NAPA — The Middletown High football team delivered body blows throughout the first half of its North Coast Section Division 6 playoff matchup against the No. 3 seeded Justin-Siena Braves on Friday night.
The No. 6-seeded Mustangs, however, could never knock the Braves to the canvas n a 7-0 season-ending defeat at Dodd Stadium. Justin-Siena scored the game’s only touchdown with 34.2 seconds remaining on Roman Williams’ 6-yard run followed by Parker Schuemann’s extra point. The Braves will host Salesian (Richmond) next Friday in a rematch of last year’s Division 6 finals. Salesian upset Moreau Catholic (Hayward) 14-10 in another first-round game.
The Mustangs finish the season 5-6, during which time they overcame an 0-3 start and won five of their last seven contests to reach the postseason with one of those victories being the 300th in head coach Bill Foltmer’s illustrious career.
“I was proud of our kids,” Foltmer said. “They have been battling all year long. We might have been a little out-athleted. It went right down to the last 40 seconds. We didn’t come away with the score early. We lack a passing game. My quarterback (Hunter Hartzog) is a great kid but never played any organized football at quarterback before. We moved the ball great inside the 20s but we struggled in scoring. This is not the first time it happened. This has been a pattern.”
To Foltmer’s point, this matchup represented contrasting styles between the run-heavy Mustangs and a Justin team that for most of the year threw more passes than a gigolo in a nightclub. On this night, however, the Braves were more balanced in their play distribution with 24 designed runs (excluding quarterback sacks) to only 20 passes.
In the first half, Middletown was gobbling up real estate on the ground with the threesome of Jacob Urbina, Brandon Costlow and Trenton Griffith. On its opening drive, Middletown embarked from its own 5 to the Justin 25 on 15 plays before turning the ball over on downs. Shortly thereafter, Costlow recovered a fumble on a sack of Braves sophomore quarterback Drew Sangiacomo to put Middletown in business at the Justin 25. Later facing fourth-and-goal from the 2, Justin’s Cameron Powell returned an interception on a tipped ball for an apparent 99-yard touchdown, which was nullified by a blindside block.
“The gameplan was going pretty much how we wanted,” Foltmer said. “We didn’t give up any long ones. We didn’t give up any breakaway runs. We got a couple of breaks with penalties but they were pretty obvious. I thought the key was we stopped them but couldn’t finish the drive. Credit to Justin, they scored to go on to win the game.”
Tyler Streblow, who is Justin’s first-year head coach, also lamented his team’s inability to finish drives but had ample praise for the Mustangs.
“We did not finish on offense,” Streblow said. “The plays are there, we just have to make them. The defense played outstanding. They kept us in the game. We can’t turn the ball over if we’re going to continue on in the playoffs. We have to clean up the mental mistakes. It was just a knock-down, drag-out game. Middletown did a good job of running the ball. We had just enough on defense and offense. It could have gone either way.”
The Mustangs’ defense gave up yardage but not points, 225 yards on 48 plays but nothing going north of 20 yards. Jacob Pullman and Elijah Diaz each had quarterback sacks. Jaime Baldovinos, Diaz, John Kennedy and Hartzog each had tackles for lost yardage. Pullman led the team with three impact tackles (gains resulting in 1-3 yards). Oscar Cruz added two while Chase Wink, Griffith and Cisco Howland each added one.
“We had a three-man, four-man and five-man package,” Foltmer said. “I was kind of surprised that they ran the ball more. I watched their game against Casa and they threw it a lot more, maybe because they were behind. We thought they were going to throw more deep routes.”
