LOWER LAKE >> Gordon Sadler will be the 12th man tonight as the Lower Lake Trojans return home to play the Cloverdale Eagles at the field named after the longtime teacher, football coach and athletic director at Lower Lake High School.
Sadler, 77, died suddenly on Monday while visiting family in Iowa. He was a teacher and coach in the Konocti Unified School District for more than 30 years. His last season with the Trojans was 1995.
Lower Lake is planning a moment of silence tonight between the junior varsity and varsity games. Former players of Sadler are asked to attend and line up with the varsity team during the playing of the national anthem.
While current Lower Lake students weren’t even born when Sadler retired from Lower Lake, many of the coaches for the Trojans played for him, including Justin Gaddy, the head coach, and assistant Damien Wickard. Other coaches around the county, such as Kelseyville offensive coordinator Adam Garcia, played for him as well. Thirty-one year coaching veteran Bill Foltmer, who took over Middletown’s program in 1985, refers to Sadler as his mentor. The two became good friends long ago and Sadler even joined Middletown’s staff as offensive coordinator on two separate occasions and helped the Mustangs win sectional titles in 1997 and 2001.
Sadler brought elements of his beloved Delaware Wing-T offense to Middletown, where it is still used today, and Kelseyville also runs the offense.
“He touched more lives than you can imagine,” Foltmer said of Sadler’s work as both educator and coach.
His reach tonight extends all the way to Kelseyville High School, where the Knights are hosting Middletown. As in Lower Lake, a moment of silence will be held between JV and varsity games for Sadler.
“There are three teams right there which Gordon Sadler influenced,” Foltmer said of Lower Lake, Middletown and Kelseyville. “He hasn’t coached (in Lake County) in 20 years, but the Delaware Wing-T we run and Kelseyville runs was influenced by him.
“I’m really going to miss him,” Foltmer said. “I can hear his laugh now.”
Cloverdale at Lower Lake and Middletown at Kelseyville are the only two games tonight involving Lake County teams. A scheduled varsity game between Clear Lake and St. Helena in St. Helena will be a forfeit as the Cardinals had only 10 healthy/eligible players as of Friday afternoon, according to head coach Darin Brodnansky. The junior varsity teams from the two schools will play at 7:15 p.m. It’s the first time Clear Lake has forfeited a varsity game in at least the last 40 years, according to county records.
On Saturday, Upper Lake (5-1) and Point Arena (4-1) collide in Point Arena in what amounts to a North Central League III elimination game. Both teams enter play with four-game winning streaks.
Cloverdale at Lower Lake
Watch out for the Eagles (3-1), who are flying under the radar as far as the NCL I race is concerned. While St. Helena (5-0 after the Clear Lake forfeit) and Fort Bragg (4-0), both undefeated in league and on the season, are getting most of the headlines, don’t count out the Eagles just yet. While they were thoroughly beaten by St. Helena 41-13 in their league opener, they’ve bounced back with three straight wins and are looking to extend that streak tonight in Lower Lake, where the Trojans (1-3, 4-3) shouldn’t lack for motivation as they pursue a second straight victory.
Cloverdale also has Middletown and Fort Bragg remaining on its schedule. If the Eagles can run the table and if Fort Bragg beats St. Helena next week, the Eagles could end up with some share of the title.
Lower Lake is coming off a 32-23 win over Clear Lake, a game in which the Trojans raced out to a 26-0 lead before things got interesting, including a third-quarter fight that led to the ejection of two Clear Lake players.
The Eagles won last year’s meeting 40-20 at Cloverdale.
Middletown at Kelseyville
After opening league play with wins over Lower Lake and Willits, the Middletown Mustangs went through the NCL I meat grinder, losing a pair of home games to powerhouses Fort Bragg and St. Helena. While the Mustangs were competitive in both games — tied 7-7 entering the fourth quarter with Fort Bragg and trailing only 7-0 to St. Helena entering the final period — they couldn’t generate enough offense to beat either school.
“We did struggle against St. Helena last week but even against them we moved the ball a little bit,” Foltmer said of a Mustangs offense that has struggled with point production outside of the Willits game three weeks ago. “We need to finish off drives … it’s been a problem. We need to put points on the board if we want to win games.”
The Mustangs should be able to move the ball against a Kelseyville defense that has struggled, in part because several key players have missed games with injuries such as end Tyler Riewerts (knee), who is now out for the season. Another key player, Noah Lyndall, will miss tonight’s game with a finger injury.
“Just about everyone has moved the ball against them,” Foltmer said.
Middletown’s defense also has its work cut out, according to Foltmer.
“They run the ball and they passed the ball fairly well against Fort Bragg,” Foltmer said of the Knights, 57-24 loss at Fort Bragg last week. “We’ve got to do a better job with our perimeter defense, make sure we do a better job against those outside plays they (Knights) like to run.”
Kelseyville coach Erick Larsen said the first thing the Knights have to do is hold onto the football.
“We need to protect the football. We can’t have turnovers the way we did against Fort Bragg. We played Fort Bragg tough for three quarters, but we need to play four solid quarters,” Larsen said.
Larsen said the Knights are facing a well-disciplined Middletown team that doesn’t kill itself with mistakes.
“Their line blocks hard and they have a good running attack that we’ll have to deal with,” Larsen said.
One bright spot for the Knights in their loss to Fort Bragg was the play of quarterback Logan Barrick, who passed for 190 yards and a touchdown in only his second varsity start.
“He steps up in the pocket and moves around to extend plays,” Larsen said. “He makes good decisions.”
Clear Lake at St. Helena
Clear Lake coach Darin Brodnansky said bringing up additional JV players to the varsity wasn’t a real option for the Cardinals to avoid a forfeit against the Saints.
“We’re depleted down there,” he said of the JV ranks. “The skill levels we need I don’t feel we have down there.”
Getting enough healthy and eligible bodies to play at home against Kelseyville on Oct. 30 is the plan, according to Brodnansky.
“We’re looking forward to the future and not back to the past,” he said.
Upper Lake at Point Arena
Simply put, the winner of Upper Lake-Point Arena remains in the thick of the NCL III title hunt along with Anderson Valley (6-1) and Calistoga (6-1). The loser drops out of the running.
“We haven’t scouted them and we have no film on them, so we are going in blind,” Upper Lake coach Frank Gudmundson said. “They scouted us against Tomales, so hopefully they think we do nothing but run the football.”
Windy conditions in Tomales on Oct. 3 largely grounded the Cougars’ air attack in their 44-16 victory, but Upper Lake does throw the ball quite a bit – junior quarterback Derek Pritchard has a Lake County-best 17 TDs.
Both teams are capable of running and throwing the football, according to Gudmundson.
“I think our passing game is better and hopefully we can take advantage of that as well as our speed and our conditioning,” Gudmundson said.
The best news for Upper Lake is the injury report.
“It’s the first time since the second week of the season that we’ll have all the pieces of the puzzle,” Gudmundson said. “We have everyone back.”
Isaac Nevarez, who missed each of the Cougars’ last two games, figures to be lining up all over the field as part of Upper Lake’s passing attack.
