Middletown opens at home while Kelseyville, Upper Lake hit the road for zero-week games
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKE COUNTY >> Making the transition from a championship season in 2025 to a 2026 campaign seemingly offering more of the same hasn’t gone exactly as planned for the Middletown Mustangs and head coach Kurtis Woodard.
A rocky offseason is now over as the Mustangs, defending North Coast Section Division 7 champs, open a new year at home against the Pierce Bears, one of three Friday night season openers involving Lake County varsity football teams.
Joining Middletown in action Friday are the Kelseyville Knights, now under the direction of first-year head coach Logan Barrick as they visit Justin-Siena High School in Napa (4:30 p.m. JV start), and the Upper Lake Cougars under first-year head coach John Toohey as they hit the road to play Esparto in a varsity-only game (7 p.m.)
Lower Lake could not find an opponent for zero week and has a bye. The Trojans also have a built-in bye (every team has one during the course of the season) next week and won’t see action until Sept. 11 when they host Lindhurst in a varsity-only game. Lindhurst replaces Clear Lake on Lower Lake’s schedule. Clear Lake will not field a varsity team this year because of not enough players.
Upper Lake’s and Lower Lake’s junior varsity teams play a Thursday night game (5 p.m. kickoff) at Lower Lake. Clear Lake’s JVs host Encinal in non-league action Friday at 5:30 p.m.
Middletown
On paper, the Mustangs appeared destined for another strong run following Woodard’s 11-3 rookie season in 2025. Middletown had four-fifths of its starting line coming back and a roster loaded with skill players, including junior running back Tyler Galamay, a two-year varsity veteran and 1,000-yard rusher last season.
That’s when the pieces began to move around on the chessboard, and some of those counted-on pieces moved right off said board. One starting lineman moved out of the area while another is not playing this season. A third, junior Brody Costlow, is rehabilitating an injury and won’t be available for several weeks, if then. The Mustangs did pick up a solid replacement in junior Wyatt Pullman, who started on the JV team his freshman year before moving out of the area. He’s back this season and looking good in practice so far, according to Woodard.
Graduation certainly took a bite out of the Mustangs, who lost wide receivers Jon Hawkins and Hayden Xavier, running back Trenton Griffith, a 1,000-yard rusher, and quarterback Blake Costlow, a 1,000-yard passer, among others.
Jack Harper, a junior, returns to anchor the line.
“I think we’ll be good,” Woodard said of a rebuilt line. “The players we have there are very capable. Getting Wyatt back helps.”
One line starter who will miss Friday’s game is junior Emmitt Lloyd (knee).
Replacing Costlow is Jamisen Jackson, a senior who saw a fair amount of playing time last year for the Mustangs, just not at quarterback. Woodard has high hopes for his new signal caller.
“We’re excited to see what he can do,” Woodard said. “We haven’t had a running quarterback here in a long time. He’s not necessarily a running quarterback as much as he is capable of making things happen with his legs. He does well as a leader, he just doesn’t have as much experience. I think he’ll be just fine.”
While there’s no replacing an athletic talent like Hawkins, who had the ability to leap over defensive backs and win 50-50 balls more often than not, Woodard likes what junior wide receiver Colton Karp brings to the table.
Another junior who will be counted on for much is junior fullback John Finney, who replaces Griffith in the Middletown backfield.
“He was capable of doing last year what we expect from him this year, but we had Trenton last year,” Woodard said.
Going position by position, Woodard believes the Mustangs stack up well with others on their schedule, but only time will tell.
“Everything went perfect for us last year, every bounce,” Woodard said. “Not this year. It has been adversity city in the offseason. As a team, we just have to play and adapt to all the sudden changes, keep working hard and plan for the changes. That’s all we can do.”
A league alignment leaves the Mustangs in the new North Central League I South where they are paired with Cloverdale, Lower Lake, St. Helena and Stuart Hall (San Francisco). The NCL I North features Kelseyville, Fort Bragg, Upper Lake, Willits and Clear Lake (which won’t field a team this year).
Both North and South will send their own champions to the sectional playoffs. North and South teams also play interlock games during the season, which means the North and South champions could end up playing each other twice – once in interlock play and again in the playoffs.
Woodard said he’ll deal with the new league alignment when the Mustangs, who should suit up 23 on Friday night for Pierce, reach that point, though he likes the team’s chances to contend for a pennant.
“I’m way less comfortable than I was last year at this point just because of the things that have happened to us so far (in the offseason),” he said. “We’ll take it week to week, game to game.”
Added Woodard, “I’ve got confidence going into the game and the season, and the kids have responded.”
Middletown’s zero-week opponent, Pierce, is a “solid team,” according to Woodard. “They are aggressive on defense, and they run out of a shotgun formation with a single back.”
Pierce has a strong and successful football tradition. Like the Mustangs, the Bears are coming off a sensational 2025 campaign (10-2).
JV action kicks off at 5 p.m. at Bill Foltmer Field.
Kelseyville
The Logan Barrick era begins at Kelseyville. A standout multi-sport athlete during his playing days at the school, the 2017 KHS graduate leads the Knights into a new year, one with high expectations.
“As a group they’ve bought into the program,” Barrick said of his players. “We began lifting weights around Thanksgiving to the end of February and I had an average of 28 guys in there four days a week.”
Barrick said this year’s team is also “a tight group,” but one that sometimes loses its focus for brief spells.
“The challenge is focus,” Barrick said. “Sometimes we are moments away from a great practice, but we lose our concentration and things get away from us.”
Player numbers are no problem for the Knights, who have had as many as 25 in practice and should suit up nearly that many for Friday’s opener against Justin-Siena.
