Upper Lake visits Cloverdale on Friday, Kelseyville on the road Saturday night
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKE COUNTY >> Middletown, Lower Lake and Kelseyville are all looking to break into the win column as Week 2 of the high school football season kicks off Friday night. There are three varsity games and four junior varsity games on tap Friday, plus a rare Saturday varsity game.
Friday’s action includes Willits at Middletown (5 p.m. JV kickoff), Upper Lake at Cloverdale (5 p.m. JV kickoff), Lindhurst at Lower Lake (7 p.m. varsity only), Kelseyville at Paradise (5:30 p.m. JV only) and Clear Lake at Rio Linda (5 p.m. JV only). On Saturday, Kelseyville’s varsity plays Stuart Hall beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.
All of the county’s varsity teams had byes a week ago, so they are all rested and ready to go. Lower Lake (0-0) is making its season debut as the Trojans had no game on zero week in addition to their bye on week one. Upper Lake (1-0) is looking for a second straight win while both Middletown (0-1) and Kelseyville (0-1) just missed in their season openers two weeks ago, the Mustangs falling 10-7 at home to Pierce, and the Knights dropping a 20-18 road decision to Justin-Siena.
Upper Lake at Cloverdale
“The last two weeks were productive, but the Lake County Fair and Labor Day definitely had an impact on attendance,” Upper Lake head coach John Toohey said of the Cougars’ practices during its bye week. “We are not as far along as I would like us to be in our install schedule, but I also think our toolbox is well enough equipped to be competitive.”
Cloverdale lost 8-7 at McKinleyville in its season opener on Aug. 29. The Eagles also had a bye week last weekend. Cloverdale had trouble fielding enough healthy bodies to field a team a year ago, but the Eagles did beat Upper Lake 9-6 in a league game late at Cloverdale. Upper Lake won the 2024 meeting 24-0 at Upper Lake.
The Eagles have a capable quarterback in senior Kyle Bernardi and a solid fullback in senior Carson Brown, plus an assortment of other weapons they should keep Upper Lake’s defenders busy.
“Cloverdale is a much more active and experienced team than what we saw in Esparto,” Toohey said. “They throw the ball pretty well and showed good structure and complementary concepts on film, and I imagine they are going to be more crisp in their scheme on the turf Friday.”
Cloverdale, which is making its home debut, plays on an artificial turf field.
“It will test the back end of our defense,” Toohey said of the Eagles. “Defensively, they were active and disciplined for a week zero game. They play well in space. We will try and bring them into the phone booth when we have the ball.”
While the Cougars are healthy going into Cloverdale, Toohey said there has been a bug floating around school this week.
“Fingers crossed we don’t have a starter go down before tomorrow (Friday),” Toohey said. “Our roster is unchanged from week zero, but some athletes are going to be getting opportunities at other positions as we sharpen our tools on the way to league play.”
Friday’s game is the start of North Central League I interlock play under the NCL I’s new format of north and south divisions. Cloverdale, Lower Lake, Middletown, St. Helena and Stuart Hall all compete in the southern division this season while Upper Lake, Kelseyville, Fort Bragg, Willits and Clear Lake compete in the north. Clear Lake isn’t fielding a varsity team this season because of a lack of numbers. Upper Lake will play each of the south teams along with its league games against Kelseyville, Fort Bragg and Willits
Willits at Middletown
The Willits Wolverines have won at least eight games four seasons running, but they’re off to an 0-2 start this season following a season-opening 12-5 non-league loss to Fort Bragg on Aug. 27 and a 21-7 non-league home setback to Piner last weekend.
“We scouted them last week,” Middletown head coach Kurtis Woodard said. “They lost a lot of seniors to graduation, a lot of experience.”
Middletown beat Willits 22-9 in the league opener for both teams a year ago at Bill Foltmer Field, and while the Mustangs also took some big graduation hits, they do return several key players this season.
“We’re optimistic with what we run against what they run,” Woodard said.
The Mustangs are also optimistic about having starting lineman Emmitt Lloyd back in the lineup. Lloyd, a junior, missed the Pierce season opener with a knee injury, forcing Woodard to move players around on offense and defense.
