ST. HELENA — He was in the right place at the right time.
Lower Lake running back Jake Sanders recovered teammate Steven Arson”s fumble in the end zone with nine seconds remaining and the Lower Lake Trojans, ahead 12-0 after the first quarter, escaped St. Helena with a dramatic 18-14 win over the Saints on Friday night in North Central League I interlock varsity football action.
“Oh my gosh was I relieved,” Lower Lake coach Stan Weiper said of his first win as head coach of the Trojans. “We played so well early on, I didn”t want to lose the thing.”
Lower Lake scored on consecutive possessions in the first quarter for a 12-0 advantage and that was all the scoring until the fourth quarter.
St. Helena (0-2) moved ahead 14-12 with six minutes left and the Trojans (1-1) lost their third fumble of the night with time running out. But the Saints returned the favor as Lower Lake”s Chris Sisco recovered his second fumble of the game at the St. Helena 25 with a little over a minute to play.
The Trojans ran three plays, including a key 13-yard pass from quarterback A.J. Harris to wide receiver Kevin Freeman to get the ball to the St. Helena 2. Harris” keeper netted just a yard and Lower Lake used its final timeout.
On the game-winning play that followed Arson lost the handle on the ball at about the 2-yard line, it squirted into the end zone and Sanders pounced on it for the touchdown, his second of the night.
Lower Lake moved ahead 6-0 on a 28-yard run by Sanders (23 carries for 119 yards) and went up 12-0 on a 5-yard pass from Harris to Ryan Walker.
Angel Macias intercepted two passes for the Trojans.
