LAKEPORT >> Kelseyville is gunning for a fourth straight win over Clear Lake on Friday night when Bass Bowl VII visits Don Owens Stadium in Lakeport.
It’s the first time in this seven-year-old series that both schools enter play with winning league and overall records — Kelseyville at 2-1 and 4-1 and Clear Lake at 2-1 and 3-2. Both also remain in the North Central League I title chase and North Coast Section playoff hunt.
The Oct. 6 game date is the second earliest meeting between the two teams since the inaugural Bass Bowl took place on Sept. 24 in 2010. Every meeting since has been contested in late October or early November.
Only two of the previous six meetings have been close — Kelseyville won 11-8 in 2014 and Clear Lake prevailed 7-3 in 2011. The highest-scoring Bass Bowl game came in 2012 when Clear Lake won 43-26, and that also was the last time the Cardinals hoisted the Bass Bowl Trophy at game’s end.
Kelseyville is coming off a 26-6 victory in 2015.
Three different coaches have won Bass Bowls for Kelseyville — Rob Ishihara in 2010, Mike McGuire in 2013-14 and Erick Larsen last season. Glen “Milo” Meyer was the winning coach for Clear Lake in 2011-12.
A new wrinkle in the 2016 meeting is the naming of players of the game, one from each school. They will receive $500 college scholarships.
While the Bass Bowl is contested only between the varsity football teams at Clear Lake and Kelseyville, this year’s junior varsity contest is shaping up to be a good one as well as the Knights enter play 3-0 in league and 5-1 overall to Clear Lake’s 2-1 and 5-1. Since the inaugural Bass Bowl in 2010, Clear Lake’s JVs lead the series 4-2, including four straight wins form 2011-14. Kelseyville snapped that streak with a 20-7 victory last year.
Bass Bowl VII will be without the Civil War-era canon that has been a centerpiece at past games. The canon would fire after a score by either team. Bass Bowl officials did not give neighborhoods in the vicinity of Don Owens Stadium enough advance warning this year, so it was decided the canon would not be used. However, game officials hope to bring it back in 2017.
