{"id":7010,"date":"2026-08-31T20:21:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T20:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=7010"},"modified":"2026-08-31T20:21:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T20:21:37","slug":"football-week-in-review-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=7010","title":{"rendered":"Football Week in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

County football teams back in action
Brian Sumpter
<\/strong>Lake County Sports on Facebook<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zero week results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Varsity<\/strong>
Upper Lake 40, Esparto 6
Justin-Siena 20, Kelseyville 18
Pierce 10, Middletown 7<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JV<\/strong>
Clear Lake 60, Encinal 0
Justin-Siena 9, Kelseyville 0
Middletown 22, Pierce 14
Upper Lake 32, Lower Lake 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LAKE COUNTY >> Zero week is in the books as the 2026 high school football season in Lake County breaks out of the starting gate, final destination unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three varsity teams and all five junior varsity clubs were in action on the first of the 11 weeks that make up the regular season. Each team has a designated bye week built into its schedule, and in the case of the Upper Lake, Kelseyville, Lower Lake and Middletown varsity teams, that\u2019s next Friday. All four schools are off on Labor Day weekend. The only county team scheduled to be in action this week is the Clear Lake JV squad, which has a game at Redwood on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not that many need this reminder, but Clear Lake is not fielding a varsity team this season because of a lack of players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a look back at some of the highlights\/lowlights from zero week:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statistics<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rushing \u2013<\/strong> Upper Lake\u2019s Jordan Reyes carried the ball 12 times for 112 yards and two touchdowns to spearhead the Cougars\u2019 running attack against Esparto. Bryce Keener\u2019s 17 carries for 89 yards led Kelseyville against Justin-Siena. Middletown\u2019s Tyler Galamay, a junior, opened his third varsity season with 85 yards on 19 carries against Pierce. Kelseyville\u2019s Case Pivniska ran the ball seven times or 64 yards and a touchdown in his first varsity start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passing \u2013<\/strong> Middletown\u2019s Jamisen Jackson went 13-for-20 for 211 yards, one touchdown and one interception in his first varsity start. Kelseyville\u2019s Kimo Brown also made his first varsity start, going 8-for-17 for 113 yards and a TD. Upper Lake\u2019s Corbyn Woolley went 7-for-8 for 65 yards and a touchdown in his initial varsity start. He also ran for a score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Receiving \u2013<\/strong> Middletown\u2019s Tyler Galamay had four catches for 107 yards while teammate Colton Karp had five receptions for 50 yards. Kelseyville\u2019s JD Smart, a junior, had three catches for 72 yards in his first high school game. Gage Faalelea caught two passes for 40 yards, including a TD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Special teams<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the little things \u2013<\/strong> Kelseyville failed to convert two conversion kicks and a two-point attempt in a two-point loss to Justin-Siena. So, yes, special teams matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Game-winning kick <\/strong>\u2013 Pierce\u2019s Demian Vega booted an 18-yard field goal in the final seconds to snap a 7-7 tie and beat Middletown 10-7. He was good from 50 yards in pregame warmups. Middletown\u2019s Jamisen Jackson made his only PAT attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MVP form \u2013<\/strong> Middletown linebacker Ryan Halverson, last year\u2019s defensive MVP on the All-County team, picked up right where he left off Friday night against Pierce, registering 18 total tackles and an interception against Pierce. Esteban Muniz also picked off a Pierce pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting strong \u2013<\/strong> Upper Lake\u2019s Travis McCutcheon had six solo tackles, two assists, a sack and a fumble recovery against Esparto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hat\u2019s off to Pierce \u2013<\/strong> The Bears bent some but didn\u2019t break on defense, limiting an explosive Middletown rushing attack to three double-digit gains, the longest of which was 18 yards. More impressively, they limited the dangerous Tyler Galamay to a long run of 11 yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No first downs \u2013<\/strong> Clear Lake\u2019s JV squad held Encinal without a first down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reverse handoff \u2013<\/strong> Kelseyville\u2019s Jayden Fabisch ripped the ball out of a Justin-Siena player\u2019s hands as the Braves were trying to run out the clock. He had a clear path to the end zone for what would have been a game-winning touchdown, but a teammate was called for a clip on the fumble return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miscellaneous<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down to the wire \u2013<\/strong> Both the Pierce at Middletown and Kelseyville at Justin-Siena games went down to the final seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14-game streak ends \u2013<\/strong> Upper Lake\u2019s varsity had lost 14 straight games until the win over Esparto. The Cougars lost the last four games of the 2024 season and all 10 last year. John Toohey, the third Upper Lake head coach in three seasons, won his first game as head coach of the Cougars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pretty rare \u2013<\/strong> Middletown has dropped two straight at home, which doesn\u2019t happen very often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JV shoutouts \u2013<\/strong> Clear Lake running back John Pasalo rushed for 200 yards and four TDs against Encinal. Middletown\u2019s Dre Goins returned an interception 65 yards for a touchdown to snap a 14-14 tie against Pierce. He intercepted another pass moments later to seal the Mustangs\u2019 22-14 win. Brayan Vasquez of the Upper Lake JVs rushed for 155 yards and a touchdown against Esparto. Lower Lake\u2019s Jamin Bagsby had an 82-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s class \u2026 and then there\u2019s class \u2013<\/strong> Middletown honored the late Bob Minenna, longtime Lake County Record-Bee sports photographer and also a contributor for Lake County Spors, prior to the start of the varsity game Friday night against Pierce. Minenna died earlier this month. He recorded the sports happenings of the county\u2019s athletes for three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turnovers kill \u2013<\/strong> Middletown lost three fumbles and threw an interception in its 10-7 loss to Pierce. Turnovers by both teams set up the only two touchdowns of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a good sign \u2013<\/strong> Middletown was called for a 15-yard personal foul after on the game-opening kickoff against Pierce on Friday night. Of course, the clipping penalty called on Kelseyville during a fumble return that wiped out a touchdown was the biggest miscue by any county team during zero week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huge thanks \u2013<\/strong> To all those who are sharing photos\/videos to Lake County Sports. Big shoutout to Michael Lucid for his great photos from the Lower Lake at Healdsburg girls flag football game, and to Jackie Reyes for her great shots of Kelseyville girls soccer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quiet weekend coming up \u2013<\/strong> Not only are all of the county\u2019s varsity football teams off this coming weekend, but all of the Mendo-Lake Empire Junior Football League squads are idle. Something about that just isn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu —<\/strong> Writing this Week in Review column, I feel like I\u2019ve done this one or twice before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sponsors \u2013 <\/strong>Thanks to all the sponsors who stepped up to support Lake County Sports for another season. If you remember the movie Parenthood, this is definitely the roller coaster and not the merry-go-round, and we wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

County football teams back in actionBrian SumpterLake County Sports on Facebook Zero week results VarsityUpper Lake 40, Esparto 6Justin-Siena 20, Kelseyville 18Pierce 10, Middletown 7 JVClear Lake 60, Encinal 0Justin-Siena 9, Kelseyville 0Middletown 22, Pierce 14Upper Lake 32, Lower Lake 6 LAKE COUNTY >> Zero week is in the books as the 2026 high school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,110,26,17,18,19,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7010"}],"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=7010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7011,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7010\/revisions\/7011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}