UPPER LAKE >> Branson’s second play on offense set the tone Saturday afternoon as the Bulls, playing only their second football game ever, beat the Upper Lake Cougars 80-54 in a wild non-league shootout at Upper Lake High School.
Upper Lake (1-3) had a 8-0 lead three plays into the game when Branson (2-0) went to work on offense. On the first pass attempted by Bulls quarterback Alec Ritch, a ball over the middle intended for wide receiver Greg Pereira, the game changed in an instant.
First, the ball went off Pereira’s hands and fell incomplete. A split second later Upper Lake defensive back Dre Santos drilled the Branson player, making helmet-to-helmet contact in the process, and Pereira dropped to the turf and remained there motionless for a bit before leaving the field under his own power. He later returned to the game and went on to have a big day with five catches for 117 yards and three touchdowns.
Santos not only drew the expected 15-yard penalty for the personal foul, but he was ejected from the game for intentional targeting. Already short two key starters entering play, the Cougars lost a third — and the ejection also means Santos can’t play this coming Saturday during a league and homecoming game against Tomales.
A scuffle broke out immediately following the play as well as one Branson player went after Santos and shoved him. When an Upper Lake player retaliated, he was flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct much to the dismay of the Cougar sidelines.
“I was OK with the personal foul (on Santos), but you’re taking it to the next level when you call it intentional targeting,” Smith said of the officials’ decision to eject Santos. “It came so early in the game … he wasn’t targeting him, he was playing the ball … and bang, bang, he’s gone just like that. That’s just not right.”
As for the follow-up 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty, Smith said, “You’ve got to be kidding me. All that pushing and shoving going on out there and they call us for that. I asked the officials if they saw the Branson players shoving our guys. I guess they didn’t.”
Even with 30 yards of penalty help the Branson drive nearly stalled. However, on a fourth-and-goal play from the Upper Lake 33, Ritch scrambled out of a couple of almost-sacks and found teammate Kobe Goldman alone in the end zone for the touchdown (and Goldman took advantage of Santos’ replacement on the play).
Upper Lake went right back in front on its next possession as quarterback Derek Pritchard connected with Chris Fecht on a 65-yard scoring strike, but the 16-8 lead would be the last time the Cougars would find themselves ahead in a game that took nearly 3½ hours to complete.
In the pingpong-style scoring action that followed, the Bulls surged to a 30-16 first-quarter lead. The Cougars got as close as 12 points twice in the second quarter, the last time 44-32, the halftime score.
Before the offensive slugfest was over the two teams would combine for 18 touchdowns, 12 two-point conversions, a safety and 1,107 yards of total offense.
While Branson’s defense couldn’t stop Upper Lake’s rushing attack most of the day, Upper Lake’s defense really didn’t stop anything in regard to Branson’s offense, which rolled up 321 passing yards and 328 rushing yards. Quarterback Ritch was the catalyst, passing for seven touchdowns spread out among four different receivers and rushing for another 159 yards and three scores.
Upper Lake’s star was running back Jacob Kalawaia, who finished with 242 yards and five TDs rushing and two catches for 39 yards and another score. Even more amazing, Kalawaia missed nine minutes of the second quarter while he was in the locker room with what Smith called a “stomach issue.”
Minus Kalawaia and with Santos out of the game, Upper Lake was missing two of its biggest weapons … three if you count the Nathan Sneed, who was unavailable for personal reasons.
“That was the second quarter from hell,” Smith said. “All I had left were linemen.”
Kalawaia’s impact was immediately felt when he returned to the field right before halftime and scored two touchdowns in a 43-second span on runs of 21 and 47 yards. His first score, a 56-yard run, gave Upper Lake its early 8-0 lead as he also added the conversion run. The junior scored all three of the Cougars’ fourth-quarter touchdowns, running it in from 50 and 7 yards and catching a 19-yard pass from Pritchard.
Branson was on the verge of forcing a running clock twice in the fourth quarter with 34-point leads of 72-38 and 80-46, but Upper Lake kept fighting back.
“The score looked crazy I know, but I think with our full compliment of players we had a chance to win that game,” Smith said. “We kept coming back. They were feeling it, but we were just running out of athletes.”
Upper Lake’s Fecht, another impact player on offense, was limited by a sore ankle. He had three catches for 78 yards and also stopped a Branson drive with a fumble recovery.
“Chris gutted it out and went as long as he could,” Smith said.
One player who came up big for the Cougars was Alex Sanchez. He had 12 total tackles and also contributed to the offense with 30 rushing yards on only six carries and with two receptions for 27 yards.
Sanchez received the team’s hammer award at game’s end.
“We asked him to do some things he doesn’t normally do and he really came through,” Smith said.
