FORT BRAGG — A bad snap on a Clear Lake punt set up one Fort Bragg touchdown in the first half and the Cardinals couldn”t recover from a 16-0 halftime deficit as they fell 22-0 to the Timberwolves on Friday night in the North Central League I opener for both teams.
Fort Bragg (1-0, 3-1) grabbed a 7-0 lead with 5:53 left in the first quarter on a Zach Smith run. Clear Lake couldn”t move the ball on its next possession and lined up for a punt, but a bad snap left the Timberwolves with the football at the Cardinals” 2-yard line. They scored one play later on Tyler Ashby”s quarterback sneak.
The Timberwolves were threatening again late in the second quarter with a first-and-goal at the Clear Lake 3, but the Cardinals held and forced Fort Bragg to settle for a 22-yard field goal that made it 16-0.
Dominated at the line of scrimmage throughout the first two quarters, the Cardinals (0-1, 2-2) also didn”t help themselves as quarterback Kenny Henninger was picked off twice by the Fort Bragg defense. He was intercepted four times on the night while completing just 3 of 16 passes for 29 yards.
Both teams turned the ball over five times.
“A game of turnovers, it was crazy,” Clear Lake coach Milo Meyer said. “We got whooped on pretty good.”
Smith scored on a 65-yard run in the fourth quarter for Fort Bragg”s final points. The junior running back finished with 199 yards on 10 carries, including the two TDs.
“He”s very quick and he busted a couple of big ones,” Meyer said of Smith, who had three runs of 60 or more yards.
Vince Rave led the Cardinals with 58 yards on 11 carries and he also recovered two of five lost fumbles by Fort Bragg.
During one stretch at the end of third quarter and early into the fourth quarter, the two teams fumbled away the ball on back-to-back-to-back possessions.
Clear Lake hosts a winless Cloverdale (0-1, 0-4) team next Friday.
