MIDDLETOWN >> There is no need to hype tonight’s North Central League I showdown between the Middletown Mustangs and Fort Bragg Timberwolves outside of the usual sports realm. Two teams fighting to remain atop the North Central League I standings, both at 2-0, square off at Bill Foltmer Field. One of them, Fort Bragg, is also undefeated on the season at 5-0.
Normally that would be plenty for anyone’s plate, but these aren’t normal times for Middletown because of the destructive Valley Fire, which broke out the day after the Mustangs’ last home game — Sept. 11 against Berean Christian — and ravaged the communities of Cobb, Hidden Valley Lake and, of course, Middletown.
While other Middletown High School fall sports teams have played at home since that firestorm burned almost 2,000 homes, businesses and other structures and killed four people, the football squad has been on the road ever since – a home game against El Molino was canceled on Sept. 18, at Lower Lake on Sept. 25 and at Willits on Oct. 2.
Middletown, probably the biggest all-in football community this side of Ferndale, will use the occasion tonight to celebrate, heal, move forward and hopefully collect another win that will move the Mustangs a giant step toward another league championship.
In other NCL I games tonight, St. Helena (2-0, 5-0) visits Lower Lake (0-2, 3-2), Clear Lake (0-2, 1-4) hosts Willits (1-1, 4-1), and Cloverdale (1-1, 4-1) visits Kelseyville (0-2, 1-4). On Saturday, Upper Lake (3-1) hosts Anderson Valley (5-0) in a key NCL III contest.
Fort Bragg at Middletown
“This place is going to be packed,” Middletown coach Bill Foltmer said of the field named in his honor five years ago and a natural fire break that helped save the high school located behind it from burning to the ground during the deadly firestorm of Sept. 12-13. “It will be an emotional game with all the people coming to watch it and with all the media exposure we’ve had this week.
“I’ve done more interviews with out-of-county media this week than in my other (31) years combined,” Foltmer added.
MaxPreps, Cal-Hi Sports and Sports Illustrated.com all have paid visits to the Middletown campus this week along with closer-to-home regional media outlets.
“They (SI.com) had a guy in our huddle filming,” Foltmer said.
Foltmer said it hasn’t been a serious distraction.
“Camera or no cameras, I’m not going to change what I do out there,” Foltmer said. “You know they’re there but I’m not going to use it as any kind of excuse should we lose to Fort Bragg. That will have nothing to do with the outcome of the game.”
Since opening the season with losses to Salesian (2-3) and Berean Christian (4-1) and a fire-caused bye date that should have been the El Molino home game, the Mustangs have won each of their first two league games — against Lower Lake and Willits — by a 64-8 margin.
“We have moved the ball,” Foltmer said of an offense that figures to be his best defense tonight against Fort Bragg, which features start quarterback Kaylor Sullivan and his favorite downfield target, Lucas Triplett.
“Even in our games with Salesian and Berean Christian, we moved the ball. We would drive the ball 30 or 40 yards and turn it over or make some type of mistake. Our offense against Fort Bragg might be our best defense if we can keep the ball out of their hands.”
Sullivan, a senior, needs 95 yards tonight against the Mustangs to reach 2,000 passing yards for the season – and it’s just Week 6. He’s thrown 20 touchdowns and seven interceptions. While Triplett is his No. 1 target with 45 catches for 686 yards and 11 TDs, Sullivan has completed at least one scoring pass to seven different Timberwolves, which means he’s perfectly willing to throw to the open man, whether it be Triplett or someone else such as Tyler Baker (17 catches for 242 yards, 4 TDs) or Shane Giaccani (20 catches for 351 yards, TD).
“It’s one of the better passing offense I have faced in all my years,” Foltmer said. “A lot of people don’t remember that we beat them last year (28-19 in Fort Bragg) and that was their only league loss. I think you have to go all the way back to Brett Moyer (former Timberwolf QB and son of longtime Fort Bragg head coach Jack Moyer) to find a Fort Bragg offense as good as this one. We know we’ve got our hands full.”
One of the tough things about playing defense against the Timberwolves is the temptation to go overboard when it comes to guarding Triplett.
“Maybe you take him away with a double- or triple-team, but they’ve got a bunch of other receivers who can hurt you,” Foltmer.
Fort Bragg’s top running back is Brett Jacomella with 207 yards and five TDs.
If the Timberwolves are having success throwing the ball, their running game becomes even more effective because opposing defenses get caught up into playing the pass, according to Foltmer.
“Their quarterback is extremely accurate and he runs enough to keep you honest,” Foltmer said.
Fort Bragg is the second straight undefeated team to cross Middletown’s path. A week ago the Mustangs hammered Willits (4-1), scoring 43 unanswered points in a 43-8 win. Middletown could draw a third straight undefeated team next week when St. Helena visits Bill Foltmer Field. St. Helena (5-0) plays tonight in Lower Lake.
“We know out season is on the line right now,” Foltmer said.
St. Helena at Lower Lake
It was only a week ago that the Lower Lake Trojans were driving for a go-ahead score in Fort Bragg, trailing 12-9 midway through the third quarter. The Timberwolves recovered a Lower Lake fumble deep in their own territory, drove for a touchdown to go up 20-9, and quickly turned a competitive game into a rout.
“It took about 10 minutes,” Lower Lake coach Justin Gaddy said for the Trojans’ upset bid to turn into a 54-9 loss and an 0-2 start in league competition.
