Mustangs end with 42-21 loss

Ketchum returns with two TDs against Salesian

RICHMOND >> Bill Foltmer won’t wake up in the middle of the night regretting the one play the Mustangs didn’t pull off against the No. 1-seeded Salesian Pride on Saturday in the semifinal round of the North Coast Section Division 6 football playoffs at Salesian High School in Richmond.

If there’s a saving grace to losing 42-21, that would be it. Middletown’s season-ending loss didn’t turn on one, two, three or even four plays.

“We were beaten by a better team,” Foltmer said. “The bottom line is we got manhandled. We couldn’t do anything between the tackles until late in the game.”

Middletown (7-5) was looking at a near mirror image of its own offense in the plays Salesian ran so effectively against the Mustangs’ defense, according to Foltmer.

“They run trap, lead, toss, trey … the same offense we ran against them,” Foltmer said. “They had 374 yards rushing, we got nothing.”

The lead, as basic a football play as there is, proved particularly effect against the Middletown defense, according to Foltmer. The Pride also converted a pair of fourth downs with timely quarterback draws.

The two teams exchanged touchdowns in the first quarter. Salesian (8-2) scored first on a 10-yard run by Noah Del Sol and Middletown answered right back as Cole Ketchum, seeing his first action since breaking his collar bone in a late-September league win over Lower Lake, returned the ensuing kickoff 79 yards for a touchdown. Brody Breeden’s extra-point kick tied things up at 7-7.

That would prove to be a high point for the Mustangs as the Pride would score 35 unanswered points before the Mustangs would find the end zone again late in the

third quarter on a Brandon Costlow 43-yard run.

Devin Quinn scored on a 64-yard run to put Salesian in front to stay 13-7 early in the second quarter. He scored again on a 9-yard run later in the quarter to make it 21-7 as the Pride added the two-point conversion, and a 2-yard run by Nick Fontanilla pushed Salsian’s lead to 27-7 by halftime.

Two Middletown turnovers — an interception and a fumbled kickoff return — left Salesian with short fields on two of their second-quarter touchdowns,

according to Foltmer.

The Pride put the game away two more touchdowns in the third quarter. After Quinn scored his third TD of the game on a 4-yard run, Del Sol’s 46yard run made it 42-7.

Costlow’s long touchdown run late in the third quarter and a Luke Hoogendoorn 39-yard pass to Ketchum in the fourth quarter cut Salesian’s lead to 42-21.

“Credit to Salesian,” Foltmer said. “They’re bigger, stronger and faster than us. They’re very comparable to St. Helena.”

Salesian hosts No. 3 Justin-Siena of Napa in the Division 6 championship game next Saturday 1 p.m.

at Salesian High School in Richmond. Justin-Siena advanced to the finals after No. 2 seed Arcata forfeited its semifinal game because of a COVID-19 quarantine.

“It’s a tough way to end a season, but we did have some players step up and do well,” he said of Ketchum and sophomores Costlow and Trever Smith. “It was nice to see Cole back on the field after being out for so long. He had some big plays for us.”

As did Costlow, who was Middletown’s leading rusher against Salesian with 44 yards on only five carries, including the touchdown.

Smith took over at middle linebacker in the second half and played well

until a Salesian player landed squarely on top of him late in the game, resulting in a broken ankle, according to Foltmer.

Looking back on a 2021 season that produced another winning overall record for the Mustangs as well as a second-place finish in the North Central League I standings, Foltmer said Middletown overcame a fair share of adversity to reach the semifinal round of the playoffs.

“It was a good group to work with, a group I had the pleasure of coaching,” Foltmer said.

When the Mustangs return in 2022, Foltmer will enter his 38th season at Middletown just four wins shy of 300 for his career.