FORT BRAGG — Middletown scored 20 points in a six-minute span during the fourth quarter Friday night to spoil Fort Bragg’s homecoming, 27-22, in a North Central League I varsity football game where big plays turned the tide late for the Mustangs on the Mendocino County coast.
“It was a very exciting game,” Middletown head coach Bill Foltmer said after watching the Mustangs (2-1 league, 2-4 overall) rally from a 22-7 deficit after three quarters. “The kids played tough. It was nice to smiling faces in the locker room.”
Brandon Costlow’s 1-yard cut Fort Bragg’s lead to 22-13, but the Mustangs missed the extra-point kick, which left them two scores down. Middletown went for the onside kick and Elijah Diaz recovered the ball after Hunter Hartzog’s kick bounced off the chest of a Timberwolf played and ricocheted to Diaz.
“We practice onside kicks all the time and we’re not very good at it,” Foltmer said. “But Hunter’s kick was perfect and it bounced up at just the right time and hit a Fort Bragg player in the chest, and it bounced right to Diaz.”
Middletown scored a short time later on a 37-yard Jacob Urbina run. Hartzog’s pass to Diaz on the conversion made it 22-21.
The Mustangs’ defense forced a three-and-out to get the ball right back. Middletown drove down the field and scored on a 15-yard pass from Hartzog to Costlow with two minutes remaining for a 27-22 lead as the two-point conversion run failed.
“It was a play-action pass and Costlow caught it crossing the middle,” Foltmer said of what turned out to be the game-winning score. “We dropped a ball on that same play earlier in the game where our guy got behind their defense.”
With plenty of time left for Fort Bragg, Middletown’s defense — and Diaz — came up big again. The senior intercepted a pass at the Fort Bragg 40. The Timberwolves still had two timeouts left but Middletown picked up a first down before running out the clock.
Fort Bragg built a 22-7 lead on the strength of a pair of Alex Nicholson touchdown runs — the first in the second quarter and another in the third quarter — and a 4-yard pass from Nicholson to Brady Pyorre in the second quarter that gave the Timberwolves an early 8-0 lead as they added the conversion run.
Middletown closed to 8-7 on Urbina’s 4-yard run and Hartzog’s extra-point kick. The touchdown was set up by Urbina’s block of a Fort Bragg punt.
Both Costlow (26 carries for 143 yards) and Urbina (15 carries for 122 yards) topped 100 yards as the Mustangs finished with 271 yards on the ground. Hartzog was just 2-for-12 passing, but he had two passes dropped that would have been big gains, according to Foltmer.
“Costlow ran hard and Urbina had a very good game on offense and defense,” Foltmer said. “Both (Jacob) Pullman and Urbani did a good job at middle linebacker.”
It was the second loss in a row the Timberwolves (0-3, 1-5) against a Lake County opponent. They fell 42-16 a week earlier at Kelseyville. Fort Bragg also plays Lake County teams each of the next two weeks — home against Lower Lake next Friday and at Clear Lake in Lakeport on Oct. 21.
It was the 298th career win for Foltmer and his 279th at Middletown since taking over the program in 1985.
Middletown’s junior varsity team beat Fort Bragg 20-7 to improve to 3-0 in the league standings.
