{"id":7034,"date":"2026-09-03T21:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=7034"},"modified":"2026-09-03T21:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:16:14","slug":"its-going-to-be-a-lonely-week-1-for-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=7034","title":{"rendered":"It’s going to be a lonely Week 1 for football"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s a bye week for Kelseyville, Lower Lake, Middletown, Upper Lake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

LAKE COUNTY >> Week 1 of the 2026 high school football season in Lake County is one lonely customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Middletown, Kelseyville and Upper Lake varsity teams all saw action during Zero Week, and all five of the county\u2019s junior varsity squads played their openers, Week 1 is a veritable graveyard as Middletown, Kelseyville, Upper Lake and Lower Lake all have schedule byes (Clear Lake has no varsity team this season because of a lack of players).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only action is a Thursday game featuring the Clear Lake JVs (1-0) taking on Redwood in Marin, and a Friday JV game with Lower Lake (0-1) at Maxwell with a 5:30 p.m. kickoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s it for Week 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The county\u2019s varsity teams return to action the weekend of Sept. 11-12, with Kelseyville, Middletown and Upper Lake all playing North Central League I interlock games. Lower Lake plays its season opener at home against non-league opponent Lindhurst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zero week was a mixed bag in terms of success for the county\u2019s teams. Upper Lake posted a win over Esparto, snapping a 14-game losing streak dating back to 2024, while Middletown and Kelseyville lost thrillers \u2013 Middletown at home against Pierce, and Kelseyville on the road against Justin-Siena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake, Middletown and Upper Lake notched JV wins while Kelseyville and Lower Lake came up short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head coach Kurtis Woodard said the early bye will be well received by the Mustangs, who need the time as banged up players heal. The off week will allow junior lineman Emmitt Lloyd to be back in action against the Willits Wolverines on Sept. 11 in Middletown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust the impact of adding one player can make such a huge difference,\u201d Woodard said. \u201cWe feel so much better about where we\u2019re at when we\u2019re going with him in there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After breaking down the Middletown-Pierce game film, Woodard said the Mustangs made a lot of mistakes in the 10-7 loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of mistakes, but fixable mistakes,\u201d Woodard said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the bad taste of a last-second loss still lingering in their mouths, the Mustangs have stepped it up this week in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe energy this week is up \u2026 and the intensity and focus,\u201d Woodard said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the scheduling front, Middletown\u2019s non-league home game with Biggs on Oct. 2 is off. Instead, the Mustangs will hit the road that day to play St. Patrick\/St. Vincent in Vallejo, but varsity only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mustangs were left scrambling to fill the Oct. 2 date after Clear Lake\u2019s varsity program collapsed, creating a void in their schedule. Woodard said he even toyed with the idea of playing Lower Lake this week since both teams are off, then take his bye on Oct. 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower Lake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trojans (0-0), who had no opponent in zero week, are tired of hitting each other in practice as they impatiently await their season opener Friday, Sept. 11 at home against Lindhurst (varsity only).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are bored with the monotony of practice,\u201d Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski said. \u201cThey are getting chippy with each other, so I guess that\u2019s a good thing. They\u2019re ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower Lake sustained a minor injury in practice this week while a handful of players were out with \u201ca bug that\u2019s going around,\u201d according to Jakubowski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s made it hard to do 11-on-11 in practice with the way our numbers are,\u201d Jakubowski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower Lake held a tempo practice Wednesday and things went pretty well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe got through a substantial number of plays,\u201d Jakubowski said. \u201cWe\u2019re just looking for consistency now in our passing game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower Lake is counting the days until the Lindhurst game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe kids can\u2019t wait,\u201d Jakubowski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you think having a bye week this early in the season is a bit weird, well, consider Kelseyville\u2019s players are the only ones in Lake County who haven\u2019t started school yet. It\u2019s also Lake County Fair week, which means distractions of another sort, and the Knights won\u2019t have to worry about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bye week is interesting,\u201d Kelseyville head coach Logan Barrick less than a week after making his head coaching debut in a 20-18 loss to Justin-Siena, a game the Knights would have won had it not been for an unnecessary clipping penalty on an interception return late in the fourth quarter. The clip occurred well behind the developing touchdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn one hand guys are eager to get back to it and it feels odd having no game this early,\u201d Barrick said. \u201cOn the other hand, I think the loss shed some light on a few issues, and this gives us a chance to really address it. It also helps having a bye this week with things like the fair. And we\u2019ve had things like orientation and book and schedule pickup since school starts next week for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville returns to action on a Saturday (Sept. 12) with an NCL I interlock game against Stuart Hall at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco (varsity only). It\u2019s Kelseyville\u2019s only scheduled regular-season Saturday game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur guys definitely learned a lesson in humility (against Justin-Siena), and I think that is going to be huge moving forward,\u201d Barrick said. \u201cPractice has had a little more attitude here and there, but a lot more focus as well. There\u2019s a fine line and I think we are learning where that\u2019s at. As far as injuries, Andrew Souza has a hand injury. He\u2019s getting it checked out today. From what he\u2019s gathered, it sounds like he won\u2019t be out, but he probably won\u2019t be getting the ball anytime soon. He\u2019ll still be on defense, and offensively you might see him in a different capacity (other than running back).  He\u2019s a team guy, so he\u2019ll do whatever we ask.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville is already preparing for a Stuart Hall team that likes to put the ball in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have a lot of athletes and two big athletic receivers, so we\u2019ll have our hands full,\u201d Barrick said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be a big clash in styles. They are 80\/20 pass\/run and that might be a conservative estimate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upper Lake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The county\u2019s first varsity team to reach the win column this season, the Upper Lake Cougars, fresh off a 40-6 season-opening win against Esparto, prepares for its NCL I interlock opener Sept. 11 at Cloverdale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team\u2019s first home game is Sept. 18 against Stuart Hall of San Francisco, the newest member of the NCL I. The Upper Lake Alumni Hall of Fame\u2019s two inductees for 2026 will be introduced during the game and then honored Sept. 19 at a celebration dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upper Lake hasn\u2019t won two straight to open a season since winning its first three in 2022, it\u2019s last year of eight-man football. The last time the Cougars opened with at least two straight wins as an 11-man team was 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a bye week for Kelseyville, Lower Lake, Middletown, Upper Lake Brian Sumpter Lake County Sports on Facebook LAKE COUNTY >> Week 1 of the 2026 high school football season in Lake County is one lonely customer. While the Middletown, Kelseyville and Upper Lake varsity teams all saw action during Zero Week, and all five […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7035,"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\/7034"}],"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=7034"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7036,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7034\/revisions\/7036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}