He rushes for 123 yards, touchdown; returns kickoff 82 yards for another score
By Brian Sumpter & Mike Hansen
Lake County Sports on Facebook
MIDDLETOWN >> Trenton Griffith made the most of senior night Friday with a big effort in perhaps his final game at Bill Foltmer Field in Middletown.
Whether or not the Mustangs, and Griffith, see their homefield again will be decided in two weeks when the North Coast Section announces the playoff brackets in all divisions. With a 30-7 victory Friday at home against Clear Lake, Middletown, one of the section’s top-ranked teams in Division 7, certainly didn’t hurt its postseason chances as the Mustangs clinched sole possession of second place in the North Central League I standings (7-1) while also closing out regular-season play at 8-2 (the Mustangs have the league bye next week).
Middletown was hoping to secure some share of the league title, but St. Helena (7-0, 9-0) dashed those hopes with its 28-20 win at home against Willits, a victory that all but wraps up the league title for the Saints, who play next Friday in Upper Lake (0-7, 0-9) in their league finale.
“We’d like one more at home,” Middletown head coach Kurtis Woodard said when asked if he thought the Mustangs had a shot at securing a home game in the playoffs. “Now we’ve got two weeks to heal up (before the playoffs open).”
Middletown isn’t assured of an at-large playoff berth, but it’s unlikely they’ll be left out of this year’s postseason field. There is also no guarantee the Mustangs will stay in Division 7 as the section can move a team up as many as two divisions, though Woodard doesn’t think that will happen.
Griffith and many of his Middletown teammates and fellow seniors have spent a career playing on Bill Foltmer Field as members of Middletown Colts football before they reached the high school ranks. If it was indeed Griffith’s final game there, he went out in style, rushing for 123 yards and a touchdown, and returning the second-half kickoff 82 yards for another score.
“That was our goal, to see him have a big game,” Woodard said. “He does everything right in practice every single day. He’s a great kid.”
“They’ve got the best skill players in the league,” Clear Lake head coach Augie Perez said of the Mustangs.
Middletown had a tough time shaking the Cardinals (4-4, 4-5), who trailed just 8-0 after one quarter and 16-0 at halftime. Clear Lake was able to move the ball effectively early, marching 12 plays and using up more than seven minutes on the clock to open the game. Mixing in a few runs with five straight AJ Bruch completions, Clear Lake moved the ball from its own 32-yard line to the Middletown 15 before Jamisen Jackson picked of a Bruch pass in the end zone.
The Mustangs moved the ball easily at first before their first possession bogged down against a Clear Lake defense that dropped TJ Galamay and then Griffith for losses on back-to-back plays, including a three-yard loss on a fourth-and-two play when Seth Showalter dropped Griffith in the backfield, forcing a change of possession on downs.
Clear Lake went nowhere this time, Bruch’s third-and-eight pass picked off by Jon Hawkins, who returned it to the Cardinal 44. The Mustangs scored two plays later. After a 13-yard run by Griffith, quarterback Blake Costlow hit Hawkins in stride for a 31-yard touchdown. The Mustangs lined up to kick the extra point, something they usually don’t do, and holder Jackson instead pulled up and threw a conversion pass to a wide-open John Finney for an 8-0 lead.
The Cardinals went three-and-out on their next possession and had to punt, but so did the Mustangs, who went backward two yards before punting the ball. Clear Lake was able to pick up one first down before having to punt again, and Middletown took over at its own 29.
Four Griffith running plays later it was 16-0. After an 8-yard run to open the abbreviated drive, Griffith had back-to-back gains of 33 and 29 yards, which put the ball at the Clear Lake 1. On the 33-yard run, he was able to turn the corner and race up the Middletown sideline before being knocked out of bounds. On the 29-yard run that followed, he broke a handful of tackles before being pulled down just short of the goal line. His 1-yard touchdown run capped the series, and Costlow scrambled into the end zone on the conversion.
Middletown was driving again in the closing seconds of the first half, reaching the Clear Lake 18, but a Costlow pass into the end zone was picked off by Bruch with 12 seconds to go.
Clearly upset with the run-blocking of his offensive line for most of the first half, Perez said he let them know about it at halftime.
“They got their butts chewed,” Perez said. “I guess the pep talk worked because we came out in the second half and played great. We played a way better game in the second half.”
