{"id":7565,"date":"2026-10-29T20:57:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T20:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=7565"},"modified":"2026-10-29T20:57:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T20:57:46","slug":"ncl-i-south-race-in-week-9-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=7565","title":{"rendered":"NCL I South race in Week 9 spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mustangs visit red-hot Eagles; Kelseyville hosts Fort Bragg in North matchup<\/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

LAKE COUNTY >> The North Central League I South football race certainly has been worth the price of admission this season as Stuart Hall, Middletown, Cloverdale and St. Helena have provided some exciting moments, and with plenty more left to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outcome of this year\u2019s South race hinges largely on the outcome of two games taking place Friday as the St. Helena Saints (0-2, 4-4) host the Stuart Hall Knights (2-0, 7-1) and the Middletown Mustangs (2-1, 6-2) visit the Cloverdale Eagles (2-0, 7-1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the beginning of the year you don\u2019t know what to expect, which division will be the hardest, but the South has become a gauntlet right now,\u201d Middletown head coach Kurtis Woodard said of the newly constituted NCL I, which now features South and North divisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a rebuilding St. Helena team hasn\u2019t won a South game yet, the Saints have been right there in the two they\u2019ve played to date, losing 22-21 at Middletown (on Oct. 9) and 35-32 at Cloverdale last week, a game that see-sawed back and forth in the fourth quarter against an Eagles squad that hasn\u2019t loss since zero week nearly two months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stuart Hall, the new kid on the block as the former eight-man football power switched to the 11-man game this season, its first in the NCL I, rallied with a late fourth-quarter touchdown drive and two-point conversion to beat Middletown 29-28 two weeks ago in Middletown. Depending on the outcome of the Middletown at Cloverdale game Friday, Stuart Hall can clinch no worse than a tie for the title with a victory at St. Helena, a team that gave Middletown all sorts of problems with a running game that chewed up huge chunks of time on the clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the NCL I South race is in the spotlight Friday night, Kelseyville (1-0, 4-4) looks to win a third straight game when it hosts Fort Bragg (0-2, 1-7), a loser of seven straight, in NCL I North action. In NCL I interlock play, Upper Lake (2-6) is home against Lower Lake (1-6). Willits (2-0 North, 4-5) has a bye week before closing out its league and regular-season schedule Nov. 6 at home against Kelseyville, a game that will likely decide the North champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cAll respect to them, they\u2019ve turned their program around,\u201d Woodard said of the Eagles, winners of seven straight, or exactly two more wins than they had in the 2023-25 seasons combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloverdale struggled to keep 11 healthy bodies on the field as recently as two years ago when the team forfeited two games and cut others short because of injury problems. Several sophomores who started on that 2024 team are now paying back their opponents with interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the thing you\u2019ve got to like,\u201d Woodard said. \u201cThey haven\u2019t done it by bringing in new players, they\u2019ve done it with guys they\u2019ve already had and who have worked hard to get here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Stuart Hall relies on its passing game and St. Helena its running game to move the ball, Cloverdale can do both, according to Woodard, and that\u2019s makes them all the more dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir quarterback (Evan Robledo, a junior) has an arm and is good at finding the open receiver,\u201d Woodard said. \u201cHe trusts his guys downfield to make a play.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robledo has 1,201 passing yards and 13 touchdowns, and he\u2019s hardly a one-dimensional quarterback. He also leads the Eagles with 481 rushing yards, putting him just ahead of Carson Brown (468 yards, five TDs), Cloverdale\u2019s tried-and-test three-year veteran at fullback. Kingston Cavallo is another Eagle to keep an eye on with 334 receiver yards (four TDs) and 160 rushing yards (four TDs). Vann Randolph, a senior receiver, leads the Eagles with 20 catches for 436 yards and five TDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robledo knows how to spread the ball around and has thrown touchdowns to six different players this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been using the word \u2018discipline\u2019 a lot in practice this week because we have to stay disciplined, all 11 players on both sides of the football,\u201d Woodard said when asked what the Mustangs need to do to beat the Eagles. \u201cWe need everyone to do his job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woodard said his players, to their credit, have remained remarkably focused on the task at hand this week, knowing what\u2019s at stake in the league standings and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt just motivates them even more,\u201d Woodard said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Middletown win and a Stuart Hall loss to St. Helena on Friday clinches a co-championship for the Mustangs, who are playing their final South game. They finish up the following week with an interlock game at Fort Bragg. Middletown can\u2019t win the South outright since Cloverdale plays at Stuart Hall on Nov. 7, and that means one of those teams will also have three wins should both lose on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Stuart Hall and Cloverdale both win Friday, that Nov. 7 game at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco will decide the whole shooting match, and Middletown will finish third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve watched a lot of film this week,\u201d Woodard said. \u201cI feel like we have a good game plan for them. My coaches have worked hard on this one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Bragg at Kelseyville<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights haven\u2019t had their best week in practice, but head coach