LOWER LAKE — They didn”t come away with a win but the Lower Lake Trojans did manage to function at times on offense while falling 35-7 to John Swett High School of Crockett in a non-league varsity football game that was the season opener for both teams on Friday night at Gordon Sadler Field in Lower Lake.
While there weren”t many highlights for the Trojans (0-1), there were a few that are noteworthy, topped by wide receiver Kevin Freeman”s one-handed touchdown catch with 10 seconds left in the first half that provided Lower Lake with its only score.
Trailing 28-0 at the time, Lower Lake had a pretty good little drive going, moving from its own 38 to the John Swett 19. On a second-and-nine play from the 19, Sanders lofted the ball in the direction of Freeman down the Lower Lake sideline and the 6-foot-4, 190-pound junior caught it on his left foreman and cradled the ball to his body just beyond the goal-line pylon.
“Freeman made some good catches,” Lower Lake coach Joe Marinello said.
Another junior, fullback Mike Deakins, rushed for 74 of the Trojans” 90 yards on the ground.
“Deakins ran the ball well,” Marinello said.
Lower Lake”s coach also cited the play of linebacker Richard Richardson, another junior, as being worthy of some praise.
“He forced a fumble and made some good tackles,” Marinello said.
But while Lower Lake”s offense occasionally moved the ball, the Trojans” defense couldn”t slow down John Swett”s speedy wingbacks, especially senior Santario Carson, whose cutbacks and breakaway speed helped him to a 190-yard night, including a 27-yard touchdown run that staked the Indians to an early 7-0 lead. Santario had two other long runs wiped out by holding penalties, including a 68-yard score early in the second quarter.
The Indians added 21 points in the second quarter, the first 14 coming in a 82-second span. After Mark Anderson-Williams scored on a 4-yard run with 8:33 left in the quarter to give John Swett a 13-0 lead, the Trojans were on the move and appeared to have picked up a first down on a Deakins run when an Indians defender came flying in and knocked the ball loose. It bounced straight up in the air and into the arms of linebacker Josh Vallis, who caught the ball in stride and raced 45 yards into the end zone for the touchdown. Carson scored on the conversion run to make it 21-0.
The Indians scored the next time they touched the ball and needed only three plays to do it. Quarterback Thomas Arguello”s 71-yard bomb to Carson, who slipped behind three Lower Lake defenders, gave John Swett a commanding 28-0 lead.
While the Trojans were able to gain some momentum when Freeman scored in the final seconds of the first half, it didn”t last. John Swett received the second-half kickoff and had the ball in the end zone six plays later, the final one a 5-yard pass from Arguello to Anderson-Williams.
“It”s hard to say we”re improving when you lose 35-7, but we are improving,” Marinello said. “We”re still doing a lot of the little things wrong and we have no margin for error.”
One of the night”s more intriguing plays occurred in the fourth quarter when Anderson-Williams, after picking up a teammate”s fumble, kept giving ground as he looked for an opening in the Lower Lake defense. He ended up absorbing a 34-yard loss back to the Lower Lake 48, leaving the Indians with an undesirable fourth-and-42 play.
