Both teams enter Bill Foltmer Field undefeated in league play
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKE COUNTY >> Willits at Middletown is the game of the week in the North Central League I as Week 5 of the high school football season prepares to kick off.
Middletown (2-0 league, 3-1 overall) is one of four NCL I schools without a loss entering the third week of league play. The others are Willits (1-0, 3-0), which has already had its league bye, the Clear Lake Cardinals (2-0, 2-1), and the St. Helena Saints (2-0, 4-0).
While Middletown’s homecoming game against the visiting Wolverines takes center stage on Friday night, there’s plenty of other football action involving NCL I teams, including Lower Lake (0-2, 2-2) at Fort Bragg (1-1, 1-3), St. Helena at Kelseyville (0-1, 0-2), and Clear Lake at Upper Lake (0-2, 0-4).
Middletown is definitely facing its toughest test in league play so far. The Mustangs had absolutely no problem taking down Cloverdale, 46-16, and Upper Lake, 50-0, in their first two league games. Both of those contests were long over by halftime. Likewise, Willits rolled past Upper Lake 54-0 two weeks ago in its only league game to date. The Wolverines weren’t challenged in their other two games, both non-league victories – 69-34 last week against Healdsburg, and 35-14 over Piner in their season opener Sept. 5.
Middletown tuned up for its league schedule with a pair of tough non-league opponents, falling 22-14 to Berean Christian in Walnut Creek on Aug. 30, then bouncing back with a 32-17 win over Piedmont on Sept. 5.
While the Mustangs have a long history of success against Willits in football, the Wolverines did win last year’s meeting 14-7 at Willits during Middletown head coach Bill Foltmer’s final season.
Kurtis Woodard is facing Willits for the first time as Middletown’s head coach but is well acquainted with the Wolverines, having served on Foltmer’s staff for many years.
“They have a lot of weapons,” Woodard said of the Wolverines, who are averaging nearly 53 points a game this season. “And they’ve done it with a lot of players not there (because of injuries). They didn’t have their top two running backs last week.”
Willits features a balanced attack just like Middletown. So far this season the Wolverines have rushed for 13 touchdowns and passed for seven. Quarterback Corey Rockey has completed 65 percent of his passes (26-for-40) for 481 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
Seven different Willits players have rushed for touchdowns. Of those, Ricky Britton has been the most productive to date with 250 yards in just two games, and Rockey has run for four scores.
“They have a lot of depth and a lot of talent,” Woodard said.
Defending against the Wolverines won’t be easy even with senior Jon Hawkins returning to the lineup after missing the Upper Lake game with an ankle injury.
“We need to stay home, we can’t overpursue,” Woodard said. “Guys need to stay at their positions and make plays.”
Although homecoming week offers a lot of distractions, Woodard said his players have done a good job of staying focused this week in practice.
“We have a good group of kids,” Woodard said of starters and reserves alike. “I think we’re where we need to be going into this game.”
Willits is the first of two big tests for the Mustangs, who hit the road next week to play St. Helena.
In other games involving Lake County teams on Friday night:
Clear Lake at Upper Lake
While the Cardinals will be without running back/safety Zane McCauley (shoulder injury) this week and perhaps longer, they might not need him against an Upper Lake team that is not only winless through the first four weeks of the 2025 season, but also scoreless.
“I’ve talked to their coach. Derek (Milhaupt) is a friend of mine,” Clear Lake head coach Augie Perez said. “One of the problems he’s had is never knowing who is going to be available to play on Friday. It’s tough when you don’t know who will play, who won’t.”
Injuries, illness and other factors have left Upper Lake’s roster in flux so far this year, contributing to the team’s offensive woes.
The Cardinals are resisting the urge to take Upper Lake lightly for one very good reason, according to Perez.
“They kicked our butts last year, both the varsity and JVs,” Perez said.
Upper Lake opened its league schedule a year ago with a 32-6 win over Clear Lake at Upper Lake, and the Clear Lake juniors who played in that game and are now seniors haven’t forgotten, according to Perez. Both teams also had a spirited encounter in late August at the Lake County Scrimmage in Kelseyville.