“I wasn’t happy with the way our guys, and not new kids but some of our leaders, handled the second half,” Gaddy said. “Our leaders need to step up and become better leaders when that happens. The first half was great, but a football game is four quarters.”
Facing a second undefeated team in as many weeks is quite the challenge for the Trojans, according to Gaddy.
“St. Helena is very similar to Middletown in that they are well-coached, very disciplined, have big offensive and defensive lines,” Gaddy said. “They don’t do a lot of things, but the things they do they do very well.”
Lower Lake won’t have one of its top receivers against the Saints. In fact, Marlon Jones is out for the season after breaking his collar bone in the loss to Fort Bragg.
“It’s an opportunity for other guys to step up,” Gaddy said. “I feel for the kid. He had tears in his eyes. He’s still a big part of our team but his role has changed. Now he’s a player-coach.”
Before the Trojans can beat the Saints or any of the other opponents remaining on their league schedule, Gaddy said the offensive line needs to step up and play every down, not every other down.
“We have a quarterback, guys who can run the ball and catch it, but if the line doesn’t play well, it’s hard to do much,” Gaddy said. “We need to get the ball into the end zone more.”
Lower Lake scored 95 points in non-league wins over El Molino, Healdsburg and Elsie Allen but has a grand total of nine points the last two weeks against Middletown and Fort Bragg. Three of those nine were off the foot of Kristen Celli, who booted a 20-yard field goal against Fort Bragg, making her the first female kicker in Lake County history to convert a field goal.
Cloverdale at Kelseyville
Kelseyville is looking for its first league win of the season and is facing a team tonight that provided the Knights with exactly that a year ago in Cloverdale, where Kelseyville stunned the Eagles 21-14.
Kelseyville coach Erick Larsen said the Knights will put to use many of the hard lessons they learned a week ago in a 41-8 loss at St. Helena.
“They (Saints) exposed a few things we weren’t doing and we’ve worked in practice on correcting those,” Larsen said.
Cloverdale’s diversified offense creates a challenge for the Kelseyville defense, one that could be without one of its top players in Tyler Riewerts, who aggravated a knee injury against St. Helena and is questionable for tonight’s game, according to Larsen.
“He brings the physicality we need on the defensive line,” Larsen said.
Cloverdale isn’t a one-dimensional team by any stretch. Luke Bernardi is a bonafide rushing threat with 717 yards and 11 touchdowns while quarterback Chris Collins (670 yards, 7 TDs) has one of the top receivers in the league to throw to in Marcus Poe (16 catches, 490 yards, 7 TDs).
The Eagles are the only team this season to beat Berean Christian (4-1) of Walnut Creek (28-24 during zero week on Aug. 28) but they also were run over by St. Helena 41-13 in the league opener for both teams Sept. 25 in St. Helena.
Comparing this week’s opponent, Cloverdale, to last week’s, St. Helena, Larsen said, “Both are very physical teams and both are coached very well.”
Willits at Clear Lake
It’s homecoming week for the Cardinals as they look to secure their first league victory at the expense of the Willits Wolverines, who dropped from the ranks of the unbeaten a week ago against Middletown.
Willits dominated last year’s meeting in Willits, winning 32-8.
Clear Lake is trying to end a 13-game league winning streak that stretches back to the 2013 season. In fact, the Cardinals have gone almost two calendar years since last winning a league game, a 35-20 victory over Lower Lake on Oct. 11 in Lakeport.
Anderson Valley at Upper Lake
If the Upper Lake Cougars want to stay in the thick of the NCL III race, they’ll need to beat defending league champion and undefeated Anderson Valley (5-0) on Saturday in Upper Lake. A previously scheduled junior varsity game has been canceled and the varsity contest kicks off at 1 p.m.
Upper Lake (3-1) already has one loss – to Calistoga (4-0) – and likely can’t afford a second if it wants to remain in the title hunt.
Anderson Valley features the top running back in the league and last year’s NCL III most valuable player in senior Cesar Soto.
“He is a good running back, I’ve seen him play,” Upper Lake coach Frank Gudmundson said. “He goes from 0-60 in nothing flat.”
Gudmundson said rumors have circulated that Soto isn’t 100 percent healthy because of a possible injury, but he’s not buying into that, at least not until he sees him in person on Saturday.
“They run the ball about 90 percent of the time but they do like to take shots downfield to their tight ends,” Gudmundson said. “They also run a kind of statue of liberty play that is something to see.”
Upper Lake is coming off a big road win — 44-16 — at Tomales and hopes to carry that momentum into Saturday’s action. Limited by a strong wind in Tomales, the Cougars didn’t throw the ball much but that is unlikely to be the case this weekend.
“We expect Derek Pritchard (nickname of Florida) to do a good job passing the ball,” Gudmundson said of a junior quarterback who has already thrown 12 touchdown passes this season.
Upper Lake also wants to get the ball into the hands of freshman running back Chris Fecht a bit more this week. He had a breakout game a week ago against Tomales with 79 yards, two touchdowns and three two-point conversion runs.
The Cougars will be without regular placekicker Francisco Flores, who was injured in the Tomales game. Austin Hill will fill in for the second week in a row.
“He’s a sophomore and he did a great job of positioning the football on kickoffs against Tomales. Those kickoffs were big for us,” Gudmundson said.
