MIDDLETOWN — The Lower Lake Trojans will beat the Middletown Mustangs again one day, but it won’t be this season.
Middletown ran its winning streak against its northern neighbor to 12 straight games with a 42-19 victory in the North Central League I opener for both teams on Friday night at Bill Foltmer Field. Nico Barrio rushed for 259 yards and two touchdowns and Dillon Tingle added 111 yards and four TDs as the Mustangs (1-0) squared their season record at 2-2.
Lower Lake (0-1) is also 2-2 overall. The Trojans scored the game’s first points on an Aries Brooke 48-yard run and trailed only 14-12 after one quarter and 30-19 at halftime before the Mustangs’ rushing attack – all 444 yards of it – began to wear down the Lower Lake defense in the second half.
“I can’t say enough about Barrio or Tingle,” Middletown coach Bill Foltmer said after posting career win No. 283. “They never come out of the game … they play on offense, defense, special teams. A lot of Nico’s yards came on second- and third-effort runs.”
Middletown’s efficiency on offense – almost no penalty yardage and no turnovers – resulted in the Mustangs scoring on four of five first-half possessions. They were driving for another touchdown in the final seconds of the second quarter when they ran out of time at the Lower Lake 5-yard line.
“I thought that might give them (Trojans) some momentum going into halftime so I really emphasized that we needed to come out in the second half and start fast,” Foltmer said.
And the Mustangs did, taking the kickoff and marching 65 yards for a touchdown, with Tingle capping the drive with a 5-yard run to make it 36-19. Tingle scored again on a 3-yard run later in the third quarter to push the Mustangs’ lead to 42-19.
“We couldn’t stop that run,” Lower Lake coach Jeremy (Jay) Jakubowski said. “But we also shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times with turnovers and gave them some great field position.”
Lower Lake lost two fumbles and quarterback Vann Wilkins, who passed for one touchdown and ran for another, also threw an interception on a night when he completed 15 of 24 passes for 196 yards.
“Their defense definitely came up with some big plays,” Jakubowski said of the Mustangs.
Lower Lake’s offense also hurt Middletown with a handful of big plays in the first half, including a 36-yard TD pass from Wilkins to Semaj Clark late in the second quarter that cut Middletown’s lead to 30-19 and put the Trojans right back into the game.
“He can jump and he outjumped our safety to catch that ball,” Foltmer said of Clark, who had three catches for 77 yards on the night.
Tingle and Barrio rushed for touchdowns to cap each of Middletown’s first two possessions of the game and give the Mustangs a 14-6 lead. Wilkins broke loose on a 24-yard TD run late in the first quarter to make it 14-12. While Brooke led the Trojans with 67 rushing yards, Wilkins wasn’t far behind with 58.
“He really hurt us with his scrambling,” Foltmer said. “Our defense had a hard time with containment. Lower Lake created problems for us … they have such good team speed. They played us tough and we worried right up to the end because of their ability to score so quickly.”
“He’s a legend,” Jakubowski said of Foltmer. “And they’re the measuring stick. We moved the ball against them, but we stopped ourselves with those turnovers.”
Middletown scored the first 16 points of the second quarter to go up 30-12. Tingle scored on a 2-yard run and Barrio on a 3-yard run, with Barrio adding the two-point conversion runs after both touchdowns.
Middletown won the junior varsity game 20-0.