While the Cardinals will feel McAuley’s loss on both offense and defense, Perez said his absence will be more keenly felt on defense where he plays a hybrid safety-linebacker position.
“But the kids have picked up responsibility (for that position) in practice this week,” Perez said. “I think we’ll be fine.”
The Cardinals have a bit more depth at wide receiver – where McAuley plays on offense – and will depend on their other receivers to fill in, according to Perez.
“Otherwise, we’re pretty healthy,” Perez said. “Even our JVs are up to 16 players.”
Between the Upper Lake game and a non-league contest Oct. 3 at Mount Shasta, Perez said the next two weeks offer Clear Lake an opportunity to perfect it kraft before tackling a four-game stretch that includes away games against Willits and Middletown and a home game against St. Helena.
“Three of those four games are going to be against tough teams,” Perez said.
Only four weeks ago the Cardinals were in complete disarray as they played St. Bernard in their season opener.
“We had players out hurt, out sick, we were a totally different team then,” Perez said. “I feel like we’re on a little bit of a roll now and we want to continue it.”
Lower Lake at Fort Bragg
The Lower Lake Trojans battled St. Helena before falling 31-22 in their league opener two weeks ago, and they had a 14-12 lead until late in the third quarter of a 28-14 loss to Clear Lake last week. Unfortunately, the Trojans’ emotions got the best of them a week ago against the Cardinals as the team was whistled for a series of unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties in the fourth quarter, leading to the ejection of an assistant coach. All those penalties greatly assisted the Cardinals, especially on a game-sealing touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
“We’ve changed focus on preparation,” Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski said of team practices this week. “We’ve gone at a faster pace in practice. We’re looking at more creative ways to get players the ball, to get them the ball in space.”
Rather than sticking to a script of plays, Jakubowski said the Trojans are exploring ways to exploit the other team’s weakness whenever possible.
“Exploit the mismatches,” he said with a look ahead to Fort Bragg, a team that handled Lower Lake pretty easily at Timberwolf Stadium a year ago, 50-20.
So far this season Fort Bragg has scored 14 points in four games, although the eight the Timberwolves scored last week against Kelseyville were enough to beat Kelseyville 8-6.
“They beat Kelseyville at their own game,” Jakubowski said of the Timberwolves.
Fort Bragg senior wide receiver Ross Knapp (6-foot-0, 190 pounds) will be one concern for a Lower Lake defense unlikely to have one of its best players, senior defensive end Steven Rich, in the lineup this week.
“He hasn’t been to practice all week,” said Jakubowski, who said he hasn’t talked to Rich but heard from others that he’s injured.
Jakubowski said three-year varsity veteran Noel Pereira will fill Rich’s spot on the field and is very capable.
Besides Knapp, the Timberwolves also have 280-pound tight end Anthony Britton.
“He’s bigger than some of our linemen,” Jakubowski said. “They have a big tight end and a big line.”
Lower Lake is juggling players on the offensive line again this week because of injuries.
“I’ve called up two JVs to give us depth and I think they’ll end up staying (on the varsity),” Jakubowski said.
“Every week it’s a struggle to figure out who will be playing on the line,” Jakubowski said.
While the Trojans have been close in each of their first two league games, they haven’t put it all together yet.
“We’re trying to do too much sometimes on offense and defense,” Jakubowski said. “Instead of throwing the ball deep looking for that 30-yard pass, we should just go for the shorter yardage that’s available.”
St. Helena at Kelseyville
The Kelseyville offense is looking for its first points of the season. While the Knights did hold a 6-0 lead almost to the very end last week in Fort Bragg, that touchdown was scored by the defense.
The undefeated St. Helena Saints are off to their best start since winning eight in a row to open the 2015 season.
The Knights won’t have a healthy Michel DeJohn at running back. Injured in the loss to Fort Bragg, he could be available for limited duty this week.
St. Helena is coming off a 27-0 home win against Cloverdale, that after beating Lower Lake 31-22 in Lower Lake on Sept. 12. The Saints, led by former Kelseyville head coach Erick Larsen, sown non-league wins against Fortuna, 28-18, and Justin-Siena, 43-0.