago during Middletown”s big homecoming win, will try to get its offense back online against the Cardinals.
Willits averaged 42 points a game in its first three games before running into Middletown”s defense, which shut out the Wolverines” offense (the Wolverines” only six points were courtesy of a special teams kickoff return).
“The kids played hard last week, we just made too many mistakes,” Clear Lake coach Darin Brodnansky said of the team”s seven turnovers against the Eagles. “When you drop the ball in the red zone, that”s not good.”
While holding onto the ball will be mission No. 1 for the Cardinals tonight, Brodnansky said his players will have to show discipline on defense against Willits” spread offense.
“They show a lot of different looks that we need to be ready for,” Brodnansky said.
Kelseyville at Cloverdale
Upset by Cloverdale 23-22 a year ago on their own field, the Kelseyville Knights hope to return the favor tonight at Daly Field in Cloverdale.
Kelseyville (3-1) fell 44-7 to St. Helena a week ago at home although the Knights, to be fair, were still in the game after three quarters trailing only 23-7.
Cloverdale (3-1) benefited from seven Clear Lake turnovers a week ago in Lakeport to blank the Cardinals 26-0.
Tomales at Upper Lake
Tomales is 3-1 although the Braves haven”t exactly played the toughest of non-league schedules. Their three victims — Hoopa Valley, Balboa and Elsie Allen — are a combined 1-11 this season. Though Upper Lake hasn”t fared well at all against a much more competitive non-league schedule — losses to California School for the Deaf (5-0), Kelseyville (3-1), Clear Lake (3-1) and Lower Lake (2-2) — the toughest part of its season would seem to be behind them.
But first things first for the winless Cougars. In order to be competitive against the Braves — or anyone else — Upper Lake will first have to do something it hasn”t done in 2014 ? score a point.
“We changed up our defense and our offense,” Gudmundson said. “We”ll be facing the strongest team in our division (league), so we”ve changed things up. No one will have film on it.”
Tomales, a perennial challenger for the NCL II title under coach Leon Feliciano, is struggling with its player numbers this season just like the Cougars. In fact, Tomales didn”t have enough players to run separate varsity and junior varsity programs, so the two were merged into one.
Not having a JV game on Saturday means that Gudmundson will promote “four to five” sophomores to the varsity for this one game only.
“I”m not pulling up kids to stand them on the sidelines,” Gudmundson said. “They”ll help us out.”
Upper Lake”s new “50” look on defense should come in handy against a Tomales offense that is all about smash mouth football and moving the sticks. Wingback Willy Lepori (No. 28) is the team”s go-to guy with 637 yards and eight of the Braves” 12 rushing TDs.
“They like inching the ball down the field,” Gudmundson said of the Tomales offense. “You”ve got to have linemen stuff the holes and your linebackers making the tackles.”
Feliciano, a coaching veteran and then some, reminds Gudmundson of his coach when he starred at Upper Lake in the late 1980s, Craig Kinser.
“Feliciano is one hell of a coach,” Gudmundson said. “He may not always have the best talent, but he always preps his players and has them ready to go, just like Craig Kinser.”
