Week nine games
Friday
Middletown 29, Cloverdale 13
Clear Lake 7, Kelseyville 3
Willits 71, Lower Lake 26
Saturday
Upper Lake 20, St. Vincent 14
Statistical leaders
Rushing — Middletown”s Austin Benson rushed for 127 yards and a touchdown in a 29-13 win over Cloverdale. Upper Lake”s Ward Beecher had 121 yards and two TDs in a 20-14 victory over St. Vincent. Clear Lake”s Vince Rave had 96 yards in a 7-3 Bass Bowl II victory over Kelseyville, which was led by Geno Poloni”s 94 yards. Lower Lake”s Jerald Drummond gained 89 yards with two TDs in a 71-26 loss to Willits, and Upper Lake”s Bradley Brackett picked up 88 yards on 15 carries against St. Vincent.
Passing — Lower Lake”s Richard Tucker went 9-for-20 for 205 yards and two TDs against Willits. Middletown”s Ben Pike was 6-for-13 for 106 yards against Cloverdale.
Receiving — Lake County receiving leader Alphonsos Daniels of Lower Lake caught eight passes for 193 yards and a TD. Middletown”s Nick Dellia had three catches for 63 yards.
Highlights
Special teams — Kelseyville”s Diego Barajas booted a 27-yard field goal for the Knights” only points in a 7-3 loss to Clear Lake. Teammate Zac Cocco blocked a field goal by Clear Lake”s Omar Vazquez. Upper Lake”s Bradley Brackett had a 56-yard kickoff return against St. Vincent.
Defense — Upper Lake”s defense overcame six turnovers by the offense to hold St. Vincent to just 14 points. Middletown”s Nick Hoefer had a 34-yard interception return for a touchdown against Cloverdale. Clear Lake”s Andre Buendia intercepted a John Mark Reagan pass to seal the Cardinals” Bass Bowl II victory.
Sack attack — Josh Gamble had two sacks in Lower Lake”s loss to Willits. Clear Lake”s Omar Vazquez had 1 ? sacks against Kelseyville. Middletown”s Nick Dellia logged his seventh sack of the year in Middletown”s win. He”s tied with teammate Dylan Finley for the team lead.
Close race — Through nine weeks of the season, Upper Lake”s Bradley Brackett has 1,144 rushing yards to 1,135 for Kelseyville”s Geno Poloni.
Over 1,000 — Lower Lake”s Richard Tucker has 1,154 passing yards, which is nearly more than all of Lake County”s other starting quarterbacks combined.
Bass Bowl gives way to Just Win One Bowl — Lower Lake (0-8-1) visits Kelseyville (0-9-0) on Thursday night in the season finale for both teams.
First time — Middletown (5-4) moved over .500 for the first time this season with its win over Cloverdale. The Mustangs also have won back-to-back games for the first time in 2011.
NCL II title picture — Tomales (4-0-1) has already clinched a share of the North Central League II championship. If the Braves tie or win Saturday in Petaluma against St. Vincent, they”ll be the undisputed champions. If Tomales loses and Upper Lake (3-1-1) wins on Friday night against winless Calistoga (0-9), the two teams will be co-champs.
NCL I title picture — Simple. Whoever wins the season finale between Willits (6-0) and St. Helena (6-0) grabs the undisputed crown.
Tough season — Kelseyville, now 0-9 and a loser of 11 straight dating back to last season, ties the 1985 Kelseyville team (0-9) for most losses in a single season at the school.
Double take — Willits ended up pounding Lower Lake 71-26 on Friday at Gordon Sadler Field, but the halftime score was only 35-26 in the Wolverines” favor.
6-pack — Upper Lake won in a steady rain against St. Vincent despite turning the ball over six times, including five lost fumbles. St. Vincent didn”t lose a single fumble, which is pretty incredible given the weather/field conditions.
Flirting with disaster — Leading 14-8 in the final seconds of the first half on Saturday, the Upper Lake Cougars fumbled the ball on a play that began at the Upper Lake 37-yard line. In the wild scramble that followed, a Cougar player kicked the ball backward and Upper Lake eventually recovered at its own 4, a loss of 33 yards on the play.
Goal-line stand — Trailing 7-3 in the third quarter, the Kelseyville Knights had the ball first-and-goal at the Clear Lake 6 but couldn”t score. The Cardinals gave up only two yards on three straight runs before a fourth-down pass was batted away by Clear Lake”s Vince Rave.
Bass Bowl (thumbs up) — The Civil War cannon was great ? and loud. Too bad it didn”t fire a few more times.
Bass Bowl (thumbs down) — The picture quality of the large-screen TV set up near the scoreboard wasn”t very good.
Bass Bowl (thumbs up) — A large and vocal crowd, though not a capacity crowd.
Bass Bowl (thumbs down) — No C-130 flyover at halftime of the JV game. Seems the Coast Guard plane had to help out in a search-and-rescue mission.
No fun — Keeping stats in the rain Saturday at Upper Lake.
The best part about the 2012 Bass Bowl ? “Kelseyville hosts it,” Clear Lake coach Milo Meyer said.
Minnow Bowl –Kelseyville JVs 37, Clear Lake JVs 20.
Not appreciated enough ? 49ers running back Frank Gore.
Not appreciated enough II ? The Raiders” Jacoby Ford.
Probably won”t … — Hear another bad word about 49ers quarterback Alex Smith until San Francisco loses again. I”m sure it will be his fault no matter whose fault it really is.
Quality coaches are hard to find — Lower Lake”s Danessa Udy is stepping down as varsity volleyball coach following the Trojans” participation in the playoffs. She has served in that capacity since 1994.
