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MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Mustangs continued to roll through their football season, winning the first round of the North Coast Section (NCS) Division IV Tournament – their 10th victory in a row – and handing the St. Helena Saints a season-ending 56-0 trouncing Friday night in Middletown.
The shutout victory – the Mustangs' fourth in a row and their seventh in the last 10 games – was capped by a 66-yard David Pike run in the second quarter that gave him the all-time Lake County scoring record.
Middletown has outscored their opponents by a whopping 473-28 in their last 10 outings.
“We’ve had it fairly easy for the last nine weeks,” Mustangs Head Coach Bill Foltmer said after the game.
“We were overmatched,” a circumspect St. Helena Head Coach Brandon Farrell said about the Middletown squad. “They’re an awesome football team, and they’re well-coached, and they do everything right.”
Things started going right for the Mustangs early, when Pike reversed direction on Middletown’s opening possession of the game and swept 82 yards downfield for a touchdown and a 7-0 Mustang lead.
Before the first half ended, Pike had scored three more touchdowns – on carries of 37 yards, four yards and the 66-yard dash that landed him in the Lake County record books.
“Well, obviously, Pike had a great game,” Foltmer said about the prolific running back. “And if Pike has a good game, that means your line is playing well. Defensively, I thought that we played solid across the board.”
Adding to the first half scoring total of 49 points for the Mustangs were scores from Jacob Davis (from 16 yards out), a 56-yard completion from quarterback Kyle Brown to John-Wesley Davis and an Andres Fernandez interception – initially deflected by Davis – run back 16-yards for a Middletown touchdown.
After Danny Cardenas went a perfect 7-for-7 in extra point attempts, the Mustangs took a commanding 49-0 lead going into halftime, and played their second string offense for the remainder of the game.
“They’re just a better football team,” Farrell said about Middletown. “There’s not much else you can say.”
Junior running back Nolan Tkachenko had the only touchdown of the second half – a 28-yard run – and backup kicker Tyler Drew made the point after to bring the final score of the night to 56-0.
“They did everything that we thought they were going to do,” Farrell said about the Mustangs. “They just did it really well.”
Middletown finished the night with 449 yard total offense, led by Pike’s 133 yards in seven carries for three touchdowns, and Jacob Davis’s 110 yards in seven carries, with one touchdown.
“I think this might be the breakout game for Jake Davis,” Foltmer said about his running back. “He was much more physical and much more noticeable out there than the last couple of games. Hey, he’s playing on all cylinders along with Pike, so we’re where we need to be for the next phase.”
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The Mustangs play the second round of the NCS tournament starting at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 27, when they’ll face off against the El Molino Lions (seeded fifth in the tournament), who are 7-4 following their first round win Saturday night over the Kelseyville Knights (now 7-4 and seeded 12th in the tournament).
“Getting by the second round has been a little bit tough for me,” Foltmer said, noting his team has lost in the second round of the NCS tournaments the last two seasons.
He added, “But you do what you can do, you prepare like you’ve been preparing all year long, and you hope that, later in a game, because they’re seniors, they’re going to step up.”
“I’m going to expect a little bit more out of them,” Foltmer said.
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