Mustangs play Piedmont Friday night for Division 7 championship
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
MIDDLETOWN >> 8 a.m. Thanksgiving Day. Time to be home with families, enjoying a leisurely holiday breakfast.
Unless your football team is playing in a sectional championship game the next day.
Middletown High School’s football players were on the practice field Thursday while most other people were relaxing at home, maybe still in bed, preparing for a holiday feast, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, or prepping for the first of three NFL games to be televised.
Commitment, real commitment and not just the kind some players pay lip service to, is what is required to still be playing high school football in late November. Middletown’s players and coaching staff certainly have it, and that’s why they have a date Friday with Piedmont in the North Coast Section Division 7 finals at Justin-Siena High School in Napa (7 p.m. kickoff). On what is commonly known as Black Friday, the traditional shopping day that kicks off the Christmas season, Middletown first-year head coach Kurtis Woodard, a veteran of many Mustang postseasons as an assistant coach, will be leading the band this time around as Middletown takes aim on a fifth sectional championship for the school in football.
The team standing in the Mustangs’ way, the Piedmont Highlanders (8-4), is no stranger. Middletown beat Piedmont 32-17 on Sept. 5 in Middletown, the team’s first win of the season. They’ve since won nine more and bring a 10-2 record into Friday’s action, the No. 1 seed in the Division 7 playoffs to Piedmont’s No. 2.
“Both teams have gotten better,” Woodard said when asked to compare the Mustangs and Highlanders of late November to the Middletown and Piedmont clubs that took the field nearly three months ago, which is a football eternity.
For starters, Piedmont didn’t have senior wide receiver/defensive back Cash Panico in early September.
“I was looking back at game film (of the Sept. 5 meeting) and he was on the sidelines wearing a cost on his arm,” Woodard said.
Panico wasn’t available for Piedmont’s first four games because of an injury, but in the eight games since he’s been a focal point of the Highlanders’ offense, catching 24 passes for a team-best 591 yards and nine touchdowns.
“They didn’t have him the first time we played, and they like to go to him,” Woodard said.
But it works both ways.
While Panico’s return has certainly boosted the Highlanders’ level of play, so has the steady improvement of a young Middletown line loaded with underclassmen.
“That has been the question from day one,” Woodard said of an untested Middletown line when the team began practicing in early August with the temperature well over 100 degrees, a stark contrast from the low-30s the Mustangs experienced during Wednesday and Thursday practices. “Could the offensive line catch up to our experienced guys at the skill positions?”
The answer is they’re close, or perhaps they’re already there.
“We’re proud of the line and excited about the improvement they’ve made,” Woodard said. “We’re excited that they’re coming back next season.”
If Middletown can beat Piedmont for a second time this season, the Mustangs will advance to the NorCal championship game for the first time in the school’s long and distinguished football history. That game could be held at Middletown depending on the opponent the Mustangs draw (NorCal postseason brackets will be released Sunday on the CIF State website).
Woodard said the Mustangs are quite aware of what awaits them if they win, and he’s also quite aware that if they don’t beat Piedmont, it doesn’t matter.
“We are focused on Piedmont,” Woodard said. “I don’t want to hear about anything else right now.”
While a postseason run into the Thanksgiving weekend can often create headaches for a coach because of family holiday plans, Woodard said it hasn’t been a problem.
“Everybody has been at practice, everybody has been on time,” Woodard said.
Best yet, everybody’s healthy, according to Woodard, a luxury few teams enjoy at this late point in the season.
“The attitudes are good, the kids are excited,” Woodard said.
While the Mustangs are loaded with veteran talent at the skill positions – senior quarterback Blake Costlow, senior running back Trenton Costlow, senior wide receivers Jon Hawkins Hayden Xavier, and sophomore running back Tyler Galamay, a second-year varsity player — the Highlanders’ offense is led by sophomore quarterback Jimmy Lagios, who enters plays with 1,867 passing yards and 22 touchdowns.
The Highlanders also have a young backfield although senior Xavier Henderson (773 yards, 18 touchdowns) is their chief running threat followed by junior Rehan Mumtaz (671 yards, 7 TDs). Quarterback Lagios has only rushed for 65 yards with no touchdowns.
Middletown’s double-barreled running attack of Galamay and Griffith is about to achieve a rare distinction. Galamay leads the team with 1,130 yards rushing and Griffith needs just 34 more to also reach 1,000. Only a handful of Lake County backfields down through the years can boast two running backs with more than 1,000 yards. Costlow topped 1,000 yards passing earlier this season and brings totals of 1,305 yards and 25 TDs into Friday’s championship game.
Middletown’s defense has been every bit as effective as the offense during the team’s current six game winning streak, allowing opponents eight or fewer points.
As nice as statistics are, they won’t mean a thing once the teams kick off Friday night. The team that puts together the best four quarters will have all kinds of things to be thankful for on the day after Thanksgiving.