The guard play of Landon Williams and Jesus Ballardo stood out, according to Perez.
“My big boys did the job,” Perez added.
Unfortunately for Clear Lake, other than its scoring drive in the third quarter, penalties – several for false starts and a couple for holding – put them in unfavorable down-and-distance situations that they were unable to overcome. Middletown played nearly mistake-free football, drawing only one five-yard penalty.
The third quarter sandwiched two microbursts of offense by Middletown around a long and impressive drive by the Cardinals, who made the most of their best weapon, senior running back Jesse Hayes, to march 85 yards in 18 plays, consuming 10:40 on the clock.
Before that, however, Griffith returned the second-half kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown. Costlow’s pass to Hawkins on the conversion upped the Mustangs’ lead to 24-0.
On Clear Lake’s long drive, Hayes, who was held to four yards of rushing in the first half, carried the ball 10 times for 59 yards, and also caught a 6-yard pass from Bruch. He scored on a 3-yard run as Copper Garrity added the extra-point kick.
“We knew if anyone was going to give us trouble, it was going to be Hayes,” Woodards said of the speedy and strong running back who missed nearly two full seasons recovering from a knee injury, that after a sensational varsity freshman season for the 2022 Cardinals, who won league and section titles.
The euphoria on the Clear Lake sideline lasted only until the next play from scrimmage as Galamay broke through the line of scrimmage and turned on his afterburners while pulling away from the pursuit on a 63-yard sprint to the end zone, which made it 30-7.
Middletown’s two touchdowns consumed a grand total of 26 seconds.
“Plays like that allow us coaches to breathe,” Woodard said of Middletown’s quick-strike ability Middletown, especially after the marathon drive by the Cardinals.
Clear Lake got as far as the Middletown 16 on another long drive that covered the final seconds of the third quarter and a giant chunk of the fourth quarter. The Cardinals lost possession on downs when a fourth-and-seven run by Hayes fell short of the first down, although the four yards he gained put him over 100 for the night (103).
“Clear Lake has a good football tradition just like us, but they just don’t have the numbers this year,” Woodard said of the Cardinals, who suited up 14 players for the game whereas Middletown’s sideline was at near capacity with the promotion of many junior varsity players, a handful of whom saw time on special teams later in the game.
While it wasn’t Middletown’s best effort of the season, with some of the credit for that going to the Clear Lake defense, Woodard said he was pleased to see the Mustangs deal with some adversity early in the game, especially quarterback Costlow.
“They put a lot of pressure on him early and he was able to get through it,” Woodard said. “I was proud to see him do that.”
On a night dominated by Middletown’s running game as Griffith and Galamay (77 yards on only five carries) combined for 200 yards of rushing offense all by themselves, Costlow went 6-for-10 for 87 yards. Hawkins had three catches for 59 yards and Finney three receptions for 28 yards.
GAME NOTES: Hayden Xavier led the Mustangs with 14 total tackles, Ryan Halverson had 12, Galamay nine and EJ Rose eight … Willits scored late in the fourth quarter against St. Helena to close the gap to 28-20, but the Wolverines were unsuccessful on the ensuing onside kick, which the Saints recovered. Without any timeouts left, Willits couldn’t stop the clock, and St. Helena secured the hard-fought win. The Wolverines (5-2, 7-2) finish up with Fort Bragg next week, needing a victory to finish exactly where they did a year ago, 8-2 overall. Unbelievably, they were left out of last season’s playoffs. Could it happen again? Stay tuned … Bruch went 11-for-18 for 86 yards. He completed his first five attempts on the Cardinals’ seven-minute first-quarter drive … Hayes had four catches for 27 yards in addition to his 103 yards on the ground … Kingston Hoaglen, a sophomore, carried the ball 14 times for 48 yards and had one catch for eight yards … Clear Lake needs a win next Friday at home against Kelseyville to finish with a winning league record and a .500 overall mark. The Cardinals will be trying to snap a two-game losing streak to the Knights in the Bass Bowl. While the Bass Bowl encompasses only a tiny fraction of the long Clear Lake-Kelseyville rivalry, the Knights lead the series 9-5 … Clear Lake forfeited the junior varsity game to Middletown because it did not have enough players. The JV Mustangs went 10-0 this season, 8-0 in league.
