UPPER LAKE — It”s a safe bet the Clear Lake Cardinals and Upper Lake Cougars won”t be exchanging Christmas cards this coming holiday season.
In a game that was as nasty as it was lopsided, Clear Lake High School set the tone with a big defensive play and then cruised to a 36-6 victory over Upper Lake in the North Central League I South and regular-season finale for both of these varsity football teams on Saturday afternoon in Upper Lake.
Both schools brought 2-1 league and 5-4 overall records into the game. At stake was sole possession of second place in the NCL I South standings and a winning overall record — and each team wanted that winning record, if for different reasons. Upper Lake hasn”t had one since 1999 and Clear Lake, 1-3 after its first four games this season, wanted to put an exclamation point on a strong finish by winning its fifth in six games.
So why all the yellow flags?
The two teams combined for nearly 200 yards in penalties, but the disturbing part was that a half-dozen of the flags thrown were for late hits and unsportsmanlike conduct. Clearly and unmistakably these two teams demonstrated for four entire quarters that they do not like each other.
“We got beat up pretty good by Upper Lake in the Lake County Scrimmage,” Clear Lake coach Glenn “Milo” Meyer said of the annual get-together of all five of Lake County”s varsity teams in early September. “They whooped on us pretty good and were doing a lot of talking. My kids remembered.”
“It was a very intense contest,” Upper Lake coach Craig Kinser said. “There was no backing down by either team the whole game. Neither team handled it very well.”
While plenty of ferocious hitting took place between the whistles, plenty also occurred afterward and there easily could have been a dozen or more flags called for personal fouls.
And it just got worse for the Cougars as the game progressed. It wasn”t until fullback Dylan Kettwig scored on a 1-yard run on a fourth-and-goal play with 2:26 left in the game that Upper Lake cracked the scoreboard. Until then, the Cougars” deepest penetration into Clear Lake territory had been a drive that stalled on downs at the Cardinal 15 late in the first quarter.
“We never felt pressured at all,” Meyer said of his team”s stellar defensive effort in defensive coordinator Steve Newnham”s last game for Clear Lake (he”s retiring from his coaching position but not his teaching position at the school). “If this is our last game, it was a good way to say goodbye to coach Newnham.”
It was in fact Newnham”s last game as the Cardinals came up short in their bid to secure an at-large berth for the North Coast Section Class A playoffs on Sunday.
Clear Lake”s defense forced two turnovers, limited the Cougars to 242 yards, and came up with a huge sack that set the tone for the game.
Just three plays into the contest, Upper Lake quarterback Billy Binns dropped back for a pass with the Cougars facing a third-and-12 from their own 7-yard line and was sacked in the end zone for a safety by defensive end Michael Kroppmann.
In addition to going up 2-0 on the safety, Clear Lake got the ball right back on the ensuing free kick and covered the 47 yards to the end in just three plays, the final one a 38-yard touchdown run by Freddy Olloqui. With the Upper Lake defense bunched up tight and looking for fullback Collin Coddington to get the ball on a third-and-one play, Clear Lake quarterback Nate Velez faked a handoff to Coddington into the line and instead gave the ball to Olloqui, who broke free down the Clear Lake sideline.
The Cardinals made it 15-0 late in the second quarter, again striking quickly as they covered 76 yards on only four plays, the final 46 on a Velez pass to tight end Rick Menesini, who worked his way behind a trio of Upper Lake defenders.
While there was plenty of talk on the Upper Lake sideline about coming back early in the second half, that hope dissipated in the time it took Clear Lake, after receiving the second-half kickoff, to move 80 yards in nine running plays. Velez”s 41-yard touchdown run proved to be a backbreaker as he faked another handoff inside on a fourth-and-one play and then rolled outside toward the Clear Lake sideline. He deftly maneuvered his way through traffic and then was off to the races.
And that was pretty much the game as Mike Zimmerman booted the extra-point kick to make it 22-0.
While the yellow flags kept raining down, the Cardinals bumped their cushion to 29-0 with a bit of trickery early in the fourth quarter as Coddington took the handoff from Velez but instead of running with the ball threw a 45-yard touchdown to wide receiver Krop-pmann, who leaped over an Upper Lake player to come down with the football.
Velez scored on a 1-yard run to cap a 73-yard Clear Lake drive midway through the fourth quarter to make it 36-0.
The Cardinals had a banner day on offense with 307 rushing yards and 433 yards overall. Olloqui gained 102 on 14 carries and Velez ran for another 82 yards and passed for 81.
“I heard they didn”t think our offense was that good, but I guess we did OK,” Meyer said as offensive coordinator Rik Hayes nodded in approval. “Having a healthy Nate and Freddy is a big factor.”
Both Velez and Olloqui were injured early in the season. While Velez was able to play with his injury, he wasn”t 100 percent. But in his last four games, a healthy Velez has been nothing short of fantastic for the Cardinals with nine rushing scores and four TDs passing.
“He goes all out all the time,” Meyer said.
While the Cougars had a rough day, Kinser said his 2006 squad still played some good ball.
“It was a good group of kids who worked hard and were a pleasure to coach,” Kinser said.
