Middletown draws No. 1 seed in North Coast Section Division 7 playoffs
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKE COUNTY >> Middletown is the No. 1 seed in Division 7 of the North Coast Section football playoffs, and the road is wide open for first-year head coach Kurtis Woodard’s squad to do some amazing things in the 2025 postseason.
Middletown (8-2), the North Central League I runner-up behind undefeated St. Helena (10-0) this season, and third-place finisher Willits (8-2) all came away with high seeds during the at-large and seeding meeting Sunday. St. Helena is the No. 2 seed in the Division 6 playoffs while Willits, which was unbelievably left out of the postseason field a year ago when it also finished 8-2, is the No. 3 seed in Division 7.
Middletown is the lone Lake County qualifier this season. The Mustangs had their league bye last weekend, which means they will be well rested for their Division 7 opener Friday night at home against Archie Williams (6-4), the third-place finisher in the Redwood Empire-Mountain League, which includes Sonoma Valley, San Rafael, Piner, Terra Linda, Novato and Healdsburg.
The Mustangs own wins over the Nos. 2-3 seeds in Division 7. They beat No. 2 Piedmont 32-17 for their first win of the season on Sept. 5 in Middletown, and defeated Willits 22-9 in league play Sept. 26, also at Bill Foltmer Field.
With a win over Archie Williams the Mustangs would host the Division 7 semifinal against the winner of No. 4 Vallejo (7-3) and No. 5 Concord (6-4) on Nov. 21.
Archie Williams, Vallejo and Concord are all Division 5 teams by enrollment (951-1,142), so they dropped two divisions for the playoffs. Division 7 schools, such as Middletown, have an enrollment of 430 and below.
“We’ve got confidence in the position we are in,” Woodard said. “We would have been OK with being in Division 6. The kids wanted another shot at St. Helena, but they’re excited about being the No. 1 seed. The cards played out this way for a reason.”
Woodard said taking last week off was nothing but a benefit for the Mustangs, who played games the first 10 weeks of the season before drawing the league bye during the final weekend of the regular season.
“It was nice, a different change of pace,” Woodard said. “There was no pressure. It revitalized the kids. It was fun.”
More importantly, according to Woodard, “It was needed.”
While Middletown took Week 11 off, the remainder of Lake County’s teams played out the string, including Bass Bowl XV participants Kelseyville and Clear Lake. Kelseyville won a 28-26 thriller in a rivalry game that featured seven turnovers, a fumble into the end zone for a touchback, missed conversions and a booming 41-yard field goal off the leg of Kelseyville’s Jose Juarez, which might have earned him the game’s unofficial MVP award had it not been for Kelseyville senior running Michael DeJohn, who stole the spotlight.
In other season finales, Lower Lake beat Cloverdale 22-20 in another game decided by a missed two-point conversion at the end, and St. Helena’s 23-12 victory over Upper Lake, the Saints completing a perfect 10-0 regular season and clinching the undisputed league championship in the process.
Here’s a look back at Week 11 highlights and lowlights, plus a peek ahead at Week 12:
Statistics
Rushing – Kelseyville’s Michael DeJohn rushed for 265 yards and two touchdowns, his third 200-plus effort in four weeks. Clear Lake’s Jesse Hayes certainly would have been the Bass Bowl MVP for Clear Lake with 112 yards and a TD. Kelseyville’s Bryce Keener added 87 yards, including a 48-yard touchdown, and Clear Lake’s Kingston Hoaglen had 72 yards and a touchdown.
Passing – Clear Lake’s AJ Bruch, just 4-for-12 for 28 yards and two interceptions through the first three quarters against Kelseyville, came on strong in the fourth quarter and ended up 11-for-20 for 115 yards and a touchdown. Unfortunately for Bruch, one of those interceptions was a pick-six. Lower Lake’s Ashton Hartmann threw for a pair of touchdowns and two-point conversions against Cloverdale.
Receiving – Zane McAuley had six catches for 61 yards and a touchdown for Clear Lake in his final high school game. McAuley returned to the lineup after missing several weeks with an injury. Clear Lake tight end Kaden Graham had three catches for 91 yards while teammate Tony Moreno had a 10-yard touchdown reception.
Special teams
Plenty of leg – Jose Juarez booted a 41-yard field goal in the final seconds of the first half that staked Kelseyville to a 15-7 lead. The kick would have been good from 50. He also had an extra point. How big were those four points?
Defense
Pick-six – As if he didn’t do enough on offense for Kelseyville, Michael DeJohn returned an interception 57 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter to give the Knights a 21-13 lead. He also had nine tackles.
Deuces are wild – Lower Lake’s Jony Ventura picked off two passes against Cloverdale, the final one leading to what proved to be the game-winning touchdown for the Trojans. Clear Lake’s Mikah Meo recovered two fumbles for Clear Lake.
