UPPER LAKE >> Playing their reserves nearly as much as their starters, the Upper Lake Cougars continued on their red-hot roll, running through and passing over the Mendocino Cardinals for a 38-14 North Central League III football victory on Saturday afternoon in Upper Lake.
While a depleted Mendocino squad of just 10 players did what it could against Upper Lake (5-1), it couldn’t do much. The Cougars led 30-0 just seconds into the second quarter before rotating in the reserves, including a handful of underclassmen who haven’t seen much action and a handful who figure to see even more based on their play Saturday, such as sophomore Nathan Sneed, who led the team with 53 rushing yards on nine carries.
“Everything he does is at 1,000 miles per hour,” Upper Lake head coach Frank Gudmundson said. “You’re going to be hearing his name a lot more in the future.” The game against a rebuilding Mendocino squad provided Gudmundson and his staff with the perfect opportunity to work on things for games down the road and also to use as many players as possible.
“We wanted to work on our short passing with second-level receivers and we wanted to take a look at some guys who haven’t played much,” Gudmundson said.
Upper Lake was successful on both counts. Quarterback Derek Pritchard completed his first nine passes en route to a 11-for-14 day for 172 yards and two touchdowns. He spread out those completions to seven different receivers, veterans and rookies alike.
“He’s getting more accurate, more comfortable,” Gudmundson said of the junior, who transferred to Upper Lake from Florida during the summer.
The Cougars also welcomed sophomore fullback Jacob Kalawaia back to the fold after his stint on the injury list with a concussion. Though he didn’t play much on offense, he made his time on the field count. On his only two carries of the game, he went 5 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter and 47 yards for another TD in the third quarter.
Kalawaia had an even bigger impact on defense, logging four of Upper Lake’s six quarterback sacks. Francisco Flores had the other two.
“We wanted to check out his endurance but we didn’t want to push it in his first game back,” Gudmundson said. “He came back new and fresh.”
The Cougars found themselves a bit limited at running back for the second game in a row as Dre Santos was nursing a non-football related knee injury and Isaac Nevarez missed his second game in a row with an injury. Sneed and Kalawaia picked up the slack along with Eddie Crandell, who had seven carries for 35 yards. Nine different Cougars had at least one carry.
Upper Lake scored on the first play from scrimmage and never looked back. Pritchard’s 57-yard touchdown pass to Santos got things rolling and the Cougars continued to build their lead with scores on their next three possessions — a 3-yard run by Pritchard with 5:53 left in the first quarter, an 18-yard pass from Pitchard to Santos with 3:09 remaining in the period, and Kalawaia’s 5-yard run with just 33 seconds off the clock in the second quarter.
Aided by Upper Lake penalties, the Cardinals finally got onto the scoreboard on Colton Tavares’ 1-yard run that capped a 47-yard drive midway through the second quarter.
Upper Lake added one last insurance score on Kalawaia’s long TD run with 7:06 remaining in the third quarter. Mendocino scored on a 19-yard pass with 1:59 left in the game to get a little closer.
While the Cougars have faced stronger opponents and had sharper performances this season, Gudmundson said he was pleased with the effort as the team prepares to hit the road this Saturday to face another red-hot team, the Point Arena Pirates (4-1). Both teams will be putting four-game winning streaks on the line and the winner will remain in the hunt for the league title, which is up in the air at the moment. Anderson Valley (6-1) and Calistoga (5-1) are also in the running.
“They are like us,” Gudmundson said of the Pirates. “They run and they throw. It’s going to be a battle.”
