Week 4 football games feature pair of all-county North Central League I matchups
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKE COUNTY >> The Kelseyville Knights have a new old face on their coaching staff as they head to Fort Bragg on Friday night to play the Timberwolves in the North Central League I varsity football opener for both teams.
Logan Barrick, an assistant coach for the Knights the past two seasons, is back on the sidelines after rejoining the team during its bye week. Barrick didn’t open the year as part of head coach Leo Flores’ staff, but he’s back now and will take over the job of offensive coordinator.
“We have a good coaching relationship,” said Flores, who is in his third year as head coach. “He’s working with the skill kids, which leaves me to do what I love best, work with the line.”
Added Flores, “I told him he can draw up the plays and I’ll set up the blocking schemes.”
Barrick, a standout quarterback for the Knights during his playing days, will have the team’s projected starting quarterback available against Fort Bragg as junior Kimo Brown has been cleared to play.
“The results of his MRI (for a stress fracture) didn’t show as much damage as they feared, so he’s been cleared,” Flores said of Brown, who sustained the injury before the start of the season.
Kelseyville (0-1) was without Brown during the team’s 47-0 loss to Orland on Sept. 6, the only game the Knights have played to date. They had a bye on the first week of the season and their league bye last week.
“We’re ready to go,” Flores said with an eye toward the schedule, which has the Knights playing games the final eight weeks of the regular season. “We’re at full strength.”
In other Week 4 games involving Lake County teams, Clear Lake (1-0 league, 1-1) hosts Lower Lake (0-1, 2-1) in a varsity-only contest Friday at 6 p.m. as the Cardinals celebrate their homecoming, and Middletown (1-0, 2-1) entertains Upper Lake (0-1, 0-3) on Friday at Bill Foltmer Field.
Kelseyville at Fort Bragg
The Knights travel to the Mendocino Coast to take on a Fort Bragg team (0-1, 0-3) that lost 41-0 to Clear Lake at Lakeport last week in the league opener for both teams. Fort Bragg is coming off back-to-back shutout losses and the Knights will be looking to extend their tough start to the 2025 season.
“We don’t want to be one-dimensional,” Flores said of his offense. “We have to be able to run the ball against them, we have to do a good job with our third-down management.”
With two off weeks in the first three weeks of the season, the Knights are tired of looking at each other on the practice field, according to Flores.
“We have been paying attention to detail,” Flores said. “Logan knows the offense and I’m excited to see what he can do. He’s a young coach with a bright mind.”
Added Flores, “We’ll be trying to use every player to the best of their abilities.”
Kelseyville won all eight of its league games a year ago while capturing the league title, including a 41-14 win against Fort Bragg that kicked off the Knights’ league schedule, just as it will this season.
Lower Lake at Clear Lake
The Cardinals are gunning for a second straight win after making mincemeat of Fort Bragg, 41-0, last week in Lakeport. Augie Perez expects to be at full strength against a Lower Lake squad coming off a hard-fought 31-22 home loss to St. Helena (1-0, 3-0).
Apart from dealing with the distractions that every homecoming game brings, Clear Lake has had a handful of players out sick during the week.
“A couple are going to try and go (against Lower Lake),” Perez said. “We’ll see.”
Weekly grade checks at the school didn’t cost the varsity any players although a handful of junior varsity players are ineligible this week, which led to Clear Lake forfeiting the JV game because it doesn’t have enough players to field a team.
“We’ll get through it,” Perez said.
Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski hopes his Trojan survive the week without losing additional linemen.
“I took five starting linemen into the St. Helena game,” he said. “I have only two for Clear Lake.”
Among the casualties is Liam Elledge.
“He broke his arm against St. Helena and we didn’t know about it until after the game,” Jakubowski said.
Another lineman, Xavier Arellano, sustained injuries in a vehicle crash earlier this month and has been ruled out for the remainder of the season.
“He didn’t play against St. Helena, but we were hoping to get him back, soon” said Jakubowski, who said Arellano was advised not to play further because of health concerns.
