LAKE COUNTY >> Coming off a 28-0 victory in their season opener last weekend against Hercules, the Middletown Mustangs had every right to feel encouraged about playing the Berean Christian Eagles in the second game of the season. After all, Berean Christian couldn’t make it through three quarters in a 22-12 loss to Kelseyville before the Eagles asked for the game to be called.
Berean Christian had only 12 healthy varsity players left and didn’t want to risk losing more, not with a long season ahead. The Eagles also have no junior varsity team this season although a few of the school’s younger players were in uniform for the game.
“Their coach didn’t want to use them because they weren’t ready,” Middletown coach Bill Foltmer said.
While Middletown’s roster is far from huge at 26 players, the Mustangs won’t have nearly that many in uniform Saturday for their 1 p.m. start against the Eagles. That’s because a half dozen will be busy showing their animals at the Lake County Fair.
“The joke is will I have enough kids in the third quarter,” Foltmer said. “I’ll still finish the game even if I only have 10.”
In other Week 2 games, all taking place on Friday night, the Kelseyville Knights host the Biggs Wolverines (0-1), the Clear Lake Cardinals (0-1) travel to Arbuckle to play the Pierce Bears (1-0), the Lower Lake Trojans (0-1) head to Forestville to take on the El Molino Lions (1-1), and the Upper Lake Cougars (0-1) head north to Miranda to face the South Fork Cubs (1-0).
M’town at Berean Christian
The Middletown Mustangs will be minus a two-way starter in Victor Guzman, starters Cole Jensen (tackle) and Chris Fischer (guard), and reserves Casey Chicoine, Tyler Breiner and Blake Schuster. With two starting linemen and two reserve linemen unavailable, Foltmer said he’ll promote an offensive lineman from the junior varsity squad to give him some depth. Since the Middletown JVs have no game this weekend, they won’t miss him.
The status of running back Drake Harbison is also up in the air after the senior suffered a hamstring pull during Wednesday’s practice.
“They (Eagles) might not have many players and depth, but neither do we right now,” Foltmer said. “They have enough kids who can play. The kids they have are pretty good athletes.”
Clear Lake at Pierce
Clear Lake and Pierce meet in a varsity-only game Friday night in Arbuckle beginning at 7 p.m. While a JV game had been scheduled, the Cardinals’ squad, only 15-16 strong to begin with, suffered a number of injuries last week in a season-opening loss to Colusa. In that game, Clear Lake used three juniors borrowed from the varsity.
“Those three players are back up with us this week,” Clear Lake head coach Mark Cory said. “It’s a better thing to let that team heal up.”
Barring any additional setbacks, Cory said the JVs should be back up and running on Sept. 7 when Clear Lake visits University Prep of Redding in Week 3.
The varsity Cardinals are licking their own wounds after a season-opening 28-0 setback to Colusa. They lost quarterback Chris White to ejection and running back/defensive back Rodrigo Lupercio to a badly sprained ankle. Both are out Friday. This week in practice fullback Treppa Marcks went down with a sore neck that will sideline him until at least next week.
“That’s how football seasons go,” Cory said. “It’s just part of the game.”
Rolando Amaya will replace White behind center against Pierce, a team that is similar to Colusa in many ways, according to Cory.
“They are a run-dominant team, a smash-mouth football team,” he said.
Players designated as backups at season’s start, such as Amaya, have been getting all the reps in practice this week, according to Cory.
“The silver lining is we’re going to get a lot of game reps for our backups,” Cory said. “When our other guys get back, we’re going to have some depth because those guys (backups) are playing a lot. We’ll be a better football team.”
Biggs at K’ville
Still thin in the secondary because of injuries, the Kelseyville Knights are looking to get another big effort from their defensive line and pass rush Friday night against Biggs, a 28-24 loser to Hamilton City in its season opener a week ago.
“Their quarterback is their main threat,” Kelseyville coach Erick Larson said of senior Tucker Bennett, who is coming off a huge game against Hamilton City.
Bennett passed for 342 yards and three TDs and rushed 11 times for 60 yards and another score.
“The defensive line needs to be mindful to keep him in the pocket,” Larsen said.
Kelseyville’s defensive line is the strength of the team and the one area that has the most depth, according to Larsen.
“It’s where we’re the strongest,” Larsen said. “We have depth across the D line.”
The Knights have promoted Brandon Garcia from the JV ranks to help solidify the secondary.
“Shawn Beverlin has done a great job in practice this week and can help us there too” Larsen said.
Lower Lake at El Molino
On the road for a second week in a row, at least the Trojans won’t face nearly the trip they had a week ago in a 34-27 loss to Carson High School in Carson City, Nevada.
Lower Lake led 27-6 in the third quarter before Carson battled back for the victory. Lower Lake quarterback Elijah Hernandez accounted for all of his team’s touchdowns, passing for three and running for another.
The Trojans had a long bus ride home to think about what went wrong late in the game, but the bad taste the loss left in their mouths is easily cured, according to Lower Lake head coach Justin Gaddy.
“Best thing to get rid of that bad taste is a win in your next game,” Gaddy said. “We’ve got to play our A game.”
The Trojans did that for three quarters against Carson, according to Gaddy, but a 21-0 fourth quarter ruined the Trojans’ opener.
“We learned our lessons in that game and we need to carry on,” he said.
Lower Lake enters play against El Molino with a 22-man roster.
“They run a spread offense,” Gaddy said. “They’re fast and run a similar system to ours.”
El Molino opened the season with a 40-14 road loss to St. Bernard of Eureka before beating Sonoma Valley 17-14 at home a week ago.
Upper Lake at South Fork
Upper Lake and South Fork, both members of the NCL III, meet in a non-league game Friday night, a trial run of sorts for both squads before their league meeting Sept. 28, also in Miranda.
The Cougars will have running back/linebacker Junior Fernandez and running back/defensive back Hank Nevarez in uniform Friday. Both missed last week’s 50-6 season-opening loss at Virginia City. Unfortunately they won’t have wide receiver Chris Fecht, who is out with a shoulder injury until further notice.
The Cougars are starting their youngest offensive line ever with two freshmen and a sophomore, according to head coach Vince Moran.
“At least we’ll be more experienced in the backfield this week with Junior and Hank back,” Moran said.
“As long as we see some improvement from last week, I’ll be happy,” Moran added. “But I think we can win this game. We just have to make some stops on defense.”
South Fork, the defending NCL III champion, beat Calistoga 28-20 in its opener last week.