Kelseyville’s strengths include an experienced line with three starters back (seniors John Lucas Carr, Elijah Watkins and Benjamin Lara) and two others (sophomore Lucas Anderson-Reyes and junior Angel Ruiz) that saw playing time on the varsity last season. There is also an offensive backfield that possesses both quality and depth.
“I have five guys back there who can play,” Barrick said of his running back corps of senior Brayton Thomas, juniors Bryce Keener, Jayden Fabisch, Andrew Souza and Case Pivniska.
One area the Knights need to work on is the aforementioned focus that sometimes eludes them, even if for only brief moments, according to Barrick.
“Last year we got a little mouthy, had too many fumbles, too many penalties,” Barrick said of the team’s 4-5 record in 2025. “Otherwise, we’re a really deep team.”
Kimo Brown, a senior, will start at quarterback against Justin-Siena.
“He’s a good game manager, has good footwork,” Barrick said. “He has put in a lot of work in the offseason becoming a better passer. The best thing is he always under control, and that’s what I’m looking for.”
Kelseyville’s first test, Justin-Siena, hasn’t had a winning season since 2022, and the Braves are coming off an 0-10 campaign in 2025.
“They have a new head coach and a new offense,” Barrick said. “They look like a competitive team. Their quarterback is a good athlete. They have some schemes that do cause problems.”
The Knights compete in a realigned NCL I this season and will play in the North division where they will be among the favorites, if not the favorite, to take first.
“We’re just going to take it one week at a time and try to figure out things as we go,” Barrick said. “I can tell you we’ll go all out every time we play.”
Upper Lake
John Toohey becomes the third head coach in three seasons at Upper Lake and said he would like nothing better than to bring some stability to a program that has lost 14 straight games entering the 2026 season.
A former assistant coach at McKinleyville, offensive coordinator at Ukiah, and head coach at Anderson Valley (both on 11-man and eight-man teams), Toohey played collegiately at Humboldt State.
“My seniors have had a rough go the past couple of years,” Toohey said. “They haven’t had a lot of success, and they’ve been bounced around between coaches and different systems. It’s one of the more talented senior groups I’ve had as a coach, and I want them to start believing in themselves, believing that they are capable of doing good things. They are.”
Added Toohey of his seniors, “I want them to work hard and find success, whether it’s on the scoreboard or elsewhere.”
Beating an Esparto team on the road Friday would be a huge boost in that direction, according to Toohey.
“It would be a huge morale builder, a foundation that we can build on,” Toohey said. “It would be nice reward for all the hard work they’ve put in up to this point.”
Added Toohey, “Being on time, showing up for practice and not finding excuses, they are starting to get it.”
While an 0-10 campaign in 2025 was an outright disaster for the Cougars, who didn’t score until the fifth week of the season, Toohey believes Upper Lake has the ability to bounce back this season.
“I have a lot of faith they are going to come through,” Toohey said of his players. “They are ready to take it up a step.”
A solid outing at the annual Lake County Scrimmage certainly helped in that regard. The Cougars were able to move the ball most of the night, something that wasn’t lost on Toohey or his seniors.
A “run-first guy” from his days as a lineman at Humboldt State, Toohey said the Cougars will definitely make a concerted effort to keep the chains moving.
“We’ll be a team that loves to pull guards, run a lot of power-counter,” Toohey said.
Upper Lake, which will suit up approximately 24 players for its season opener, will use multiple looks up front on defense but will otherwise try to keep things pretty basic.
Toohey expects to see multiple looks up front from Esparto’s defense.
The Trojans went just 1-9 last season and have struggled with their player numbers in recent seasons. They have no JV team again this year.
“It will be a nice tune-up game for us,” Toohey said.
Lower Lake
A scheduling mixup cost Lower Lake a zero-week meeting with Healdsburg. The Trojans thought they had a game worked out against the Greyhounds, who ended up scheduling Washington High School out of San Francisco instead. Lower Lake never got the word, according to head coach Jay Jakubowski, and was left scrambling for a new opponent.
The Trojans had an opportunity to play Colusa, which lost its zero-week game when Clear Lake canceled its varsity season earlier this month, but Jakubowski said the Redhawks have more starting linemen than the Trojans have players and he didn’t want to see his team get banged up so early in the season.
Having a regular bye next week means the Trojans won’t see their first official action until Sept. 11 against a Lindhurst team that will have two games under its belt by then.
“It helps us in that we didn’t have all of our kids for the scrimmage (last week in Upper Lake) because they didn’t have the 10 practices they needed to play, so those guys will be able to catch up, but at the end of the day our practices are becoming to mundane. These kids want to play (a game).”
There are 67 players out for football at Lower Lake this season, including 24 at the varsity level, many of whom got their feet wet at the annual Lake County Scrimmage.
“We started off really slow, but we got going there at the end against Middletown,” Jakubowski said. “I felt pretty good about the scrimmage. We had some positive things happen.”
The Trojans are loaded with speed this year but have a young line.
“We have a little bit more of a run-pass balance this year,” Jakubowski said.
Senior running back Anthony Russell anchors a backfield that also includes sophomore Roy Percoats and senior Tyler Peden. Senior Brody Shields took the majority of snaps at quarterback during the scrimmage.
Lower Lake will play in the South division of the newly realigned NCL I this season, joining Cloverdale, Middletown, St. Helena and new league member Stuart Hall (San Francisco).
“It’ll be exciting although I think we’re in the tougher division,” Jakubowski said. “Middletown and St. Helena run great programs. It’ll be different playing Stuart Hall on a Saturday afternoon (Oct. 10) at 1 p.m. (at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco).”
Jakubowski said he has “high expectations” for the Trojans this season.
“We have a ton of talent, a ton of speed on the outside. We have a lot of team guys, not a lot of me guys. These guys are hungry and want to go play.”
Lower Lake finished 4-6 last season.
