Winner will emerge in control of league race at midway point of the season
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKE COUNTY >> The Middletown-St. Helena winner isn’t guaranteed a darn thing, but the winner of Friday night’s game certainly will be in a good spot as the North Central League I varsity football race reaches the midway point for these two teams
It’s the second straight week the Mustangs (3-0 league, 4-1 overall) are facing another undefeated NCL I team – a week ago they knocked off Willits (1-1, 3-1) 22-9 at Bill Foltmer Field in Middletown. St. Helena (3-0, 5-0) is off to its best start in a decade under Erick Larsen, the former Kelseyville head coach who is hunting his first league championship with the Saints.
Middletown will be in a slightly more advantageous position than St. Helena with a victory Friday simply because the Mustangs, under first-year head coach Kurtis Woodard, have already beaten Willits while the Saints still have an Oct. 17 home game with the Wolverines. Both Middletown and St. Helena also have games remaining against the other undefeated team in the league, the Clear Lake Cardinals (3-0, 3-1). Clear Lake hosts St. Helena on Oct. 24 and travels to Middletown on Oct. 31.
Clear Lake has the league bye this weekend but hit the road to play Mt. Shasta (1-3) for a non-league game.
While Middletown at St. Helena is clearly the headliner game in the NCL I on Friday, there is plenty of other action in addition to Clear Lake’s non-league trip to Mt. Shasta. In other league games, Cloverdale (0-2, 1-3) calls on Kelseyville (0-2, 0-3) in a contest that will provide the winner with its first league win. Also, Lower Lake (0-2, 2-3) hosts Willits for homecoming while Upper Lake (0-3, 0-5) celebrates its homecoming against Fort Bragg (2-1, 2-3).
Middletown at St. Helena
The Mustangs and Saints have split their last four meetings, St. Helena winning last season, 9-7, and in 2021, 35-7, while Middletown won the 2022 (20-7) and 2023 (21-7) games.
This is the first meeting between Larsen and Woodard as head coaches.
“We’re excited,” Woodard said as the Mustangs, fully healthy for this one, prepare to play on St. Helena’s artificial turf field, which won’t hurt the considerable team speed they already enjoy.
“We’ll be able to hit the throttle and get downhill sooner,” Woodard said.
Like the Mustangs, the Saints are loaded with weapons, including a stacked backfield.
“They like the ball in 24’s hands (junior running back Julian Earls),” Woodard said.
Earls, the Saints’ top rusher with 478 yards and four touchdowns has also thrown a pair of touchdown passes. He’s paired with senior running back Eric Torris (420 yards, two TDs). Jhony Covarrubias, the Saints’ senior quarterback, has completed 25 of 39 passes for 397 yards, almost all of that going to one person, senior wide receiver Dean Sommer, who has 20 catches for 334 yards and two TDs.
“No. 11 (Sommer) is a great wide receiver and defensive back,” Woodard said.
St. Helena’s offensive line is anchored by team captain Ben Brakesman, senior tackle.
“We ran into No. 66 (Brakesman) at the Stanford camp,” Woodard said.
St. Helena’s defensive line is also top notch, according to Woodard, who said the play of his offensive line will be the key to the game for the Mustangs.
“In the trenches, it’s our O line,” Woodard said of the area the Mustangs will have to play well to beat the Saints on their own field. “It’s another test for them (after Willits).”
In addition to being healthy, the Mustangs are also adding a player this week on defense as transfer EJ Rose will start on defense at linebacker/defensive end. Rose had to sit out the first five games of the season because of his transfer status.
Cloverdale at Kelseyville
Kelseyville certainly gave a good account of itself in the first half a week ago at home against St. Helena, trailing only 25-23 after the first two quarters. The second half was all Saints, who went on to win 53-23.
Injuries played a part in that second-half collapse as Kelseyville lost a key piece in two-way lineman Elijah Watkins, who was feared lost for the season with a knee injury.
“I thought it was an ACL the way he was reacting,” Kelseyville head coach Les Flores said.
The extent of the injury won’t be known until Watkins undergoes a MRI, which is scheduled for Saturday. Flores said he’s hoping to get Watkins back as soon as possible.
Mistakes of all sorts a week ago against St. Helena held the Knights back in the second half after they traded scores back and forth with the Saints in the first half.
“Mostly mental mistakes,” Flores said. “Mistakes by inexperienced players.”
While the Knights were able to string back-to-back good quarters together against St. Helena in the first half, Flores is looking for Kelseyville to take the next step – put a complete game together.
“We were able to show what we’re capable of for the first two quarters against St. Helena,” he said.
Outside of Watkins, there is some good news on the injury front. Junior running back/linebacker Bryce Keener banged up his knee against St. Helena but is back this week. Michael DeJohn, one of the Knights’ top producers on offense during their league championship season a year ago, is questionable for Cloverdale.
