SAN PABLO — Lower Lake High School surrendered 26 first-half points and fell 26-14 to the John Swett Indians in a non-league varsity football game on Friday night at Contra Costa College in San Pablo.
It was the season opener for the Trojans (0-1) and the debut of new coach Stan Weiper, who said his senior-dominated squad never let down and played a strong second half against a team that routed Lower Lake 35-0 a year ago in Lower Lake.
“We came out after halftime determined to win the second half and that”s what we did,” Weiper said. “We played pretty well in the second half.”
The Trojans scored all of their points in the fourth quarter. Their first touchdown of 2007 came on a 19-yard run by Jake Sanders, with quarterback A.J. Harris running in the conversion.
Later in the quarter, it was Harris connecting with wide receiver Michael Dell on an 81-yard touchdown pass.
“He threw a beautiful ball to Bell,” Weiper said. “It was a straight go pattern and he caught it in stride.”
All four of John Swett”s touchdowns came on runs. The Indians led 20-0 at halftime and 26-0 after three quarters.
“We won”t see a better ground game the rest of the season,” Weiper said. “They have one back who is pretty good and they manhandled us a little bit up front.”
Harris completed two of 11 passes for 107 yards. He also ran for 18 yards and would have had more but a touchdown run in the second half was wiped out by a clipping penalty.
Mike Deakins led the Trojans with 83 rushing yards on 11 carries. Sanders finished with 45 yards.
