For the Record-Bee by Vince D’Adamo
ST. HELENA — The Middletown High varsity football team entered Friday night’s road game against the St. Helena Saints with visions of winning a share of the North Central League I title.
Instead, the Mustangs (5-2 league, 6-4 overall) ran straight into a mulcher. The Saints (6-0, 8-1) rolled to a 35-7 win over the Mustangs to win sole possession of the NCL I crown, outsourcing its league foes 208-33 along the way.
Middletown head coach Bill Foltmer, who has seen his Mustangs dominate the NCL I on many occasions, came away with much appreciation for the Saints.
“In all honesty, we got outmanned up front,” Foltmer said. “They’re champions for a reason. They blew through our league. They did not have a close game in the league. They are a very good football team. They are well-coached and took it to us in all aspects of the game. Maybe I’m disappointed that we didn’t make more of a game of it. I thought some of our kids would play a little better but on the flip side is we lost to a very good football team. They’re better than us, no ifs ands or buts about it. My hat’s off to them. I’m friends with the coaches, they do a good job and I wish them well in the playoffs. I hope they win the section and I think they have the team that can do it.”
St. Helena took the opening kickoff and marched 12 plays for 74 yards capped off by a Spencer Printz 7-yard run to go in front 7-0. The Mustangs, however, answered by moving the ball 60 yards on 10 plays, capped off by a 9-yard touchdown run from junior varsity callup Brandon Costlow, who led Middletown with 53 yards on 10 carries while also adding a 44-yard reception. Elijah Diaz added 50 yards on 14 carries. Middletown’s offense managed just 187 yards on 48 plays.
Costlow’s score, however, was the extent of the Middletown offense and the Saints replied with 28 unanswered points. Printz connected with Ivan Robledo and Harrison Ronayne for scores of 8 and 51 yards, respectively. Ronayne also scored on a 9-yard run while Keaton Smith hit paydirt from 51 yards away.
“When you’re playing an option team, they have the big running back coming in, if you don’t square up on him, he’s going to get yards after they get hit,” Foltmer said. “We worked on coming down the line and pinching. Then making sure our assignments were there as far as getting the quarterback. With option football, you get dive, dive, dive and then, boom, he keeps it and gets around the corner.”
To Foltmer’s point, the Saints offense ran for 244 yards while Printz completed 6 of 7 passes for 118 yards.
“We went man-to-man and packed the box against them, which is all you can really do,” Foltmer said. “We even slanted the tendencies and they still got positive yards. If we made a mistake, they made us pay. It wasn’t just the running game that hurt us, they were able to complete passes. It wasn’t until late in the game that we had a stop.”
The Mustangs had occasional bright spots on defense with Xavier Perez leading the team with four impact tackles (gains resulting in three yards or less). Nathan Switzer added three followed by Jacob Perry with two. Evan Harper, Nathan Corsetti, Diaz and Jesse Young each had one.
Middletown will await its North Coast Section Division 6 fate on Sunday. St. Helena is in Division 7 and automatically advances as a league champion.
“I told the kids you’re not going to face a team like St. Helena in your division,” Foltmer said. “What I hope for the kids is that we can end on a better note. If we lose a game, I want it to be one where we compete better. You look at the game and whatever you did well, you build on that and whatever you didn’t do well, you have to work on it.”
St. Helena JV 41, Middletown 6
The Mustangs scored first on Trever Smith 3-yard touchdown run but the Saints scored 41 unanswered points. Jacob Pullman was Middletown’s leading ground-gainer with 48 yards on 12 carries. Pullman, Jacob Watson and Ethen Saelor each recovered fumbles.
