Trojans hits the road to play Cloverdale
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LAKE COUNTY >> North Central League I football play opens tonight with Clear Lake, Upper Lake and Kelseyville all playing in the county, Lower Lake hitting the road and Middletown taking the weekend off.
With any luck, the county’s teams will emerge from Week 3 without any major injuries, something they were unable to do in Week 1 when Kelseyville senior running back Max Hommer was lost to a season-ending broken collarbone, and in Week 2 when Middletown junior quarterback Blake Costlow sustained a broken foot.
Week 3 games feature Clear Lake (0-1) at Upper Lake (1-1), Fort Bragg (1-1) at Kelseyville (1-1), and Lower Lake (2-0) at Cloverdale (1-1), which is celebrating its homecoming. Middletown (1-1) returns to action Friday, Sept. 20 at home against Kelseyville.
Clear Lake at Upper Lake
The good news for Clear Lake is Pierce (2-0) is not this week’s opponent. The Cardinals, who had a Week 1 bye, took their lumps last weekend in Arbuckle against Pierce, a team loaded with size and speed.
Upper Lake is coming off a 36-26 road win against Los Molinos and will try to extend its winning streak to two games against the Cardinals. It’s the home opener for the Cougars, who opened the season with a 28-8 loss against Terra Linda.
Clear Lake beat Upper Lake 47-6 a year ago in Lakeport, the first meeting between the two teams since the 2014 season. The Cougars switched to eight-man football in 2015 and remained an eight-man team through 2022. All but one of the meetings between the two schools from 2001-2023 were blowouts, including a 77-0 rout in 2014. The last time the Cougars prevailed against their neighbors to the south was 2000, a 20-19 Upper Lake victory in Upper Lake.
While the Cougars are a team on the rise this season, returning many key starters from last year’s squad, Clear Lake is a team in transition. The Cardinals return nearly their entire offensive line but are breaking in new players at all the skill positions.
Fort Bragg at Kelseyville (in Lakeport)
Kelseyville plays the first of three “home” games this season at Don Owens Stadium in Lakeport as the Kelseyville field undergoes renovations. The Knights gave a good account of themselves a week ago a solid Orland squad (two-time defending North Section champions), hanging tough late into the game before Orland pulled away for a 44-21 win.
Fort Bragg takes a big step up in competition this week after beating South Fork 36-14 in its home opener last week. The Timberwolves opened the season with a 39-12 loss at Ferndale, the defending state champion.
It’s the first time in Kelseyville history the Knights will be the home team in Lakeport, where they will play three more times this season – Oct. 18 vs. Willits, Nov. 1 vs. Clear Lake (Bass Bowl, Clear Lake is the home team for that one), and Nov. 8 vs. St. Helena.
Kelseyville senior running back Kyle Watkins only played a portion of the game against Orland after taking a couple of hard helmet-to-helmet hits, but he’s good to go this week against Fort Bragg.
Lower Lake at Cloverdale
The Lower Lake Trojans look to extend their season-opening winning streak to three games with a victory against Cloverdale. Both teams cruised to home wins in Week 2, the Trojans taking care of business with a 44-14 win over Kennedy of Richmond, and Cloverdale shutting out Vacaville Christian 41-0. The Eagles lost to Healdsburg (2-0) in Week 1, 35-21, while Lower Lake beat Esparto 30-22.
It’s the first of two straight road games for Lower Lake, which plays at Willits on Sept. 20 before returning home Sept. 27 to take on Upper Lake.
Middletown bye week
Middletown head coach Bill Foltmer is still weighing his options as to who will replace Blake Costlow at quarterback when the Mustangs return to the field Sept. 20 against Kelseyville.
“I have two options, and I am weighing them both,” Foltmer said. “I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
The options, according to Foltmer, are to move junior wide receiver Jon Hawkins behind center because of his experience at the varsity level, or to promote junior varsity backup quarterback Colton Karp, a freshman.
Both Hawkins and Karp have, in Foltmer’s words, “taken a ton of snaps in practice this week,” and both will continue to do so in the immediate future.
“I hate to move Hawkins there because then we lose a good receiver and blocker,” Foltmer said. “I’ve been really impressed with Karp so far. He can run the offense.”
Foltmer said he isn’t ruling out using both in some sort of rotation.
Costlow’s injury will be re-evaluated in the coming days. He sustained the broken foot late in the third quarter last week when a Piedmont player stepped on his foot. He played the entire fourth quarter with the injury, which wasn’t diagnosed until the following day. Costlow was starting behind center for the second year in a row. He helped lead the team to a league co-championship last season.
