Knights host Cloverdale while Cougars, Trojans are on the road in Week 6
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKE COUNTY >> The only North Central League I game Middletown didn’t win a year ago, against St. Helena, may have been a blessing in disguise for the Mustangs once the postseason rolled around.
Middletown, the NCL I runner-up, remained in North Coast Section Division 7 and went on to win the section title during head coach Kurtis Woodard’s first season, the fifth section title in the Mustangs’ history. St. Helena, the undefeated NCL I champion, got bumped up into Division 6, and ultimately lost to Bishop O’Dowd, a Division 4 school dropping down two divisions, in the semifinals, its first and only loss during an 11-1 season.
It’s not that the Mustangs planned it that way. They took a 34-21 lead into the fourth quarter against St. Helena before things went south, the Saints rallying for a 41-34 win at home.
“All credit to them,” Woodard said. “St. Helena ran it right down our throats in the fourth quarter. We couldn’t stop them.”
Middletown (4-1) and St. Helena (3-2) reacquaint themselves Friday night at Bill Foltmer Field, the Mustangs’ homecoming, part of Week 6 of the high school football season. More importantly for both teams, it’s their NCL I South opener under the league’s new format of North and South divisions.
In other Week 6 games involving Lake County games, Upper Lake (1-4) travels to Maize Field in Willits to play the Wolverines (2-4) in the North opener for both teams, and Kelseyville (2-3) hosts Cloverdale (4-1) in NCL I interlock action. On Saturday, Lower Lake (1-3) hits the road for Kezar Stadium in San Francisco to play Stuart Hall (4-1) in NCL I South action.
St. Helena at Middletown
The Saints are looking for a third straight win over Middletown. Besides their win last year, they defeated the Mustangs 9-7 in 2024, the 40th and final season for former Middletown head coach Bill Foltmer.
While hard hit by graduation after its spectacular run last season, St. Helena has been putting points on the board this year outside of a 41-6 season-opening loss at Fortuna on Aug. 28, which is also the last time Middletown didn’t score at least 41 points in a game (the Mustangs lost 10-7 to Pierce in Middletown on the same day).
“They have got some running backs who are explosive,” Woodard said of St. Helena seniors George Filippini and Julian Earls, both holdovers from last year’s 11-1 squad. “And their quarterback is an athlete,” Woodard added of junior Daniel Gonzalez.
Earls and Filippini offer a legitimate one-two punch. Earls has rushed for 478 yards and five TDs while Filippini has 445 yards and five TDs. Earls is also the team’s leading receiver with nine catches for 129 yards and two TDs.
“They like to throw it to No. 24 (Earls),” Woodard said.
Hernandez can do a little bit of everything. He’s 30-for-45 passing for 377 yards and four TDs, and he’s also rushed for three scores.
St. Helena’s option attack does a good job getting opposing defenses out of position, according to Woodard.
“There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors they (Saints) try to use, but I think we’ll do a good job of not going for that. It’s the point of the season where I have confidence in my defense,” Woodard said.
“We’ll need to keep on our toes because they are a good team,” he added.
St. Helena’s defense is vulnerable, according to Woodard. The Saints have allowed 150 points through five games, including 41 to both Fortuna and Willits (Willits won 41-35 in overtime).
“We’ve looked at a lot of film, and we’ve got a good feel about the things we can attack,” he said.
The St. Helena game is the first of two big South matchups for the Mustangs, who are home again Oct. 16 to play Stuart Hall and its high-powered passing attack.
Upper Lake at Willits
“They’ve been on an upward trajectory all season,” Upper Lake head coach John Toohey said of the Wolverines, who dropped their first three games, including a 12-5 loss to Fort Bragg and 42-0 setback against Middletown, only to answer with back-to-back wins over St. Helena, 41-35 in overtime, and Lower Lake, 44-14. They lost 16-13 in overtime to Cloverdale a week ago in Willits.
“They played some pretty gutsy football against St. Helena and Cloverdale,” Toohey said. “Willits incorporates a lot of misdirection into its offense, and their ability to finish running plays helped them against St. Helena.”
Upper Lake scored a season-best 22 points a week ago in a 41-22 homecoming loss to St. Helena, and Toohey said he believes the Cougars have turned a corner in regard to the offense being able to move the ball, which Upper Lake did on the ground and through the air against the Saints.
“Things finally came together,” Toohey said.
If Upper Lake’s defense can hold its own this week, the Cougars could earn a league win on a field that hasn’t been kind to Lake County teams in the past.
“They (Wolverines) are going to bang you, so we need to dig in and hold them up,” Toohey said. “We were missing two linebackers last week, which made it tough. We’ve got them both back this week.”
Upper Lake had to contend with the heat in practice earlier this week, going under the lights Tuesday and starting Wednesday’s practice indoors before moving back outside.
“The kids had fun under the lights,” Toohey said. “We’ve had a good week of practice.”
Cloverdale at Kelseyville
Cloverdale is off to its best start since 2022. In fact, the Eagles have nearly as many wins this season (four) as they’ve had in the last three years combined (five). A varsity program that nearly folded up a couple of years ago because of a lack of players is more than holding its own so far this season.
