PETALUMA — Trailing 27-26 early in the third quarter against St. Vincent on Saturday afternoon in Petaluma, the Upper Lake Cougars needed a big play. They not only got it, but they got it twice from the same player in a span of 109 seconds.
Travis Coleman”s 23-yard touchdown run gave the Cougars the lead for good and his 55-yard interception return for another TD proved to be the difference in a 46-40 victory over the Mustangs in a North Central League II varsity football shootout.
In a game that featured four lead changes, Upper Lake didn”t secure the win until Anthony Woodcock smothered a St. Vincent onside kick with 3:02 remaining. The Mustangs had just scored on a 27-yard pass from Ryan Sheppard to John DeGunto to make it a six-point game and Upper Lake rushed its hands team onto the field.
After Woodcock recovered the onside kick, the Cougars took over at the 50-yard line and had to convert a fourth-and-one play from the St. Vincent 41 with 1:30 remaining. Ward Beecher bounced over the right side for a 3-yard gain and Upper Lake ran out the remainder of the clock, closing out a trying day for the Cougars, who lost fullback/defensive end Joey Valdez to an injury late in the second quarter.
Valdez was playing defense when he went down in a heap while making the tackle on a running play late in the period. He remained on the field for almost 15 minutes as the St. Vincent team doctor attended to him followed by EMTs who were called to the scene. While initially motionless, Valdez soon began moving his arms and his legs. With his neck restrained in a brace, the EMTs placed Valdez on a backboard before transporting him to the hospital. He was released a short time later with what coach Alex Stabiner called “a serious stinger.”
Stabiner said he didn”t know how soon Valdez would return to the playing field.
“We”re just glad he”s OK. We won”t rush him back. We will give him all the time he needs,” Stabiner said.
Valdez”s injury was the scariest moment on a scary day for the Cougars, who beat the Mustangs despite being outgained 437-322.
But while the Upper Lake defense certainly had its hands full against a St. Vincent spread offense that successfully ran and passed the ball, it did force two key turnovers and mount one impressive goal-line stand. One of the turnovers came on Coleman”s interception return for a touchdown in the third quarter and the other was a fumble recovery by Beecher in the first quarter at the St. Vincent 10-yard line. Upper Lake scored four plays later on a Valdez 2-yard run on fourth-and-goal. Coleman”s run on the conversion gave the Cougars a 14-7 lead.
Upper Lake scored on its first possession of the game after Stoney Timmons motored 53 yards on the opening kickoff. Beecher gained 15 yards on the Cougars” first play from scrimmage and Bradley Brackett (16 carries for 173 yards) scored the first of his three touchdowns on the very next play, breaking a tackle just past the line of scrimmage and running 23 yards for the score to make it 6-0.
St. Vincent countered with an eight-play, 80-yard drive to go up 7-6 on a 20-yard pass from Sheppard to Bryan Loberg. Jamie Vaca tacked on the extra point.
The workhorse of the St. Vincent drive would become all too familiar to the Upper Lake defense by day”s end. Sophomore running back John Porchivina carried the ball four times for 34 yards. He would finish the game with 145 yards on 24 carries while also catching five passes for 119 yards.
After Beecher”s fumble recovery set up Brackett”s touchdown run, the Mustangs mounted a long drive that eventually ended on downs at the Upper Lake 5 even though St. Vincent had a first-and-goal from the 4. It was the stand of the game on a day when defense was in short supply.
However, Upper Lake couldn”t get the ball out of its own end of the field and ended up punting. Coleman, who boomed a 75-yard kick against Tomales the previous weekend, shanked one this time and as the ball hit the ground it bounced backward for a net gain of minus-one yard. St. Vincent took over at the Upper Lake 7 and scored two plays later on a Sheppard 1-yard keeper to make it 14-13. Upper Lake blocked the extra-point kick.
The Cougars” special teams struck again just a few seconds later. Following Timmons” lead on the opening kickoff, Beecher returned the ensuing kickoff 73 yards to the St. Vincent 16. Brackett scored two plays later on a 13-yard run to push Upper Lake”s lead to 20-13.
Travis Floyd”s interception of a Sheppard pass set up the Cougars” next score, this one on a 1-yard Beecher run to make it 26-13.
Upper Lake was on the move again with a little more than a minute to play in the first half when a Brackett fumble was scooped up by Porchivina and returned 55 yards down the St. Vincent sideline for a touchdown, pulling the Mustangs to within 26-20 by halftime.
After St. Vincent forged ahead 27-26 on Sheppard”s 21-yard keeper with 8:24 left in the third quarter, Coleman rallied the Cougars. Upper Lake was facing a fourth-and-seven from the St. Vincent 23 and as Coleman dropped back to pass the ball, he somehow eluded the grasp of a Mustang defender on what appeared to be a drive-ending sack. He alertly scrambled to his left and saw nothing between him and the end zone except open field as he raced in for the touchdown that put the Cougars ahead to stay. Brackett”s conversion run made it 34-27.
St. Vincent came right back with another promising drive that was about to cross midfield when Coleman stepped in front of a Sheppard pass near the St. Vincent sideline and rambled 55 yards for another touchdown to make it 40-27.
“I told Coleman to be patient, keep playing the game and if he did something good would happen,” Stabiner said. “They had completed a few passes against him, but he”s a good corner.”
As Sheppard”s pass was about to be caught by wide receiver Jordan Cox for a first down in Upper Lake territory, Coleman literally jumped the route, stepping in front of the ball at the very last second.
“It looked like he set up the guy (Cox),” Stabiner said.
But if fans on either side thought the game was over at the point, they were dead wrong.
St. Vincent marched 68 yards for a touchdown, scoring on Porchivina”s 1-yard run with 9:47 left in the game to make it 40-33 as the Cougars again blocked the extra-point kick.
Upper Lake answered in kind, moving 55 yards in nine running plays, the final one an 18-yard Brackett run to make it 46-33.
And right back came the Mustangs, who covered 66 yards on three completions, the final one to DeGunto for the touchdown.
One week after his team tied Tomales 8-8 in a defensive slugfest at Upper Lake, Stabiner said he wasn”t surprised to be in a shootout against St. Vincent.
“It happened two years ago at the JV level,” Stabiner said of a St. Vincent-Upper Lake game at the same location and featuring many of the same players who participated in Saturday”s points fest. “I think Ward had his best day ever that day. They would score and we would score. It mirrored today.”
While there were stars aplenty on offense, Stabiner said it was Upper Lake”s special teams that came up big, citing the long kickoff returns by Timmons and Beecher that led to touchdowns in the first half.
“Special teams were huge for us,” he said.
So were the injuries. After Valdez went out in the second quarter, his replacement, Broc Pasqual, left the field limping a short time later.
“We were down to our third-string fullback,” Stabiner said.
