KELSEYVILLE — The Upper Lake Cougars needed only 15 seconds to score their first points of the 2012 season. The Kelseyville Knights needed a little bit longer.
Jeremy Martin returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown, igniting a 52-6 Upper Lake rout Friday night in the season opener for both of these varsity football teams at Kelseyville High School.
Martin, a senior who hasn”t played football since his Pop Warner days, made his first varsity touch a memorable one, bursting up the middle for a touchdown, part of a 28-0 first quarter by an Upper Lake team that was in complete control from the start.
“Jeremy Martin showed up to play,” Upper Lake coach Alex Stabiner said. “He was one of the X factors we were wondering about. He came through on that kickoff return and also on some punt returns. And he did a good back on defense (at cornerback).”
Upper Lake led 52-0 before Kelseyville finally scored on quarterback John Mark Reagan”s 44-yard scramble with 4:58 left in the game, which was shortened by a running clock in the fourth quarter.
Between Martin”s and Reagan”s touchdowns it was a tidal wave of Upper Lake rushing scores — three by halfback Ward Beecher (11 carries for 123 yards), two by powerful fullback Joey Valdez (10 carries for 91 yards), and yet another by quarterback Travis Coleman (7 carries for 65 yards).
Upper Lake led 36-0 at halftime and 44-0 after three quarters.
“I didn”t expect it to be like that,” Stabiner said of the game”s lopsided outcome. “But I was happy with the offense.”
Of the Cougars” 355 yards, 340 came on the ground.
Also surprised with the outcome, albeit not in a positive way, was Kelseyville coach Rob Ishihara, who watched his team make a bevy of mistakes, not the least of which were two lost fumbles that resulted in Upper Lake touchdowns in the first quarter.
“Those types of things are momentum things and it”s hard to come back from,” Ishihara said. “We made a lot of mental mistakes … I know it”s week one, but a lot of that should never happen.”
The bigger Cougars clearly pressed home their advantage against the smaller Knights, according to Ishihara.
“They got physical with us and we didn”t respond very well,” Ishihara said.
Leading 8-0 after Martin”s kickoff return, the Cougars got the ball back almost immediately as Kelseyville fumbled on a running play, its third play from scrimmage. The Cougars scored four plays later on a Beecher 29-yard run, with Valdez adding the conversion run to make it 16-0.
Kelseyville punted away its next possession and Upper Lake moved 70 yards in only five plays, the short drive capped by a Valdez 31-yard run.
The Cougars added a final touchdown in the first quarter when Kelseyville fumbled the ensuing kickoff. Upper Lake took over at the Kelseyville 35 and five straight running plays produced another touchdown as Valdez scored on a 2-yard run.
Upper Lake”s final three touchdowns — one each in the second, third and fourth quarters — came on a 3-yard Beecher run, a 33-yard Beecher run, and a Coleman 8-yard run.
