UPPER LAKE — It didn”t matter that the Kelseyville Knights were minus their starting quarterback on Saturday against the Upper Lake Cougars. Michael Davis did just fine while replacing the injured Chris Aguon.
Heck, the Knights weren”t even especially sharp in the early going of their only scheduled Saturday game of the regular season. Still, they were sharp enough.
More to the point at hand, Kelseyville rolled up more than 400 yards of total offense, scored touchdowns on six straight possessions, and didn”t commit a single turnover while reeling off its fourth straight win, 39-0, over the streaking-in-the-other-direction Cougars at Upper Lake High School.
The North Central League I interlock varsity football game was the final tune-up for both teams as they head into their league schedules. Kelseyville (4-1) hosts Willits (4-1) on Friday in NCL I North action, while Upper Lake (1-4), a loser of four straight, will try to snap that streak Saturday in Petaluma against St. Vincent (1-4) in NCL I South action.
“We have a tough road ahead of us in the North,” Kelseyville coach Rob Ishihara said of the upcoming league race. “And we”re going to have to play better than we did today against Willits.”
Of the five North teams, Fort Bragg is 5-0 while Kelseyville, Willits, Lower Lake and Middletown are all 4-1. Lower Lake hosts Fort Bragg in the other North opener on Friday (Middletown plays its final interlock game at St. Helena).
Ishihara wasn”t exactly thrilled with his team”s lethargic play in the first quarter against Upper Lake, though the Knights certainly picked up the pace in the second and third quarters before the reserves went to work in the fourth.
“We were definitely slow coming out of the blocks,” Ishihara said. “We”re not used to playing on Saturdays, in the heat. We”d much rather play on Fridays.”
The day started well enough for the Cougars, but visions of a homecoming upset proved to be a mirage.
Upper Lake held Kelseyville without a first down and forced a punt to open the game. The Cougars then moved down to the Kelseyville 14-yard-line, where they had a first-and-10. But the mini-drive began to unravel at that point when Mike Allen sacked Upper Lake quarterback Bruce Tucker for a seven-yard loss. Jason Richard, about the only bright spot for the Cougar offense with 165 yards rushing on the day, came back with a 14-yard run to the Kelseyville 7. Facing a third-and-three from there, Tucker had to fall on a fumbled snap for a one-yard loss and the Cougars elected to try a 24-yard field goal that was no good.
The remainder of the game was a series of Kelseyville marches to the end zone. After taking over following the missed field goal, the Knights covered the 80 yards in 11 plays, Davis hooking up with Dustin Thaxton on a 20-yard pass to make it 6-0. The key play in the series was a 14-yard gain by running back Geno Poloni on a second-and-13 from the Kelseyville 49.
The Cougars would see plenty of Mr. Poloni the remainder of the game.
Davis” 16-yard punt return to the Upper Lake 40 set up the Knights” next score, a four-play drive capped by Poloni”s 18-yard run, the first of his four rushing TDs.
Upper Lake advanced as far as the Kelseyville 26 on its next possession before losing the ball on downs. The Knights then went 69 yards in nine plays to go up 20-0 on a 5-yard Allen run and the conversion pass from Davis to Michael Townley.
The Knights probably would have been satisfied with a 20-point lead going into halftime but they went on to add six more. As the Cougars went three-and-out on their next possession, Kelseyville used its final timeout to stop the clock with 1:28 left in the quarter.
Starting at their own 28 following a punt, the Knights covered 72 yards in only three plays and 50.8 seconds, aided by a personal foul on the Cougars. Poloni”s second 13-yard run in the mini-drive made it 26-0 with 37.2 seconds remaining and pretty much sealed Upper Lake”s fate, even though an entire half of football remained.
Upper Lake fumbles set up Kelseyville”s final two scores, both coming in the third quarter. Poloni scored on runs of 24 and 10 yards, giving him 134 yards overall.
The multi-talented Davis rushed for 24 yards, completed two of three passes for 51 yards, and caught a 10-yard pass from Thaxton late in the game.
“He did a great job today,” Ishihara said of his backup quarterback. “I thought he executed the offense pretty well.”
Nick Rodrigues added 90 yards on 12 carries as the Knights rushed for 349 yards overall.
“Geno and Nick both had good games,” Ishihara added.
The lopsided nature of the contest allowed Ishihara to freely substitute throughout the fourth quarter
“We got everybody into the game and that”s always nice,” he said.
Kelseyville”s defense forced four turnovers in all and Devin Baker recovered two fumbles. Davis also had an interception while the Knights” pass rush logged four more sacks.
Upper Lake completed just one of nine passes for four yards and the Cougars didn”t convert a single third down all game (0-for-9).
Ninety-three of Richards” team-leading 165 yards came in the fourth quarter, long after the game had been decided.