“Lloyd is good to go and looking good,” Woodard said.
Middletown outgained Pierce in its season-opening loss two weeks ago, piling up more than 300 yards of total offense, but the Mustangs also turned the ball over four times.
Players to keep an eye on for the Wolverines, according to Woodard, are Mason Crossly (No. 2) and Grady Cooley (No. 4), both underclassmen. The Wolverines list seven sophomores and seven juniors on their roster, so it’s a fairly young group.
Lindhurst at Lower Lake
The Lindhurst Blazers of Olivehurst bring a 1-1 record into Gordon Sadler Field against a Lower Lake team making its season debut.
Lindhurst is coming off a 28-20 home win last weekend against Marysville after dropping its season opener 39-30 at Woodland two weeks ago.
“Marysville is their big rival, so they’re coming in on a high,” Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski said of the Blazers.
While the Trojans haven’t hid anyone in anger since the Lake County scrimmage on Aug. 21, they’ll be going up against a Lindhurst team playing its third game.
“They’ve had a chance to work out a lot of the wrinkles, something we haven’t been able to do,” Jakubowski said.
A run-heavy team, the Blazers have plenty of weapons to attack the Trojans, according to Jakubowski, including all-purpose junior running back Chan Hicks (No. 3), who has 331 rushing yards through two games, senior running back Ismael Sanabia (No. 8), and senior quarterback Angel Gonzalez (No. 7).
“They run a lot of double-tight formations,” Jakubowski said. “Their quarterback is a great athlete, and they have a big line.”
Lower Lake hopes to counter with a run-pass attack led by, among others, running backs Anthony Russell, Tyler Peden and Roy Percoats.
“I feel like we have three guys who we can trust with the ball, and six options to throw the ball to,” Jakubowski said. “We’ll try to stretch them out a little bit.”
Lower Lake will have to contend with a big Lindhurst defensive line.
“Their defensive line is good, and their linebackers are well coached,” Jakubowski said. “We’re going to have to make those big guys up front move.”
After watching game film of the Blazers, Jakubowski said there are matchups that favor the Trojans, so it’s up to Lower Lake to exploit those weaknesses.
“We’ll see how they adjust to our different formations” he said.
“Not having a junior varsity game kind of disrupts our routine a little bit, but we’re excited to get on the field,” Jakubowski said.
Kelseyville at Stuart Hall
The Knights enter play nearly healthy, the only exception being a hand injury to running back Andrew Souza. While it might restrict his number of touches in the offensive backfield, Kelseyville head coach Logan Barrick said Souza will still start at defensive end and might even see time on the offensive line.
Stuart Hall (1-0) picked up a forfeit win against Ygnacio Valley two weeks ago and had a bye last week. The San Francisco team, which also has Knights for a mascot, split last season between playing eight-man and 11-man teams while preparing for the transition to full-time 11-man football this season.
“It’s tough to gauge them because of the (11-man) teams they played last year,” Barrick said. “They played Upper Lake, and Upper Lake wasn’t very good last season, and two other teams that were worse than Upper Lake.”
Stuart Hall went 12-0 overall in 2025.
“They were more athletic than the teams they were playing and they have two wide receivers who are really athletic,” Barrick said. “Their No. 1 receiver is a big, athletic dude. If we can play the pass well, we’ll be all right.”
Not surprisingly, the Knights have focused on pass defense this week in practice.
“We’re trying to tighten up the coverages,” Barrick said. “Justin-Siena did a good job of taking advantage of our outside linebackers, and those are some of the things we’ve been working on.”
Stuart Hall’s defense will certainly be tested by Kelseyville’s running game, according to Barrick, even with Souza limited in what he can do. Running back is one area where the Knights have considerable depth.
“Offensively, just being consistent lining up correctly every play is something we need to do,” Barrick said.
Because of the Saturday game, Barrick was able to give his players Labor Day off and not disrupt the team’s practice schedule.
Editor’s note: JV and varsity game statistics should be emailed to briansumptermail@gmail.com as soon as possible following the conclusion of play.
