FORT BRAGG — The Upper Lake Cougars had a banner night on offense but still came up short in a 29-21 loss to the Fort Bragg Timberwolves in North Central League I interlock varsity football action on Friday night in Fort Bragg.
Upper Lake (2-3) rushed for 301 yards and passed for another 116 yards, but four turnovers — all on interceptions — hurt the Cougars” chances against the undefeated Timberwolves (5-0).
“We drove the ball all game,” Upper Lake coach Craig Kinser said. “As usual we won the second half (15-13).”
Besides their own turnovers, one other big reason the Cougars dropped their third straight game was Fort Bragg running back Chris Dahl, who rushed for all four of the Timberwolves” touchdowns — on runs of 5 and 10 yards in the first quarter, 56 yards in the third quarter and 75 yards in the fourth quarter.
“We played pretty well on defense, but we gave up a couple of long runs,” Kinser said. “We missed two tackles on one of his (touchdown) runs.”
Fort Bragg led 13-0 after one quarter. Upper Lake”s Chris Anderson scored on a 6-yard run in the second quarter to make it 13-6, but the Timberwolves added a field goal later in the quarter to go up 16-6.
Dahl”s 56-yard scoring run pushed the Timberwolves” advantage to 23-6 in the third quarter. Upper Lake answered with a 3-yard TD run by Dylan Kettwig (25 carries for 130 yards) to close the gap to 23-13.
The two teams traded touchdowns in the fourth quarter. After Dahl scored from 75 yards out, Jayce Meri caught a 6-yard scoring pass from quarterback Billy Binns, who then hooked up with Kieron McCarthy on the conversion to make it 29-21.
Upper Lake recovered the ensuing onside kick as Jacob Widener pounced on the football, and the Cougars marched down to the Fort Bragg 15 with time running out. Binns” bid for a go-ahead touchdown pass into the end zone, where Widener was breaking across the middle, instead ended up in the arms of a Fort Bragg inside linebacker, who came out of nowhere to come up with the interception, according to Kinser.
“It was a great play,” Kinser said. “He wasn”t supposed to be there.”
Fort Bragg ran off the final 40 seconds to end the game.
