MIDDLETOWN — Jacob Urbina ran like a running back possessed, especially in the second half, as the Middletown Mustangs capped a solid North Central League I campaign with a 20-7 win over the St. Helena Saints in the regular-season finale for both of these varsity football teams Friday night at Bill Foltmer Field in Middletown.
Middletown (5-2 league, 5-5 overall) finishes in a three-way tie for second place in the final NCL I standings, one game behind the Clear Lake Cardinals (6-1, 9-1), who clinched the outright championship Friday night with a come-from-behind 22-21 victory over the Cloverdale Eagles in Cloverdale.
Middletown would have shared the league title had Clear Lake lost to Cloverdale.
“I’m happy for Mark,” Middletown head coach Bill Foltmer said of his Clear Lake counterpart, Mark Cory.
While career victory 301 didn’t have the drama that No. 300 held two weeks ago in a 36-29 win at Cloverdale, Foltmer said he’ll gladly take it. He also said he’s quite happy the chase for that 300th win is now behind him.
“I like it better that way,” said Foltmer, who was honored during a five-minute-long pregame ceremony that was barely long enough to list all of his accomplishes during a long and illustrious coaching career that started at Princeton High School in Colusa County (1980-84) before his move to Middletown (1985-present).
“It was very nice,” Foltmer said.
Even nicer was Middletown’s performance against St. Helena (2-5, 4-6). It was a trademark Mustangs performance, one that longtime fans would recognize in an instant. Middletown’s defense dominated while its offense used up huge chunks of the clock all night long, greatly limiting the Saints’ chances.
“We won with some good defense and our offensive line did a real good job, too,” Foltmer said. “To beat St. Helena your guys on the interior defensive line have to play well and they did.”
So well that the Saints ran only 11 plays in the second half when they gained only 24 yards. So well that St. Helena had only 61 rushing yards and 150 yards of offense.
In a game where all of the points came in the first half, Middletown scored on each of its first three possessions — drives of 64 yards on nine plays (all runs) capped by Urbina’s 7-yard touchdown run with 5:05 left in the first quarter; 79 yards in four plays, including a 65-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Hunter Hartzog to running back Trenton Griffith with 1.9 seconds remaining in the quarter; and a 75-yard drive on five plays (all runs), the final one a 51-yard Urbina run on which he was nearly tripped up near the line of scrimmage but maintained his balanced and sprinted nearly unmolested into the end zone with several Saints right in hot pursuit.
Urbina finished with 173 yards on 20 carries, 108 of those yards coming in the second half when he picked up a handful of first downs to keep the clock moving and the St. Helena offense on the sidelines.
“He’s a tough kid,” Foltmer said of Urbina in what could possibly be the senior’s final home game with the Mustangs. “What makes him so good is that he’s good on offense and defense. He’s as tough as they come.”
St. Helena scored right before halftime on a 21-yard pass from quarterback Thomas Herdell to wide receiver Charlie Wright. The Saints covered the 66 yards to the end zone by turning to the air as Herdell completed three of five passes for 60 yards. Wright finished the game with five catches for 85 yards.
While neither team scored in the second half, Middletown just missed on its opening possession of the third quarter. The Mustangs received the second-half kickoff and went from their own 40-yard line to just inside the St. Helena 2 where they were facing a fourth-and-goal. Brandon Costlow appeared to reach the goal line with ball in hand but it was marked just inches shy of the goal line, and the Saints took over on downs.
Middletown controlled the ball for more than 10 of the 12 minutes in the third quarter and for much of the fourth quarter as well. While the Mustangs couldn’t add to their lead, they kept St. Helena pinned back deep in its own end — the Saints three second-half possession started, in order, from the Saints 1-, 10- and 5-yard lines.
Middletown finished with 337 yards of offense, all but 65 of those — the touchdown completion from Hartzog to Griffith — on the ground. Costlow added 67 yards on 14 carries while the speedy freshman Griffith, called up from the junior varsity squad for the second time this season, added 25 yards on six carries along with his big touchdown catch, a play on which he worked his way behind St. Helena’s secondary.
The win, Middletown’s fourth in its last five games, should give the team a good bit of momentum heading into next weekend’s North Coast Section Division 6 playoffs, according to Foltmer. The Mustangs won’t know until Sunday’s at-large and seeding meeting who they are playing, when and where.
“We finished 5-2 in league, which is as good as we did last year,” Foltmer said. “We’ll go into the playoffs coming off a good offensive and defensive game and that should help us.”
Another postseason performance also offers Foltmer the opportunity to add to his career win total as he is now just 42 wins shy of becoming the all-time state leader among public school coaches.
“I don’t think I’ll be around that long,” a smiling Foltmer said.
Then again, you never know.
