ST. HELENA — In the pecking order that is the North Central League I varsity football race, the St. Helena Saints are right on top after dishing out a 41-7 beating to the Clear Lake Cardinals on Friday night in St. Helena.
The Saints improved to 8-0 overall, including 5-0 in the NCL I standings to keep pace with the 5-0 Willits Wolverines, 24-0 winners over Fort Bragg on Friday. Those two teams meet on the final day of the regular season at Willits.
“They and Willits are definitely the upper echelon in the league,” Clear Lake coach Milo Meyer said.
While St. Helena”s defense bottled up Clear Lake”s offense in the opening quarters, the Saints built a 27-0 first-half lead on the strength of two Charles Bertoli touchdown runs, quarterback Richard Hoppe”s 2-yard keeper that opened the scoring in the first quarter, and an 11-yard Hoppe TD pass to Peter Delbondio.
St. Helena added to its lead in the second half on a third Bertoli touchdown run and a 25-yard pass from backup quarterback Brian Begerow to Delbondio. Clear Lake finally broke through in the fourth quarter on a Vince Rave 26-yard run.
“They run their offense, they run their defense, they”re just a very disciplined team and a very good team,” Meyer said of the Saints. “That should be one heck of a game when they play Willits.”
Rave finished with 60 yards on 16 carries.
Clear Lake, now 3-2 in the NCL I standings and 3-5 overall, returns home next Friday to play Kelseyville (0-5, 0-8) in the second annual Bass Bowl at Don Owens Stadium. Kelseyville won last year”s inaugural event, also held at Lakeport, and the Cardinals will be looking to even the score against the winless Knights.