Logan Barrick said there is absolutely no way they are looking past the Timberwolves, who haven\u2019t won since late August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Upper Lake game didn\u2019t go well for them last week (Fort Bragg lost 55-16), but they were able to move the ball against Upper Lake, and they were driving for touchdowns a couple of times and turned the ball over. They weren\u2019t far off from making that a closer game in the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two pick-six interceptions by Upper Lake \u2013 a 71-yarder and a 97-yarder \u2013 broke the game open during a 30-point second quarter for the Cougars, who trailed 8-6 after one quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were two bad passes away from being in it,\u201d Barrick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, Barrick said the Knights\u2019 are not going to be looking past the Timberwolves, which is something they were guilty of last year when Fort Bragg won 8-6 in Fort Bragg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur guys looked past them last year and we got a rude awakening,\u201d Barrick said. \u201cThey are eager to get them back for that. It\u2019s also senior night, so I think that we\u2019ll be just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Bragg runs a variety of formations on offense, so the Kelseyville defense has its work cut out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRegardless of what they\u2019re showing us, we need to line up correctly,\u201d Barrick said. \u201cOn offense, we just need to stick with what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s running the ball, which the Knights have excelled at for the most part this season, even with key players out injured. A week ago in a 27-20 road win against non-league opponent Dougherty Valley, Case Pivniska and Jayden Fabisch combined for over 300 rushing yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville has a chance to move over .500 for the first time this season with a win. The Knights finish up their North and regular-season schedule Nov. 6 with a road game at Willits, which has a bye this week. That game will likely decide the outright North champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

While the Upper Lake Cougars played their best game of the season a week ago in a 55-16 North victory over Fort Bragg, scoring more points than they had in their first seven games combined, the Lower Lake Trojans are hoping to shift their slumbering offense out of neutral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a boat sitting in the middle of the ocean,\u201d Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski. \u201cI spend more of my week trying to get kids to come to practice than I do coaching them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jakubowski said Upper Lake quarterback Gage Faalelea and wide receiver Antario Wyman are a lethal combination when combined with a running game led by Jacob Weldon and Brody Blancas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd their defense looks really strong, not overly aggressive but steady,\u201d Jakubowski said. \u201cThey are definitely a team ascending.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower Lake struggled mightily in a 47-8 South loss to Middletown a week ago in Lower Lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe put too many snaps on the ground and early turnovers really hurt us,\u201d Jakubowski said. \u201cThis late in a season we have guys banged up and we\u2019re just trying to push them through it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those guys, running back Anthony Russell, took a helmet to his elbow against Middletown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt swelled up on him a little bit, it\u2019s sore, but he\u2019s going to play,\u201d Jakubowski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upper Lake\u2019s 2-6 overall record notwithstanding, Jakubowski said the Cougars are a much different team now than they were back during the Lake County Scrimmage in late August and early in the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re playing good football now and they\u2019re a tough matchup for us,\u201d Jakubowski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the only thing slowing the Cougars right now is illness, according to head coach John Toohey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIllness has kept some kids away (this week). I think this is the third round of a nasty buy that\u2019s going around,\u201d said Toohey, who is feeling less than 100 percent himself. \u201cI\u2019ll get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Trojans are fighting themselves as much as the opposition these days, Toohey said they still have the one thing that causes opposing coaches all kinds of concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got plenty of speed, and we\u2019ve struggled with teams getting their players into space, like Stuart Hall,\u201d Toohey said. \u201cWe need to make sure we\u2019re breaking down and making tackles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upper Lake will use both of its quarterbacks \u2013 the speedy Faalelea and passer Corbyn Woolley \u2013 as the situation dictates against Lower Lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of seeing how the game goes, what they show us,\u201d Toohey said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a wait-and-see thing with what they (Trojans) show us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upper Lake is gunning for its first two-game winning streak since midway through the 2024 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars wrap up their season Nov. 6 with a non-league game at Colusa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mustangs visit red-hot Eagles; Kelseyville hosts Fort Bragg in North matchup By Brian Sumpter Lake County Sports on Facebook LAKE COUNTY >> The North Central League I South football race certainly has been worth the price of admission this season as Stuart Hall, Middletown, Cloverdale and St. Helena have provided some exciting moments, and with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,110,58,26,17,18,19,59,144,15,57],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7565"}],"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=7565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7567,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7565\/revisions\/7567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}