Cards host Fort Bragg in league opener while Mustangs, Cougars hit the road
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKE COUNTY >> Who will win the 2025 North Central League I football race and advance to the North Coast Section playoffs, perhaps beyond?
Stay tuned. League action begins Friday night and one of the four scheduled games features a pair of undefeated teams as the Lower Lake Trojans (2-0) host the St. Helena Saints (2-0). Other league openers have Middletown (1-1) at Cloverdale (1-0), Upper Lake (0-1) at Willits (1-0), and Fort Bragg (0-2) at Clear Lake (0-1). Kelseyville has the bye.
Lower Lake
The Trojans and Saints played the NCL I game of the year last season, St. Helena building a 37-8 halftime lead, Lower Lake rallying to tie it 37-37 by the end of regulation, and the Saints emerging with a 43-37 overtime win.
Lower Lake is looking to play its first complete game of the year as both of its preseason wins – 22-7 at home against Esparto and 30-6 a week ago in Healdsburg – didn’t go the full four quarters because both teams sustained too many injuries and couldn’t continue. Esparto forfeited late in the second quarter, Healdsburg late in the third.
St. Helena’s preseason has been a bit tougher. The Saints opened with a 28-18 home win against Fortuna before going on the road last week to rout Justin-Siena 43-0.
The team that emerges with a win Friday night at Gordon Sadler Field will be on its way as far as the league race is concerned.
“It would definitely do a lot to carry us as far as our confidence is concerned,” Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski said of beating the Saints. “We can go toe to toe with them if we can continue to run the ball like we have the first two games. It’s the best we’ve run the ball since 2019 (Lower Lake’s last winning season). If we can be consistent on offense and disciplined on defense, we can play with them.”
There is a lot about the Saints to like, according to Jakubowski, beginning with 6-foot-2 senior wide receiver Dean Sommer, a disciplined offensive line, and senior running back Eric Torres, who has 200 yards rushing through his first two games. Senior quarterback Jhony Covarrubias is another weapon.
“Their running back is fast,” Jakubowski said of Torres. “Their quarterback is big and physical.”
Lower Lake gets a couple of key players back off the injury list this week, two-way lineman Noel Pereira and defensive end Xavier Arellano, beefing up what are already big and physical Trojan offensive and defensive lines.
Looking back at last year’s thriller with the Saints, Jakubowski said the Lower Lake offense did a good job, especially in the second half, of taking what the St. Helena defense was giving the Trojans.
“We just didn’t show up play in the first half, but the kids rose to the occasion in the second half,” Jakubowski said. “Hopefully we learned the lesson and have a better start this time.”
Middletown
The Mustangs take a nine-game winning streak against Cloverdale into Friday’s contest on the Eagles’ homefield, five of those victories being shutouts. The Eagles last beat the Mustangs in 2014.
“We’ve had a good week in practice,” Middletown head coach Kurtis Woodard said after collecting his first career win a week ago at home against Piedmont, a 32-17 victory. “Our second-team guys were playing football. That’s definitely a strength for us this year.”
Middletown is nearly 100-percent healthy although wide receiver/defensive back Hayden Xavier (sprained thumb) will be a game-time decision.
“They (Eagles) have some kids who play hard,” Woodard said of Cloverdale’s Vann Randolph and Carson Brown, both running backs, and wide receiver Francisco Santillan.
Kyle Bernardi, a junior, returns at quarterback for the Eagles, who went 1-7 in league play and 2-8 overall in 2024.
Cloverdale struggled with player numbers throughout the 2024 season. Eighteen players are listed on the Eagles’ roster going into the Middletown game.
Clear Lake
The Clear Lake Cardinals are expected to suit up 18 players for their home opener and league opener Friday against the Timberwolves, who are coming off a rough preseason, including a 57-0 home loss to Ferndale last week. They lost 28-6 at McKinleyville in week one.
Clear Lake lost 30-6 to St. Bernard in week one but didn’t have enough healthy players to travel to Arbuckle last week to play Pierce. Pierce and Clear Lake agreed to call it a non-game instead of a forfeit, and the Cardinals are trying to schedule a second non-league game Oct. 3 at Mount Shasta.
“It’s helped us tremendously,” Clear Lake head coach Augie Perez said of having last week off, which allowed the Cardinals to heal their bumps and bruises from the St. Bernard loss and to get back other players unavailable for the Aug. 30 opener against St. Bernard, such as starting quarterback AJ Bruch, who will open behind center against Fort Bragg.
“If he runs our offense like he did at the scrimmage (Lake County Scrimmage on Aug. 22 in Kelseyville) we’ll be just fine,” Perez said of Bruch. “We’ll certainly score more than six points.”
Looking at the head-to-head matchup between the Cardinals and Timberwolves, Perez said he believes his squad is better in several areas.
“I think we have an advantage in the line and with our skill players,” Perez said.
Fort Bragg senior wide receiver Ross Knapp is a player the Clear Lake defense will need to keep an eye on, according to Perez.
“They try to get the ball to No. 7 (Knapp). He’s a big, physical receiver (6-foot-, 190 pounds).”
Fort Bragg’s defense does its best to mix things up and keep the offense guessing, according to Perez.
“They try to do a lot of different things,” he said.
The Cardinals are home again next week against Lower Lake.
Upper Lake
The Upper Lake Cougars are looking for their first points of the 2025 season as well as their first win after being shut out by Los Molinos and Stuart Hall in the preseason. Things won’t get any easier Friday night against the Willits Wolverines, who put together a solid 8-2 record last season (7-1 in league play) only to be denied an at-large playoff berth under the North Coast Section’s competitive equity postseason selection process.
Willits went 5-0 at home last season.
“We’ve been going back to basics this week in practice,” Upper Lake head coach Derek Milhaupt said. “We’ve been making things simple.”
Upper Lake has perhaps the toughest first two games of any NCL I team as the Cougars play at Willits and at Middletown.
“We get the meat of the schedule right away,” Milhaupt said. “Willits is big, physical and well-coached, they run a lot of formations at you on offense, and they have an unconventional defense with what they do with their cornerbacks and safeties. Their defensive line and linebackers will be coming after us.”
Upper Lake senior wide receiver Trevan Fabisch (wrist) and tackle/defensive end Travis McCutcheon (leg) are out with injuries. While Milhaupt expects to suit up 17 players for the Wolverines, a sickness making its way through Upper Lake’s student body could mean fewer players on game day.
“I don’t know who is going to be available Friday,” Milhaupt said.
Since returning to the NCL I as an 11-man football team in 2023, the Cougars haven’t had much success against Willits. They lost 23-0 last year and 47-0 in 2023.
