POTTER VALLEY — The weather was red-hot and so were the Upper Lake Cougars in the first half against the Potter Valley Bearcats on Saturday afternoon at Potter Valley High School.
Jayce Meri ran for two touchdowns and quarterback James Eubanks hooked up with wide receiver Kyle Coleman on a 51-yard scoring play as the Cougars rolled past the Bearcats 27-0 in the non-league varsity football opener for both teams.
On a day when the mercury climbed into the triple-digit range and water sales were brisk at Potter Valley”s snack shack (the bottled water was gone by halftime), the Cougars (1-0) scored touchdowns on three of their five possessions in the first half and just missed on another occasion when they had two touchdown plays wiped out by penalties and eventually misfired on a 25-yard field goal.
“We did a great job in the first half … we had a great first half,” Upper Lake coach Airic Guerrero said. “We did everything we wanted to. Everything was popping and we probably could have passed a lot more.”
Eubanks, one of a handful of returning players from Upper Lake”s 5-5 squad in 2006, made his first varsity start at quarterback and his first pass — on the Cougars” third play from scrimmage — was a 51-yard touchdown strike to Coleman.
Ironically, Eubanks” second pass was an interception, but the senior went on to have a pretty good day, completing 5 of 9 passes for 110 yards.
“Potter Valley left the pass wide open, but we didn”t want to run up the score,” said Guerrero, who let his quarterback call his own plays in the second half. “He did a couple of nice things all on his own. I liked what I saw from him.”
The Cougars should have had a two-touchdown lead by the end of the first quarter, but a 40-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown by Meri was wiped out by an illegal block well away from the play. Upper Lake did retain possession of the ball and took over at the Potter Valley 16. Running back Antonio DiConza (11 carries for 72 yards) scored on the very next play, but again the touchdown was erased by a penalty. The drive eventually stalled at the 8-yard line, where kicker Luis Santana missed wide right on his field-goal try.
The Cougars had a 13-0 lead less than two minutes into the second quarter, the result of a sack by defensive lineman Randy Dickinson, who jarred the ball loose from Potter Valley”s quarterback. Linebacker Jeff Loverin scooped up the football and returned it 10 yards for a touchdown.
Each of Upper Lake”s final two possessions of the first half, both of which began deep in Potter Valley territory, resulted in short touchdown runs by Meri. On the first of those, the senior running back recovered his own fumble in the end zone.
Neither team could manage much in the way of offense in the second half as nearly the entire 24 minutes were spent between the opposing 30-yard lines. The Cougars turned the ball over four times — three times on lost fumbles — and never advanced past the Bearcats” 26-yard line.
Potter Valley (0-1) made it as far as the Upper Lake 27 on its final possession — its deepest penetration into Cougar territory all game.
The intense heat clearly took its toll on both teams as the game progressed.
“We ran out of gas in the second half,” Guerrero said. “We need to be in better shape if we”re going to hang in there against the better teams.”
And the Cougars will see a serious upgrade in competition each of the next four weeks when they meet North Central League I North schools in interlock action. First up for Upper Lake is Fort Bragg (1-0) on Saturday at Upper Lake. The Cougars celebrate their homecoming the following weekend (Sept. 22) at home against Lower Lake.