“Cloverdale’s got a lot of experience,” Kelseyville head coach Logan Barrick said of a handful of three-year veterans who started as sophomores, took their lumps, but are now administering a few lumps of their own as seniors this season.
“Their experience is getting them through,” Barrick said of such players as seniors quarterback Kyle Bernardi and fullback/linebacker Carson Brown, and junior quarterback/running back Evan Robledo.
Robledo has 671 passing yards and seven touchdowns and has run for another 275 yards and a score. Brown, who leads the team with 46 carries, does a lot of the team’s hard running up the middle and has 221 yards and two TDs.
“As good a job as he does on offense, he really impresses me at linebacker,” Barrick said of Brown.
Cloverdale has two active wide receivers in senior Vann Randolph (11 catches for 243 yards, three TDs) and junior Kingston Cavallo (10 catches, 200 yards, three TDs). Another junior, Jaxson Randolph, has 10 catches for 145 yards.
Kelseyville enters play minus starting quarterback Kimo Brown (ankle), who may be able to return next week when the Knights open their NCL I North schedule at Upper Lake.
“No Kimo,” Barrick said. “We’re unsure of when he’ll return.”
Running back Bryce Keener and Andrew Souza are also out with injuries.
Deake Lyndall Jr., who came on for Brown late in the first half last week against Lower Lake during a 28-21 win, draws the start at quarterback this week.
“Deake has had a lot more reps in practice this week, so he’ll be ready to go,” Barrick said.
“I think we just need to put a whole game together,” Barrick said when asked what the Knights need to do to win a second straight game. “We had three or four drives stopped inside the 20 (last week against Lower Lake). Credit to them, but we also hurt ourselves with mistakes … turnovers, penalties, miscommunication. We need to play a whole game.”
As for the Eagles, who last beat Kelseyville in 2021 (72-0 at Cloverdale), Barrick said containing the quarterback is essential.
“And we need to hold our ground up the middle,” Barrick said. “If we do that I think we’ll be alright.”
After Cloverdale, Kelseyville has four regular-season games remaining – NCL I North contests against Upper Lake (Oct. 16, away), Fort Bragg (Oct. 30, home) and Willits (Nov. 7, away) and a non-league road game Oct. 23 against Dougherty Valley, which replaces Clear Lake on this year’s schedule. Clear Lake has no varsity team this season.
Lower Lake at Stuart Hall
With school out this week for an intersession break, Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski said attendance hasn’t been what he hoped for.
“It’s improved since Monday when I had only half my team out there, but I still don’t know who is going on the field for me when we play Stuart Hall,” Jakubowski said. “It’s that time of year when I have guys who decide they don’t want to lose anymore or who don’t want to come to practice. It’s the Lower Lake curse … or my curse. We’ve got guys, some of them starters, who just stop showing up.”
While Jakubowski said he does have a core group of dependable players, he said it’s hard to build a gameplan for a league opener against a strong opponent when there are no-shows in practice every day.
“They (Knights) have really athletic kids,” Jakubowski said. “Their quarterback (Napoleon Cabading) is pretty accurate and No. 2 (wide receiver Jake Oenning is a really, really athletic kid who has that breakaway ability.”
Cabading is 42-for-68 for 688 yards, eight touchdowns and one interception this season, and if breaks containment and has room to run, he’ll beat you with his legs (five rushing touchdowns so far).
“If he breaks the pocket, he’s a mobile guy who can eat up some yards,” Jakubowski said.
Cabading has no shortage of downfield targets – Oenning (14 catches, 187 yards, two TDs), Titus Hughes (eight catches, 167 yards, three TDs) and Trey Hughes (11 catches, 154 yards, two TDs).
The Knights will mix up a few runs between passes, but throwing the ball is how they move it up and down the field.
“They can be explosive,” Jakubowski said. “They have big-play capability at multiple positions.”
Stuart Hall is coming off a 33-0 win at Fort Bragg. Earlier this season they dropped a 43-33 contest at home to Kelseyville, which ran the ball with great success against the Stuart Hall defense.
Quarterback Brody Shields draws the start against Stuart Hall after coming out of the Trojans’ 28-21 loss a week ago at Kelseyville with a banged up heel late in the fourth quarter.
“We need to do what we do best more consistently on offense,” Jakubowski said of making the running game a factor and not relying on Shields to throw the ball 30 times. “And we need to eliminate the big play on defense. We need to keep the quarterback in the pocket and make him throw into our coverage.”
The Trojans did have success moving the ball on the ground against Kelseyville a week ago, led by Vincent Linton, and hope to repeat that success against Stuart Hall.
“We made some progress last week against Kelseyville and made some good things happen,” Jakubowski said. “If we can win the physical battle with them, I think we can be competitive. I just don’t know who is going to be there for me (on Saturday).”
The Trojans are excited about making the trip to San Francisco and playing at the former home of the NFL’s 49ers in their league opener, according to Jakubowski.
“They probably not exciting about getting up early for the trip down there,” Jakubowski joked.
As Stuart Hall has no junior varsity team, Lower Lake at Stuart Hall is a varsity-only affair that kicks off at 1 p.m.
After Stuart Hall, the Trojans return home for back-to-back NCL I South games against Cloverdale (Oct. 16) and Middletown (Oct. 23).
