LAKEPORT >> Prepared for rainy weather, the Middletown Mustangs found nearly ideal conditions Friday night at Don Owens Stadium in Lakeport, the home field of the Clear Lake Cardinals.
But they didn’t change their gameplan while beating Clear Lake 36-0 in North Central League I varsity football action. The Mustangs’ win sets the stage for a battle of unbeatens next Friday night in Fort Bragg against the Timberwolves, who take a 5-0 record into their game today in Petaluma against St. Vincent (0-5).
“We were expecting bad weather, so we decided to do more straight-ahead running,” Middletown coach Bill Foltmer said. “When we got here the field was in great shape and the weather was perfect, but we decided to stick with what we had been working on the last couple of days in practice.”
And that was a healthy dose of fullback Ty Chorjel up the middle and no frills attached. The senior ran for 132 yards and scored each of the Mustangs’ first four touchdowns on runs of 5 and 4 yards in the first quarter, 63 yards in the second quarter, and 6 yards early in the third quarter as Middletown built a 30-0 lead. Colton Soderling’s 7-yard run in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter rounded out the scoring.
The Mustangs (5-0 league, 5-2 overall) averaged almost eight yards a carry on the night although it was Chorjel who did the bulk of the damage.
Middletown also had significant help from Clear Lake in the form of four turnovers that turned into three Mustang scores. Each of Middletown’s first two touchdowns were set up by Cardinal turnovers, the first a fumble deep in Clear Lake territory and the second an interception that Middletown’s Trey O’Neill caught at the goal line to thwart a long Clear Lake drive that could have pulled the Cardinals even early in the game.
“When you play a team like that, a really good football team, you can’t have four turnovers,” Clear Lake coach Mark Cory said.
To their credit, the Cardinals (2-3, 3-4) punched the ball into Middletown territory five times and had the ball at the Mustangs’ 12-yard line in the first quarter before the O’Neill interception, and at the 10 in the third quarter when Clear Lake quarterback Alex Adams was sacked by Middletown’s Devin Ross trying to convert a fourth-and-one play.
“Our goal was to make Clear Lake chip the ball down the field,” Foltmer said. “It’s tough to be perfect on a drive because of penalties and mistakes.
“Clear Lake’s offense does a real good job of moving the ball and they got into our red zone twice, but our DBs (defensive backs) came up with some big plays,” Foltmer added.
“That’s a really good football team,” Cory added of the Mustangs. “That’s where we want to be but we’re not quite there yet. Hopefully we will be soon. They had a good defensive plan and worked on boxing us in.”
While Middletown rolled up 261 of its 337 yards on the ground, Clear Lake had 125 of its 188 yards through the air where the Cardinals were able to convert some big first downs, especially in the first half. Adams went 9-for-15 and five of those completions came in third-and-long or fourth-and-long situations and led to first downs each time.
Running back Jake Jackson, who is playing with one arm in a cast as is Middletown running back John Kelley, made a highlight-reel 11-yard catch on a fourth-and-five play in the first quarter, absorbing a hard hit but hanging onto the ball for a drive-sustaining first down.
Middletown ran two plays from scrimmage that went for 62 and 63 yards, respectively. The first was a 62-yard pass from quarterback Luke Holt to wide receiver Robbie Carry late in the first quarter that set up Chorjel’s second TD of the night on a 4-yard run. The other was Chorjel’s 63-yard scoring romp up the middle on a trap play early in the second quarter.