“He hasn’t practiced all week, but he said he’s feeling better, so we’ll see,” Flores said.
Bottling up Cloverdale’s ground game will be key for the Knights on Friday night.
“We want to get quick three-and-outs so that we can get our offense back on the field and keep their defense on the field as long as possible,” Flores said. “We’ve finally got our offense going. We just need more consistency.”.
Kelseyville has called up sophomore Angel Ruiz to replace Watkins on the offensive line.
“He gives me 120 percent effort every play,” Flores said. “And he’s a smart kid.”
Ruiz might also see time on defense, according to Flores.
Fort Bragg at Upper Lake
After opening the season with three straight lopsided losses, the Fort Bragg Timberwolves have righted the ship with back-to-back low-scoring wins over Kelseyville, 8-6, and Lower Lake, 12-8, both at Fort Bragg. They travel to Upper Lake on Friday looking to make it three straight league wins.
Upper Lake finally scored its first points of the season a week ago in an ejection- and penalty-filled 37-6 loss at home to Clear Lake, but the Cougars have yet to put together anything approaching a full four-quarter effort. Of the three Cougars ejected in the loss to Clear Lake, one was reinstated and won’t have to serve a one-game suspension, one has been dismissed from the team, partly but not entirely the result of being ejected, and the other won’t be able to play this week because of the ejection, and his status for the rest of the season remains in question.
“We haven’t decided yet,” head coach Derek Milhaput said.
Two other Cougars are gone after failing to make grades, according to Milhaupt. Upper Lake also lost another play to injury against Clear Lake
While receiver/defensive back Mikel Compton returns to the team after recovering from an injury, his playing time will be limited against Fort Bragg.
“I’ll have around 14 players (suiting up for Fort Bragg),” Milhaupt said.
“They run a weird offense, but they use their players in the best way possible,” Milhaupt said of the Timberwolves. “They do some weird things we’ll have to be ready for. It’s something we can prepare for.”
Upper Lake has restructured its practices to better serve the players, according to Milhaupt, and the players seem to enjoy the changes so far.
“We’ve had some of the best practices we’ve had all season, I’m not lying,” Milhaupt said. “I feel a different energy out there.”
That it’s also homecoming week hasn’t made anything easier for Milhaupt and his coaching staff.
“We’ve had distractions all week,” Milhaupt said. “One player told me had to miss a practice to rent a tux. I told them homecoming stuff is not an excuse to miss football.”
Willits at Lower Lake
Despite winning the time-of-possession and total-yards battle with Middletown a week ago in Middletown, the Willits Wolverines couldn’t beat the Mustangs in a hard-hitting game that was closer than 22-9 final might indicate.
“They looked pretty physical against Middletown and missed some opportunities,” Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski said.
The Wolverines try to bounce back on the road against a Lower Lake team that has battle each of its first three league opponents – St. Helena, Clear Lake and Fort Bragg (the latter two on the road) – only to come away empty. After a pair of easy non-league win over Esparto and Healdsburg, games that didn’t even go the full four quarters because of injuries sustained by the opposition, the Trojans hope to begin a new month with a win, but they’ll have to do without a key piece, senior quarterback Ashton Hartmann.
Hartmann, a three-year varsity starter, was ejected in the final seconds at Fort Bragg and has to sit out a game. That means backup Brody Shields will start behind center.
“He’s got a live arm,” Jakubowski said of Shields. “He’s not as dynamic as Ashton, he’s more of take-what-I-get kind of guy.”
Shields has some experience playing quarterback at the junior varsity level.
“Our defense has kept us in games, we just need to get our offense to do a little more,” Jakubowski said. “Last week we made some silly mistakes and had some questionable penalties.”
While the Lower Lake roster numbers 27, the Trojans have had a difficult time getting players to practice during homecoming week.
“We’re averaging about 14,” Jakubowski said.
There may be some good news for the Trojans on the injury front as junior Liam Elledge could return to the defensive line after recovering from a wrist injury that has sidelined him the past few weeks.
Clear Lake at Mt. Shasta
The Cardinals decided to fill their league bye with a non-league game against Mt. Shasta given that they had no game on week two of the season because of injuries. A scheduled trip to Pierce was called off, and the Cardinal wanted to make up that game.
Friday’s action is varsity only – because the Clear Lake JVs did play Pierce in week two – and kicks off at 5:30 p.m. If the Cardinals win, and they’re favored to do just that against a struggling Bears squad, it will mark their fourth straight victory under first-year head coach Augie Perez.
“Mostly I want to see different kids playing different positions so we can build some depth,” Perez said.
Clear Lake will suit up only 14 players with Zane McAuley recovering from an injury and three others ineligible because of grades and for disciplinary reasons. Clear Lake uses a weekly grade check system, so the availability of players is on a week-to-week basis.
“I definitely want to keep people healthy,” Perez said with an eye toward Clear Lake’s next league game, Oct. 10 at Willits.
