LOWER LAKE — Jameson Holder”s two-point conversion pass to Noel McCormack proved to be the difference as the Clear Lake Cardinals held on to beat the Lower Lake Trojans 8-6 in a North Central League I interlock varsity football game at Gordon Sadler Field.
The win keeps Clear Lake undefeated on the season at 5-0-1. Lower Lake is 3-3.
Holder scored on a 55-yard run in the first quarter for Clear Lake”s only touchdown. Lower Lake cut the deficit to 8-6 on a Mike Deakins 53-yard run in the third quarter, but Jake Sanders” conversion run failed.
Both teams drove deep inside the other”s territory in the fourth quarter. Clear Lake held the Trojans on downs and Lower Lake recovered a fumble to stop the Cardinals. With time running out, Clear Lake linebacker Chaz Ballew picked off a pass by Sanders to seal the Cardinals” victory.
“I thought we played pretty well,” Lower Lake coach Stan Weiper said. “They were pretty physical, so we couldn”t run our normal running game.”
“My kids didn”t play a very good game,” Clear Lake coach Milo Meyer said. “Their kids wanted it a lot more than our kids.”
Meyer did praise his defense, which limited Lower Lake to 122 yards on the ground. Deakins had 69 yards on five carries.
Holder”s 105 yards on 15 carries powered Clear Lake, which rolled up 307 rushing yards. McCormack finished with 86 yards on nine carries.
The two teams combined for only six passes, completing just one apiece.
“We did enough to win, but it was ugly like Fort Bragg (a 6-6 tie last week),” Meyer said. “That”s two uglies in a row.”
“We needed to play them close and we did,” Weiper said. “We had a couple of opportunities late. I wasn”t displeased with our effort at all.”
