{"id":4837,"date":"2025-11-27T18:51:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=4837"},"modified":"2025-11-27T18:51:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:51:31","slug":"mtown-makes-final-preparations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=4837","title":{"rendered":"M’town makes final preparations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mustangs play Piedmont Friday night for Division 7 championship<\/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

MIDDLETOWN >> 8 a.m. Thanksgiving Day. Time to be home with families, enjoying a leisurely holiday breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unless your football team is playing in a sectional championship game the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown High School\u2019s football players were on the practice field Thursday while most other people were relaxing at home, maybe still in bed, preparing for a holiday feast, watching the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade, or prepping for the first of three NFL games to be televised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commitment, real commitment and not just the kind some players pay lip service to, is what is required to still be playing high school football in late November. Middletown\u2019s players and coaching staff certainly have it, and that\u2019s why they have a date Friday with Piedmont in the North Coast Section Division 7 finals at Justin-Siena High School in Napa (7 p.m. kickoff). On what is commonly known as Black Friday, the traditional shopping day that kicks off the Christmas season, Middletown first-year head coach Kurtis Woodard, a veteran of many Mustang postseasons as an assistant coach, will be leading the band this time around as Middletown takes aim on a fifth sectional championship for the school in football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team standing in the Mustangs\u2019 way, the Piedmont Highlanders (8-4), is no stranger. Middletown beat Piedmont 32-17 on Sept. 5 in Middletown, the team\u2019s first win of the season. They\u2019ve since won nine more and bring a 10-2 record into Friday\u2019s action, the No. 1 seed in the Division 7 playoffs to Piedmont\u2019s No. 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoth teams have gotten better,\u201d Woodard said when asked to compare the Mustangs and Highlanders of late November to the Middletown and Piedmont clubs that took the field nearly three months ago, which is a football eternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For starters, Piedmont didn\u2019t have senior wide receiver\/defensive back Cash Panico in early September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was looking back at game film (of the Sept. 5 meeting) and he was on the sidelines wearing a cost on his arm,\u201d Woodard said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panico wasn\u2019t available for Piedmont\u2019s first four games because of an injury, but in the eight games since he\u2019s been a focal point of the Highlanders\u2019 offense, catching 24 passes for a team-best 591 yards and nine touchdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t have him the first time we played, and they like to go to him,\u201d Woodard said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it works both ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Panico\u2019s return has certainly boosted the Highlanders\u2019 level of play, so has the steady improvement of a young Middletown line loaded with underclassmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat has been the question from day one,\u201d Woodard said of an untested Middletown line when the team began practicing in early August with the temperature well over 100 degrees, a stark contrast from the low-30s the Mustangs experienced during Wednesday and Thursday practices.  \u201cCould the offensive line catch up to our experienced guys at the skill positions?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer is they\u2019re close, or perhaps they\u2019re already there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proud of the line and excited about the improvement they\u2019ve made,\u201d Woodard said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited that they\u2019re coming back next season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Middletown can beat Piedmont for a second time this season, the Mustangs will advance to the NorCal championship game for the first time in the school\u2019s long and distinguished football history. That game could be held at Middletown depending on the opponent the Mustangs draw (NorCal postseason brackets will be released Sunday on the CIF State website).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woodard said the Mustangs are quite aware of what awaits them if they win, and he\u2019s also quite aware that if they don\u2019t beat Piedmont, it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are focused on Piedmont,\u201d Woodard said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to hear about anything else right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a postseason run into the Thanksgiving weekend can often create headaches for a coach because of family holiday plans, Woodard said it hasn\u2019t been a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverybody has been at practice, everybody has been on time,\u201d Woodard said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best yet, everybody\u2019s healthy, according to Woodard, a luxury few teams enjoy at this late point in the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe attitudes are good, the kids are excited,\u201d Woodard said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Mustangs are loaded with veteran talent at the skill positions \u2013 senior quarterback Blake Costlow, senior running back Trenton Costlow, senior wide receivers Jon Hawkins Hayden Xavier, and sophomore running back Tyler Galamay, a second-year varsity player — the Highlanders\u2019 offense is led by sophomore quarterback Jimmy Lagios, who enters plays with 1,867 passing yards and 22 touchdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Highlanders also have a young backfield although senior Xavier Henderson (773 yards, 18 touchdowns) is their chief running threat followed by junior Rehan Mumtaz (671 yards, 7 TDs). Quarterback Lagios has only rushed for 65 yards with no touchdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown\u2019s double-barreled running attack of Galamay and Griffith is about to achieve a rare distinction. Galamay leads the team with 1,130 yards rushing and Griffith needs just 34 more to also reach 1,000. Only a handful of Lake County backfields down through the years can boast two running backs with more than 1,000 yards. Costlow topped 1,000 yards passing earlier this season and brings totals of 1,305 yards and 25 TDs into Friday\u2019s championship game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown\u2019s defense has been every bit as effective as the offense during the team\u2019s current six game winning streak, allowing opponents eight or fewer points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As nice as statistics are, they won\u2019t mean a thing once the teams kick off Friday night. The team that puts together the best four quarters will have all kinds of things to be thankful for on the day after Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mustangs play Piedmont Friday night for Division 7 championship By Brian Sumpter Lake County Sports on Facebook MIDDLETOWN >> 8 a.m. Thanksgiving Day. Time to be home with families, enjoying a leisurely holiday breakfast. Unless your football team is playing in a sectional championship game the next day. Middletown High School\u2019s football players were on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110,26,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837"}],"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=4837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4839,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions\/4839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}