Prep football: Middletown eyeing repeat title

Perennial North Coast Section football contender Middletown - the only local team to win a section title last year - will have its hands full with No. 2 seed St. Bernard’s on Saturday in Eureka.

As the third seed, Middletown dispatched No. 6 Pinole Valley, 40-6, last week in the North Coast Section Division 6 quarterfinal round.

“I thought it was going to be a tougher game,” Mustangs coach Bill Foltmer said. “They’d been scoring 30-plus a game and we basically shut them out.”

The 8-2 Mustangs led 33-0 by halftime and kept the Spartans scoreless ?until three minutes to go in the fourth quarter.

Saturday’s contest against St. Bernard’s likely won’t be quite so comfortable. But the Mustangs have been through this before - they were the NCS Division 5 champs last year and have advanced at least to the quarterfinals every year since 2013.

In this year’s semifinal matchup, the 8-3 Crusaders ?feature senior quarterback Will Omey, a true dual threat. He has thrown 33 touchdown passes in 11 games this season, completing 63% of his attempts and averaging 245 yards a game in the air.

On the ground, Omey leads the Crusaders’ running game as well. He has two 100-plus-yard games and has rushed for 10 touchdowns.

In all, he has been a part of 43 of his team’s 53 touchdowns.

The Mustangs’ defense will be key in limiting Omey and hampering his top receivers, Lane Thrap (1,206 yards, 22 TDs) and Justin Hagler (671 yards, 4 TDs.)

“They will present us some problems,” Foltmer said. “They spread you out. And then they try to attack you where they might have the advantage.”

But then again, he said, the Crusaders will have to stop Middletown, which presents a strong running game.

“We move the ball well,” he said.

The Mustangs have scored 321 points this year and held opponents to just 140.

“The last few games, our run game has been running on all cylinders. And we’re healthy, which is big this time of year,” Foltmer said. “It’s going to be one of those battles.”

The Mustangs will rely heavily on four key seniors who have been starters for the past three years.

Tailback Nico Barrio is “arguably one of the best running backs I’ve ever coached,” Foltmer said. “He’s fast, he’s powerful. And he’s got really good hands. He’s very versatile.”

Dillon Tingle is a power back whose skills complement Barrio’s.

Tingle, as a middle linebacker, just broke the school’s career tackle record, Foltmer said, and Barrio is close to Middletown’s career rushing record.

Jarey Pyzer and James Hernandez are defensive stalwarts as well.

The Mustangs don’t throw the ball often, but when they do, quarterback Isaac Perez is efficient, Foltmer said.

A key to the Mustangs’ ?success has been their discipline and ball protection, committing few penalties and turning the ball over infrequently.

“When you’re a running team, three yards and a cloud of dust, a 10-yard penalty is hard to recover from,” Foltmer said. “Same with turnovers. In a close game, those things can make a difference.”

The Mustangs travel to Eureka to face St. Bernard’s at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The winner advances to the D6 title game against the winner of No. 1 Kennedy and No. 4 Justin-Siena, which play Friday night.

Other small-school NCS ?playoff games this week:

No. 3 Willits travels to No. 2 Ferndale for a 1 p.m. Saturday Division 7 game. The winner of that game plays the winner of No. 1 Salesian vs. No. 4 St. Helena in the D7 title game next week.

In 8-person football, No. 5 Calistoga faces top-seeded Cornerstone Christian Friday night in a semifinal. The winner faces either No. 2 Branson or No. 3 South Fork on Nov. 29 in the championship.

You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 707-521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.