UPPER LAKE — Despite six turnovers, including five lost fumbles, the Upper Lake Cougars persevered in the steady rain and sticky muck Saturday afternoon to beat the St. Vincent Mustangs 20-14 in a North Central League II varsity football game that featured nine turnovers in all.
“I was trying to figure out how we won the game looking at the stats sheet,” Upper Lake coach Alex Stabiner said of a victory that keeps the Cougars” title hopes alive in the NCL II race. “We won the game because of our defense and special teams. There was good and bad special teams play on both sides.”
With the weather making every snap from center an absolute adventure, it was the Mustangs (2-3 league, 4-5 overall) who made a final, key mistake in the fourth quarter of a 14-14 game.
Disaster struck for St. Vincent on a punt snap from its own 29-yard line. The ball sailed high over punter Mitch Sheppard”s head and rolled toward the end zone. Sheppard did recover the ball and even managed to get a kick off under an intense rush, but the off-balance boot went out of bounds at the St. Vincent 20.
After putting the ball on the ground a dozen times in the game, the Cougars managed to hold onto it this time as they covered those 20 yards in six running plays, the final one a 2-yard TD plunge by fullback Joe Valdez to make it 20-14. The ensuing conversion run failed.
With 7:52 still remaining, St. Vincent had two more chances to tie or win the game. The Mustangs moved the ball as far as the Upper Lake 37 on the possession immediately following the Valdez touchdown but ended up giving it back to the Cougars on downs. On its final drive, St. Vincent was approaching midfield where a penalty for illegal use of the hands wiped out a gain into Upper Lake territory. While protesting that call, a Mustangs player was flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct, which moved the ball all the way back to the St. Vincent 20. The Mustangs again lost possession on downs and Upper Lake ran out the final seconds.
While the Cougars” offense put the team in harm”s way six times with turnovers, the Upper Lake defense allowed only one of those turnovers to turn into points, that in the third quarter when Sheppard hooked up with wide receiver John DeGunto on a 30-yard touchdown pass three plays after Upper Lake lost a fumble.
“The defense did come to play,” Stabiner said. “There wasn”t really a shining star, just a lot of gang tackling, a lot of people flying to the ball.”
Upper Lake also picked off Sheppard — who was 10-for-20 for 191 yards and two TDs — three times. Valdez, Nick Mai and Travis Coleman had one interception apiece.
Upper Lake grabbed an 8-0 lead early in the second quarter on the first of two Ward Beecher touchdown runs, this one a four-yard scamper. Valdez pounded his way into the end zone on the conversion run to make it 8-0.
Three plays from scrimmage and a little over a minute later, the game was knotted at 8 as Sheppard connected with wide receiver Jordan Cox on a 64-yard touchdown on a third-and seven play. The same two players hooked up on the conversion pass.
Coleman”s interception of a Sheppard pass late in the first half led to a seven-play, 31-yard drive capped by a Beecher nine-yard TD run that made it 14-8 in the Cougars” favor. Beecher finished the mudfest with 121 yards on 23 carries.
St. Vincent pulled even at 14 in the third quarter on Sheppard”s 30-yard strike to DeGunto. The Mustangs lined up for an extra-point kick but a poor snap led to a desperation run that failed.
One of the game”s more exciting plays didn”t lead to any points but nearly resulted in disaster for Cougars late in the first half. Taking over at their own 35 with a little more than a minute to play, the Cougars could have taken a knee to run out the clock, but instead ran a play as Bradley Brackett (15 carries for 88 yards) gained two yards on first down. On second down, a play that was designed to be a short pass to Valdez turned into a grand adventure for both sides. The center snap was fumbled and the ball bounced wildly as players on each team tried to pick it up only to bat it around even more. Just as it appeared as though St. Vincent”s Cox would scoop it up, Brackett kicked the ball with some force.
Another wild scramble ensued and the ball was eventually recovered by the Cougars at their own 4, a loss of 33 yards on the play.
“It was actually a heads-up play by Brackett,” Stabiner said. “It looked like Cox was about to pick it up and return it for a touchdown, so he kicked it. He did it on purpose.”
St. Vincent not only won the turnover battle, but the Mustangs also outgained the Cougars 251-203. It didn”t help them in the end.
Upper Lake will be rooting for St. Vincent this Saturday against Tomales. If the Must-angs win that game and the Cougars can take care of business Friday night against a winless Calistoga team, Upper Lake will share the league title with Tomales.
“Yep, we”re rooting for them now,” Stabiner said of the Mustangs.
