LAKE COUNTY >> While Middletown, Kelseyville and Clear Lake are trying to get back into the win column as Week 7 of the high school football regular season kicks off tonight, Upper Lake is simply trying to find the win column, something that hasn”t happened in more than two calendar years.
Not so the Lower Lake Trojans (1-2 league, 3-3 overall), who visit Cloverdale (2-1, 4-2) tonight in search of a second straight North Central League I victory that would give them a winning overall record.
In other NCL I games tonight involving Lake County teams, Middletown (2-1, 4-2) hosts Kelseyville (1-2, 4-2), and Clear Lake (0-3, 3-3) entertains the league-leading and undefeated St. Helena Saints (3-0, 6-0). Saturday”s action in the NCL II features a small amount of intrigue as two winless teams — Calistoga (0-3, 0-6) and Upper Lake (0-3, 0-6) — square off in Upper Lake.
Kelseyville at Middletown
Both teams are coming off losses that smarted a bit in Week 6, though the Mustangs certainly gave the Saints all they could want before falling 20-13 at St. Helena. Middletown came out of that game healthy, something that can”t be said for the Knights, who were banged up going into their 33-7 home loss to Fort Bragg and even more banged up by game”s end.
Middletown”s only road to the league title now is to win its final four games and hope that someone knocks off St. Helena, which travels to Fort Bragg (2-1, 4-2) next Friday. Kelseyville”s first two encounters with NCL I heavyweights this season haven”t gone well at all even though the Knights had the advantage of playing both Fort Bragg and St. Helena at home — the Saints spoiled Kelseyville”s homecoming with a 44-7 win on Sept. 26.
Now the Knights play the league”s other heavyweight in Middletown, only this time they”ll play at Bill Foltmer Field, where visiting teams don”t have a very good record down through the years.
St. Helena at Clear Lake
Clear Lake is sandwiched between Middletown and Fort Bragg on St. Helena”s league schedule — the proverbial trap game — so the Cardinals might be catching the Saints at just the right time. On the other hand, Clear Lake hasn”t exactly set the NCL I on fire the last three weeks. Consecutive losses to Cloverdale, Willits and Lower Lake have dropped the Cardinals to 3-3 after a 3-0 preseason. None of those league games were especially close although Clear Lake did its best to climb out of a 28-8 first-half hole last week in Lower Lake, getting within 10 points in the second half, before falling 40-20.
Clear Lake”s final four league games, beginning with St. Helena tonight, are certainly no picnic. They hit the road next week for the fifth annual Bass Bowl game at Kelseyville, return home Oct. 31 to take on Middletown, then close out the regular season Nov. 7 in Fort Bragg.
Lower Lake at Cloverdale
The Lower Lake Trojans are the only county team on a winning streak going into the weekend. If they can make it two straight victories with a win against the Eagles, they”ll deal the Eagles” title chances a huge blow.
Lower Lake quarterback Isazah King enters play as the county”s second-leading rusher with 860 yards and 10 TDs. Another solid performance tonight could vault him into the county lead. King is also the county leader with 91 points scored and he is coming off his best passing game of the season after going 4-for-7 for 139 yards and two TDs against Clear Lake last week.
The Trojans went 3-7 a year ago in coach Justin Gaddy”s first season as coach. A win tonight would give them No. 4 and counting in 2014.
Calistoga at Upper Lake
No team in the last 30 years of Lake County football has gone deeper into a season without scoring a single point than has Upper Lake. In fact, it might be an all-time county record for futility, which is certainly one part bad play and one part awful luck. One fortunate bounce of the ball, one mistake by an opponent deep in its own territory, one screw-up on special teams is all it takes for a team to score. And yet the Cougars — on offense, defense and special teams — haven”t come close.
If they win the coin toss today during their homecoming against Calistoga, they may want to take the ball and not defer. That”s because Calistoga has allowed opening kickoff returns for touchdowns in three of its six losses this season.
While Calistoga hasn”t exactly been an offensive juggernaut in 2014, the Wildcats have scored 26 of their season total of 33 points in the last two weeks — league losses of 68-13 to St. Vincent and 28-13 to Tomales. Upper Lake lost 42-0 to Tomales two weeks ago at home and 54-0 to St. Vincent last week in Petaluma.
Upper Lake will be able to pull up as many of its junior varsity players as needed after the announcement earlier this week by Calistoga that its JV team is forfeiting the remainder of its games because of a lack of players. Of course, Calistoga”s varsity will also be able to use those JV players who did make it past this week”s grading period still eligible.
Upper Lake and St. Vincent now have the only two viable JV programs left in the NCL II (Tomales opened the season with only a varsity squad). As a result, Upper Lake”s JVs have only game remaining the rest of the season — Nov. 1 at home against St. Vincent. That game will decide the JV title since Upper Lake and St. Vincent tied 40-40 last Saturday in Petaluma.
