{"id":903,"date":"2024-09-21T21:13:45","date_gmt":"2024-09-21T21:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=903"},"modified":"2024-09-22T21:24:31","modified_gmt":"2024-09-22T21:24:31","slug":"knights-mustangs-play-a-good-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=903","title":{"rendered":"Knights, Mustangs play a good one"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kelseyville emerges with hard-fought 24-21 league victory at M’town<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

MIDDLETOWN >> Clear Lake vs. Kelseyville is the biggest rivalry in Lake County, but Middletown vs. Kelseyville has been the best for the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such was the case again Friday night when a Middletown team playing its first game since losing starting quarterback Blake Costlow to a likely season-ending foot injury played host to the Knights in a North Central League I varsity football battle at Bill Foltmer Field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville, the consensus pick to win the league title this season, held off Middletown for a 24-21 victory, improving to 2-0 in the league standings and 3-1 overall. The Mustangs, fresh off a bye week, were making their league debut and are now 1-2 on the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud of my kids for the effort,\u201d Middletown head coach Bill Foltmer said. \u201cWe started three freshmen tonight and still gave them a game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown ended up using a platoon of quarterbacks against the Knights, who came up with two huge defensive stops inside their 10-yard line while also dominating on the line of scrimmage on offense, leading to 377 yards of rushing offense \u2013 246 yards on 22 carries and two touchdowns by Kyle Watkins, who missed part of the fourth quarter with an ankle injury, and another 119 yards by Michael DeJohn, who also scored the first Kelseyville touchdown on a 10-yard pass from quarterback Brock Barrick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freshman Colton Karp played the first half behind center for Middletown before giving way to Jon Hawkins, the varsity backup quarterback when the season opened, in the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did they do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be any prouder of Colton Karp,\u201d Foltmer said. \u201cHe did exactly what we asked of him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Hawkins, the team\u2019s top receiver as well as its placekicker, punter and pretty much jack of all trades?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy opinion of Jon Hawkins is that he is the best athlete to go through Middletown since I\u2019ve been here,\u201d said Foltmer, in his 40th<\/sup> and final season as the Mustangs\u2019 head coach. \u201cHe can run, he can pass, his kickoffs were deep and he had two punts of more than 50 yards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawkins ran for the Mustangs\u2019 first score on a 22-yard run in the first quarter that evened things up at 7-7, and he passed for the team\u2019s final touchdown, an 8-yard pass to tight end Jacob Pullman in the fourth quarter to cut Kelseyville\u2019s lead to 24-21. He also kicked all three of the Mustangs\u2019 extra points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he was handing out kudos, Foltmer also made it a point to praise junior running back Trenton Griffith, who had the touchdown of the night, a 50-yard run on what Foltmer called the \u201cold hidden ball trick,\u201d that coming early in the third quarter to give the Mustangs their one and only lead of the night at 14-10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown was facing a third-and-long play when Hawkins took the snap, dropped back as if to pass, and positioned it behind Griffith\u2019s back. As Griffith appeared to be pass blocking on the play, the Kelseyville defense set out in pursuit of Hawkins, who faked having the football.  Griffith released and went flying down the sideline, ball in hand, with not a defender in sight, the play covering 50 yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat play doesn\u2019t work unless the defensive end runs by him (Griffith), and he did,\u201d Foltmer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat play was executed beautifully,\u201d Foltmer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lead didn\u2019t last very long as the Knights pounded it down the field for a touchdown later in the quarter, moving ahead 17-14 on a Watkins 10-yard with 4:39 remaining in the quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKelseyville owned us inside the tackles,\u201d Foltmer said of a Knights offensive line consisting of Milez Gambria, Alexis Martinez, Landon Johnson, Adam Astrup, Elijah Watkins and tight end Jayden Teabo that took it to the Mustangs all night long. \u201cThey ran right at the heart of defense and we couldn\u2019t stop them. Our best kids couldn\u2019t stop them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defensive line for the Knights was no less impressive and came up with what Foltmer called the \u201ckey play\u201d of the game, with the Mustangs poised to score from the Kelseyville 2-yard line in the second quarter. That\u2019s when Teabo burst through a gap in the Middletown offensive line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe basically took handoff from the quarterback (strip and fumble recovery),\u201d Foltmer said. \u201cWe would have scored there to take the lead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, it was the Knights who would go on to snap the 7-7 tie on a 19-yard field goal by Jose Juarez to make it 10-7, the halftime score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watkins\u2019 4-yard run in the fourth quarter gave Kelseyville its biggest lead, 24-14, as Juarez tacked on the extra-point kick. Like his Middletown counterpart Hawkins, Juarez was 3-for-3 on his PATs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown\u2019s running game produced 260 yards. Griffth led the way with 121 yards on 13 carries while Hawkins finished with 89 yards and Tyler Galamay 50 yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawkins attempted all 10 of Middletown\u2019s passes, completing five for 58 yards. Barrick went 8-for-11 for 110 yards for the Knights, with DeJohn catching six of those passes for 57 yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville finished the game without three of its key players, all of whom left for the sidelines at varying points of the second half \u2013 Watkins (ankle), center Johnson (bloody face) and wide receiver Reme Strong (shoulder). With the Knights a bit shorthanded, quarterback Barrick saw his first action on defense of the season and was credited with one pass defensed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights\u2019 defensive unit also had four sacks \u2013 two of them by Astrup. Daniel Anderson Reyes ended up with four solo tackles, two of which led to losses, and nine assists while Astrup had two solo stops and five assists. Othe team leaders were Teabo with two solo and eight assisted tackles, a sack and his stripped fumble and fumble recovery; River Calhoun with 11 assists; DeJohn with two solo tackles, five assists and a sack; and Gambria, Bryce Keener and Adrian Garcia, each with one solo tackle and six assists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Middletown\u2019s defense, Hayden Xavier logged five solo stops and three assists while teammate Jacob Pullman had four solo stops and three assists. Hunter Karp recovered a fumble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville is scheduled to play next Friday in Cloverdale, but whether the Eagles will have enough players to field a team remains to be seen. They forfeited to Fort Bragg on Friday because of a lack of players. Middletown hits the road to play Clear Lake (0-1, 0-3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Game notes: <\/strong>Kelseyville has won its last three games at Middletown \u2026 There was plenty of mutual respect to go around on both sidelines Friday night. According to Kelseyville assistant coach Logan Barrick, Middletown\u2019s Hawkins is definitely a player any team would take without thinking twice. \u201cI\u2019m someone who wouldn\u2019t trade my guys for anybody, and my guys were awesome tonight, but Jon Hawkins is the second kid I\u2019ve coached against that I wished I had (the other is former Clear Lake standout Cody Hayes). He\u2019s a freak. And he works. Tons of props for him.\u201d \u2026 Middletown will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak against Clear Lake next Friday at Don Owens Stadium. Clear Lake won 34-27 last season, 28-0 in 2022 and 26-18 in 2021 \u2026 Kelseyville beat Cloverdale 47-14 a year ago in Kelseyville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kelseyville emerges with hard-fought 24-21 league victory at M’town Lake County Sorts on Facebook MIDDLETOWN >> Clear Lake vs. Kelseyville is the biggest rivalry in Lake County, but Middletown vs. Kelseyville has been the best for the last decade. Such was the case again Friday night when a Middletown team playing its first game since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,17,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903"}],"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=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":904,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions\/904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}