LAKEPORT >> Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
That’s how Clear Lake High School’s varsity football season ended on Tuesday as the Cardinals announced they would forfeit their North Central League I and regular-season finale to the Middletown Mustangs on Friday night because they don’t have enough healthy players to field a team.
There will be a junior varsity football game between the two teams at Bill Foltmer Field in Middletown. Kickoff is 7 p.m. as the Mustangs celebrate their homecoming sans varsity game.
Clear Lake, which also forfeited to St. Helena during the Saints’ homecoming on Oct. 23, finishes the season last in the NCL I standings at 1-6 and at 2-8 overall. Middletown improves to 5-2 in league with the forfeit victory and 5-4 overall. The Mustangs’ next stop is the North Coast Section Division V playoffs as an at-large team. The Division V field will be set Sunday.
Between forfeit losses, Clear Lake lost 26-6 to archrival Kelseyville last Friday in Bass Bowl VI at Lakeport. The Cardinals suited up 12 players for that game but finished with only 10 because of injuries.
Middletown coach Bill Foltmer said he would use the extra time to prepare for the team’s playoff opener and rest some of his banged up players. The Mustangs’ injury list grew by one last weekend in a big 13-0 road win at Cloverdale when quarterback Connor Armstrong left the game early in the second half with an injury later diagnosed as a ruptured spleen. Rob Carey replaced Armstrong in the Cloverdale game and will fill in behind center for the duration of Middletown’s playoff run.
“Maybe we can steal one in the playoffs,” Foltmer said with an eye toward the Mustangs’ first-round game.
