ST. HELENA >> After a three-year drought, the Middletown Mustangs are North Central League I varsity football champions once again.
Middletown clinched no worse than a tie for the league title with a 35-7 victory over the St. Helena Saints on Friday night in St. Helena, the team’s seventh straight win of the season. The Mustangs (6-0 league, 7-1 overall) can secure the outright championship with a win at home next Friday against the Willits Wolverines in their regular-season finale.
While it turned out to be a fairly easy victory in the end for the Mustangs and coach Bill Foltmer, it certainly didn’t start that way. St. Helena mishandled the opening kickoff and started at its own 5-yard line, but the Saints marched right down the field for a touchdown, the 95-yard drive capped by Christian Cia’s 6-yard run.
“They nickeled and dimed us right down the field,” Middletown coach Bill Foltmer said. “They really did a nice job. You don’t see many drives like that. I thought we were in trouble at that point.”
Middletown answered right back to calm the nerves of its fans. Running back Nico Barrio, who had a huge night for the Mustangs, broke off runs of 29 and 39 yards as the Mustangs drove down the field themselves and scored on a Barrio 23-yard run to close to 7-6 as the extra-point kick failed.
The Mustangs’ defense forced a punt and Middletown went in front to stay on its next possession, capped by a Barrio 3-yard run in the second quarter. Barrio’s third TD of the game, this time on a 9-yard run, pushed the Mustangs’ halftime lead to 21-7 as Barrio added the two-point conversion run. He finished with 191 yards on 25 carries.
Middletown added insurance touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters. Nash Field scored on a 2-yard run and Jake Kelly’s 3-yard run in the final period made it 35-7.
While the Mustangs rolled up 248 yards on the ground, most of that by Barrio, Middletown also was able to pick up some key yardage through the air as quarterback Luke Holt went 7-for-9 for 93 yards.
“He engineered the offense pretty well tonight,” Foltmer said of Holt. “He audibled a couple of times, setting up our third touchdown.”
Barrio, running behind the blocks of, among others, Cameron Ketchum, Colton Hall and Devin Ross, was able to break off big runs throughout the game.
“He’s a quick kid, but I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the line. Those guys (Ketchum, Hall and Ross) opened up some big holes.”
And while Middletown’s defense couldn’t stop St. Helena to open the game, the Mustangs pitched a shutout the rest of the way and never again let the Saints inside the Middletown 20-yard line, also known as the red zone.
“The kids settled down after that opening drive and we started playing some defense,” Foltmer said.
The Mustangs recovered two St. Helena fumbles and sacked the quarterback three times, two of those by Jared Pyzer.
