VALLEJO — It started out well enough, but the Clear Lake Cardinals, leading 14-7 midway through the first quarter, couldn”t maintain the momentum and ended up losing 65-22 to St. Patrick-St. Vincent in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division IV football playoffs on Friday night in Vallejo.
Clear Lake (6-5) went up 7-0 on a Kevin Burt 58-yard run and 14-7 on Aaron Adams” 13-yard interception return before things began to fall apart.
“We started out firing,” Clear Lake coach Schad Schweitzer said. “But when we got two (touchdowns) down, we started to see the ?B” team.”
St. Patrick-St. Vincent (8-3), the No. 6 seed, rallied to take a 27-14 lead by quarter”s end. The Bruins increased that margin to 39-14 by halftime.
Clear Lake suffered a devastating blow late in the second quarter when Burt sustained a knee injury while making a tackle, ending his night. He finished with 65 yards on three carries. Later in the game the Cardinals lost Tanner Mansell to a knee injury, according to Schweitzer.
“It was a hard-hitting game on both sides,” Schweitzer said.
Clear Lake closed to 39-22 in the third quarter on Adams” four-yard TD run, but St. Patrick-St. Vincent scored the game”s final 26 points.
“I don”t believe they”re a 65-point team,” Schweitzer said. “Once we got down by a few scores, it just seemed to snowball from there.”
St. Patrick-St. Vincent will play the winner of today”s first-round game between Salesian and Willits in the quarterfinal round next week.
Clear Lake, the No. 11 seed, earned a shot at postseason play when the NCS expanded the field from the old eight-team bracket of previous seasons.
“We earned the opportunity and tried to take advantage of it,” Schweitzer said.
No rain fell during the game although the grass was wet and slippery.
“The field was in pretty nice shape,” Schweitzer said.
Clear Lake didn”t help its cause with six turnovers. Quarterback Ryan Richardson also was sacked a number of times, according to Schweitzer.
“It was a bunch,” he said.
Richardson was 7-for-16 for 118 yards in final high school game.
Burt entered play needing 202 yards to become the school”s career rushing leader. He”ll have to settle for second place behind Ronnie Cruz, but Burt did set the Cardinals” single-season rushing record with 1,500 yards. He also led the team with 19 rushing TDs.
On completing his first season at the helm of the Cardinals, Schweitzer said, “I will take it (6-5 record). You always want to win a few more than you lose, but it was a successful first year and I”ll go with that and regroup for next season.”
