{"id":3925,"date":"2025-09-13T21:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T21:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=3925"},"modified":"2025-09-13T21:43:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T21:43:04","slug":"mustangs-score-30-points-in-first-quarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=3925","title":{"rendered":"Mustangs score 30 points in first quarter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Middletown rolls past Cloverdale 46-16 in North Central League I opener<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brian Sumpter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lake County Sports on Facebook<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CLOVERDALE >> The Cloverdale Eagles certainly wanted a do-over following the first quarter Friday night against the Middletown Mustangs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who wouldn\u2019t after falling behind 30-8?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breaking down Cloverdale every which way it could \u2013 offense, special teams and defense \u2013 Middletown rolled past Cloverdale 46-16 in the North Central League I opener for both of these varsity football teams Friday night in Cloverdale. The Mustangs ran for two touchdowns, passed for two more, scored on a 71-yard kickoff return and returned an interception 35 yards for another score, and they did almost all of that in the first quarter against a shellshocked Cloverdale squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately for the Eagles (0-1 league, 1-1 overall), Middletown (1-0, 2-1) pulled its starters after a 46-8 first half and let the reserves play the final two quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur goal coming into the game was to execute our plays,\u201d Middletown head coach Kurtis Woodard said. \u201cOffensively we\u2019re excited where we\u2019re at and our potential for where we can get to. Our offensive line is opening up holes and our backs are averaging over 10 yards a carry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloverdale simply had no luck slowing let alone stopping senior Trenton Griffith (eight carries for 118 yards, two touchdowns) or sophomore Tyler Galamay (seven carries for 98 yards). Of their combined 15 carries, eight went for double-digit gains, two were for nine yards, and the smallest five yards. The longest was a 40-yarder by Galamay that set up Griffith\u2019s 36-yard TD runs two plays later that pushed Middletown\u2019s lead to 38-8 midway through the second quarter. Griffith also scored on a 15-yard run less than two minutes into the game for the Mustangs\u2019 first points, and he also added the two-point conversion run for an 8-0 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you\u2019ve probably figured out by now, this one was over almost before it began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown needed only 16 offensive plays to score its first three touchdowns for a 24-0 lead. Following Griffith\u2019s initial touchdown, the Mustangs moved 30 yards into two plays for their next score after Cloverdale gambled and lost on a fourth-and-two play from its own 29-yard line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Costlow\u2019s 25-yard touchdown pass to Jon Hawkins, who came back to catch the ball with two Cloverdale defenders bracketing him, and Galamay\u2019s conversion run made it 16-0 with 7:30 left in the quarter. After a Cloverdale three-and-out, Middletown went 75 yards in six plays, aided by a 15-yard facemask penalty on the Eagles. This time Costlow found Griffith for a 21-yard touchdown, and Griffith\u2019s ensuing conversion run pushed the Mustangs\u2019 advantage to 24-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloverdale\u2019s best drive of the night, 64 yards in 10 players, capped by a 36-yard pass from quarterback Kyle Bernardi to wide receiver Francisco Santillan. Before Santillan could haul in the pass, Middletown defensive back Jamisen Jackson appeared to have an easy interception and a clear route down the sideline, but the ball went right through his hands to Santillan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following their touchdown, the Eagles added the two-point conversion run courtesy of fullback Carson Brown, but whatever joy the Cloverdale sideline experienced was a memory just nine seconds later as Galamay broke loose on a 71-yard kickoff return, scoring with 45 seconds left to make it 30-8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown tacked on 16 more points in the second quarter, the first of two touchdowns coming on Griffith\u2019s 36-yard run, the second coming on Johnny Finney\u2019s 35-yard interception return. The Mustangs passed for both conversions, Costlow finding Hawkins each time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJohnny Finney is doing a lot of little things right on defense, which led to 12 tackles and an interception,\u201d Woodard said. \u201cI said it earlier this week that our scout team gave us a great look this week in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawkins caught passes on offense and defense for Middletown. He had a 25-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter and intercepted Bernardi passes in the second and fourth quarters. He returned the fourth-quarter pick, which he snared at the goal line as the Eagles were trying to cut into Middletown\u2019s big lead, and returned it 55 yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawkins\u2019 big night also included a fumble recovery in the end zone midway through the second quarter as the Eagles misfired on a third-and-four play from the Middletown 6-yard line. The touchback moved the ball out to the 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only touchdown of the second half went to Cloverdale workhorse Brown, who plunged into the end zone from a yard out with 7:10 left in the third quarter. It was one of 34 carries on the night for the junior, who finished with 141 yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDefensively we haven\u2019t watched film yet, but we\u2019ve got some work to do against the run,\u201d Woodard said of the 248 rushing yards his team allowed, though 148 of those came in the second half against mostly Middletown reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown finished with 385 total yards. Costlow had his best game of the season to date, going 6-for-8 for 115 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On defense, Ryan Halverson led the way with 13 total tackles followed by Finney\u2019s 12. Brody Costlow added 11 more while Jasiah Pike had 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TEAM NOTES: <\/strong>Middletown returns home next Friday to play an Upper Lake (0-1, 0-3) team still looking for its first points of the season. The Cougars fell 54-0 on the road to Willits, that after dropping 40-0 (Los Molinos) and 28-0 (Stuart Hall) non-league decisions. Dating back to last season, they\u2019ve been shut out five straight games \u2026 Middletown beat Upper Lake 46-0 at Middletown in the season finale a year ago, the final game for longtime head coach Bill Foltmer (career win No. 314) \u2026 Griffith\u2019s and Galamay\u2019s speed simply was too much for the Cloverdale defense. They were able to swing wide numerous times with almost no defensive interference. It wasn\u2019t much better for the Eagles when those two ran inside. They were through the slightest of holes in a heartbeat \u2026 While Middletown has primarily been a kicking team in the past as far as extra points go, Woodard said the Mustangs are content with going for two points until further notice, mainly because the success they\u2019ve had kicking the ball in practice hasn\u2019t translate into success during games \u2026 Middletown lost to Berean Christian 22-14 in week one at Walnut Creek but came back last week to defeat Piedmont 32-17 at home. On Friday, Piedmont routed Berean Christian 45-12 in Piedmont for its first win of the season \u2026 Middletown\u2019s Hawkins had a 44-yard punt to the Cloverdale 1-yard line late in the third quarter \u2026 Middletown\u2019s junior varsity squad beat Cloverdale 36-0 to improve to 3-0 on the season (see related story).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Middletown rolls past Cloverdale 46-16 in North Central League I opener By Brian Sumpter Lake County Sports on Facebook CLOVERDALE >> The Cloverdale Eagles certainly wanted a do-over following the first quarter Friday night against the Middletown Mustangs. Who wouldn\u2019t after falling behind 30-8? Breaking down Cloverdale every which way it could \u2013 offense, special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,110,26,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3925"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3934,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions\/3934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}