LAKEPORT — Clear Lake”s offense scored touchdowns on consecutive plays — although they were separated by more than four minutes — and the Cardinals rallied past the Lower Lake Trojans 34-26 in a North Central League I varsity football game not lacking for excitement Friday night in Lakeport.
After Lower Lake moved ahead 26-20 on a Jerald Drummond 1-yard run with 11:24 left in the game, Clear Lake drove 55 yards on its next possession, the final 38 on a fourth-and-10 touchdown pass from Kenny Henninger to Adrian Perez, who Henninger hit in stride with 9:43 remaining.
Omar Vazquez converted the all-important extra-point kick to snap the 26-all tie.
Lower Lake then mounted a long drive while moving from its own 20 to the Clear Lake 34, where the Trojans fumbled and Clear Lake”s Shawn Larsen recovered with 5:38 left.
Henninger handed off to Vince Rave on first down and Rave burst up the middle, covering the 66 yards to the end zone. Combined with another Vazquez PAT, the Cardinals had a 34-26 lead with 5:21 to go.
Lower Lake moved the ball into Clear Lake territory before losing possession on downs. The Cardinals took over at their own 47 and picked up one first down before running out the clock.
“It”s one of those games you”re just glad you had more points than they did at the end of the game,” Clear Lake coach Milo Meyer said.
While the Cardinals rolled up 319 yards of total offense — 271 on the ground and 186 of those by Rave — Clear Lake lost four fumbles during the game and the Trojans turned all of them into scores, including a 43-yard return for a touchdown by Josh Gamble midway through the second quarter.
“Four fumbles is way too many to lose,” Meyer said. “I don”t know if they were stripping us or what, but we usually do a better job than that.”
Ultimately though the Cardinals found a way to win despite twice trailing Lower Lake by six points — 20-14 in the second quarter and then 26-20 in the fourth.
“We”re 3-1 in league, we”re third place in the NCL I and that”s the bottom line,” Meyer said as the Cardinals improved to 3-4 overall.
Lower Lake, still winless in league (0-4) and on the season (0-7), made the Cardinals work for it.
“We played our butts off,” Lower Lake coach Mike Huffman said. “That”s all I can ask of the kids. We”re going to get that first win, we have three more chances and I promise you we”ll get it.”
Rave touchdown runs of 29 and 5 yards capped Clear Lake”s first two possessions against Lower Lake as the Cardinals built a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and appeared as though they were going to run away and hide from the Trojans.
But a lost fumble by Clear Lake resulted in Lower Lake”s first score, an 11-yard pass from quarterback Richard Tucker to tight end Jeff Davis that made it 14-6.
Gamble”s long fumble return and the ensuing two-point conversion run knotted the score at 14 early in the second quarter.
Lower Lake pushed ahead 20-14 — again after recovering a fumble at the Lower Lake 31 — with an abbreviated three-play drive that ended with Tucker completing a 55-yard bomb to Alphonsos Daniels, who caught up with a pass that appeared to be overthrown.
Clear Lake pulled even right before halftime, moving 59 yards in 11 plays, the final one a Jake Chapin 1-yard run on third-and-goal.
Vazquez was unavailable to attempt the extra-point kick and the Cardinals” two-point conversion run came up short.
Tucker went 11-for-21 for 190 yards and two TDs for Lower Lake. Drummond led the Trojans on the ground with 96 yards and 21 carries.