Tackle leader – Adrian Garcia led Kelseyville with 15 tackles against Clear Lake, including a sack. He also recovered a fumble.
Led to three – Clear Lake gambled on a fourth-and-five deep in its own territory late in the second quarter and came up a yard short of a first down, which led to Jose Juarez kicking a field goal and extending a 12-7 Kelseyville lead to 15-7.
Miscellaneous
Skunk Bowl I – Willits won the inaugural Skunk Bowl, beating rival Fort Bragg 15-6 on Friday night in Willits. The Skunk Train is sponsoring the rivalry game. Cesar Escobar rushed for 106 yards for the Fort Bragg while teammates Anthony Britton and Beau Hebden finished with 76 and 75 yards, respectively. Hebden ran for Fort Bragg’s lone score. Fort Bragg leads the all-time series between the two schools 58-27, however, Willits has won the last four meetings, which is the longest winning streak for the Wolverines since the teams began playing in 1927.
Bass Bowl XV – Lake County Sports doesn’t include 2020 in the Bass Bowl series count since there was no game played because of COVID-19. We noticed a few others called this year’s game Bass Bowl XVI, counting 2020, but that’s not the way we are numbering the games.
Streaks – Kelseyville finished the regular season with three straight league wins to post a .500 record in NCL I play, a nice bounceback for the Knights after a slow start to their season. Clear Lake lost its last three league games to also finish at .500. Upper Lake will take a 14-game losing streak into next year. Kelseyville has a three-game winning streak in the Bass Bowl and now leads Clear Lake 10-5 in the series. Middletown takes a four-game winning streak into the postseason.
Egad! – St. Vincent (9-1), two-time defending state champion, is the No. 1 seed in the Division 5 playoffs while Ferndale (10-0) is the No. 2 seed. Ferndale outscored the competition 647-18 this season. The Wildcats won a state championship in 2023 and are looking to add another this season.
Back home – After going 3-1 in the North Coast Section Division 4 playoffs, the Kelseyville High School volleyball team opens play in the NorCal Division 5 playoffs Tuesday at home against KIPP King High School of San Lorenzo. Action begins at 6 p.m. A victory puts the Knights (22-9) into the quarterfinals on Thursday against the winner of Escalon vs. Wonderful College Prep Academy. If Escalon wins, it will host Thursday’s quarterfinal match against the Kelseyville-KIPP King winner.
Section title game – Middletown High School faces Credo in the North Coast Section Division 2 girls soccer championship game Wednesday at Sunrise Park in Rohnert Park. A victory would give the Mustangs their third section championship in that sport, and it would be the second for head coach Lee Hoage, who guided the 2012 Mustangs to a title. It will be Hoage’s last game as head coach as he is stepping down at season’s end.
Coaching change – Leo Flores is stepping down after a successful three-year run as Kelseyville’s varsity football head coach and will be replaced by assistant Logan Barrick. The Knights were 21-11 overall, 17-7 in league play and 1-2 in the playoffs with one league championship under Flores.
Big thanks – To Mike Hansen for helping me out with Clear Lake football coverage during the year. Mike has extensive past coaching experience at Upper Lake, Lower Lake and Clear Lake high schools and is invaluable to me.
Fall sports league title winners – Kelseyville girls soccer, Kelseyville and Lower Lake boys soccer, Middletown JV football, Kelseyville JV and varsity volleyball.
Section title winners – Stay tuned.
Is there anything better? — Then having teams in multiple fall sports still playing in mid-November, perhaps into December?
All-County volleyball/football – The teams will be honored in December, details to follow.
Sports mom thanks – Thanks to all those sports moms out there who have been sending me stories, photos and videos during the fall season.
Out-of-county invite – Cloverdale, Fort Bragg and Willits coaches are welcome to email results during the upcoming winter sports season. St. Helena is covered well by its local papers, but the Eagles, Timberwolves and Wolverines receive very little coverage from the media. You can email results to briansumptermail@gmail.com and they’ll appear in Lake County Sports.
It’s funny how things work out – The Lake County Sports page on Facebook was created in 2013 when I was still working for my former employer. It’s something I just played with at the time and did little with. It had been collecting dust and cobwebs for more than a decade when I finally retired in July of 2023. Clear Lake’s varsity volleyball coach at the time, Marci Psalmonds, sent me match information when the fall 2023 sports season opened, and I was in Boston at the time wondering what the hell do with it. I cleaned off the Lake County Sports page, posted the results, and the rest is history. I went from zero followers then to 7,807 followers as of Monday morning. Retirement has afforded me the opportunity to do more in fewer hours than my old job ever did. I’ve published more content this fall sports season than I did in any of my 40 years at the Lake County Record-Bee, and without the hassles of putting out a print product or working for a corporate entity that did not value its employees and did nothing but take things away from them the last 15 years I worked there. My new hobby is a much better deal, and a few sports moms even like me now.