The Trojans lost another starting lineman to grades, the only player out of 67 on the combined varsity and junior varsity rosters who was lost for academic reasons.
On a brighter note, the Trojans will get a couple of previously injured players back this week, including linemen Kody Rannous and Mark Van Hoose.
“If we had a full team with no injuries, I would feel a lot better about it,” Jakubowski said.
Both teams need to keep an eye on the other’s quarterback, both capable passers and runners.
“They’re a hard team to play because of their defense,” Jakubowski said of the Cardinals. “They disguise things very well.”
Clear Lake’s offense presents a fair share of problems too, beginning with the return of senior Jesse Hayes to the starting backfield, and with mobile quarterback AJ Bruch running the show.
Hayes missed nearly two full seasons to injury after helping led the Cardinals to league and section championships as a freshman in 2022. He rushed for 137 yards and three touchdowns last week against Fort Bragg while scoring a fourth touchdown as a receiver.
Containing Bruch in the pocket will be key for the Trojans, according to Jakubowski.
“He makes good throws on the run, keeps his eyes downfield the whole time,” Jakubowski said.
Jakubowski said containing Bruch and getting good line play from his beat-up unit will be the keys for Lower Lake.
Likewise, Perez said the Cardinals are concerned about keeping close tabs on Lower Lake three-year veteran quarterback Ashton Hartmann, who passed for three touchdowns and ran for a pair of two-point conversions against St. Helena.
“I’ve never seen a player pitch the ball to his running back and then become the lead blocker on the play,” Perez said of Hartmann. “He’s a tough kid.”
What are the keys for Clear Lake?
“We need to outmaneuver them,” Perez said. “Get our running game going and throw some quick passes. Lower Lake is big, physical and has some athletes. Coach J is doing a good job with them.”
Upper Lake at Middletown
From the frying pan into the fire for head coach Derek Milhaupt’s Upper Lake Cougars, who were battered 54-0 on the road a week ago in Willits. Now they travel to Middletown to take on the Mustangs, who beat Cloverdale 46-16 last week in Cloverdale, scoring all of those points in the first half before turning things over to their reserves.
“Playing the meat of the league schedule early has its pros and cons,” Milhaupt said. “The con is Middletown is an equally or tougher team than Willits.”
Added Milhaupt, “They are so well coached you can’t count on their players being in the wrong position.”
Looking at Middletown’s one-two backfield punch of running backs Trenton Griffith and Tyler Galamay, Milhaupt said you can do everything right and still get hurt because of their breakaway speed.
“If they get into space, they can do some things,” he said. “They are very selfless. When they’re not running, they’re blocking for each other. They’re both great athletes.”
Upper Lake is still looking for its first points of the season after shutout losses to Los Molinos, Stuart Hall and Willits to open the season. Middletown has won two in a row since a hard-fought 22-14 loss to Berean Christian in week one. The Mustangs will be looking to add a little more momentum before entering a critical league stretch against Willits (home, Sept. 26) and St. Helena (away, Oct. 3).
Getting a young offensive line up to speed has been Middletown’s focus of late.
“We’ve got a really young offensive line trying to get caught up with an experienced backfield, and I think we’re getting there,” Middletown head coach Kurtis Woodard said.
The Mustangs are taking nothing for granted with Upper Lake headed to town, according to Woodard.
“We’re not taking them for granted,” Woodard said. “They’ve got some good players. No. 21 (junior running back Brody Blancas) looks solid, and No. 11 (quarterback Billy Stillman Jr.) looks like an athlete,” Woodard said.
Middletown enters the game with no real injury concerns although Woodard said the team was being “a little cautious” with sophomore lineman Emmitt Lloyd, who was banged up in the win over Cloverdale.
Upper Lake sustained a fair number of bumps and bruises against Willits, according to Milhaupt, and a handful of players have missed practice time because of illness. Grades come out Friday. Milhaupt said he didn’t expect to lose anyone and could even gain a player or two.
