Editor’s note: This is the third in a five-part series previewing Lake County’s varsity football teams. The Lower Lake Trojans will be featured on Tuesday.
UPPER LAKE >> Loaded with seniors, armed with lights and relocated to the North division of the North Central League III, there is plenty to be optimistic about as Upper Lake High School embarks on its 2017 football season.
“We’re extremely excited,” Upper Lake head coach Mike Smith of playing home games under the lights for the first time in school history. “There’s a sense of excitement in the community as well. This has been a long time coming and now that it’s finally here, there’s a special vibe to it.”
Smith said it’s entirely appropriate that the seniors on this year’s team will have the honor of playing the first night game at Upper Lake. After all, they were freshmen when the football program nearly ceased to exist during a winless 2014 season, the school’s last as an 11-man football team.
“The seniors have been through a lot,” Smith said while remembering an awful 2014 campaign that prompted the switch to eight-man football in 2015, the year Upper Lake earned a NCL III co-championship, and then a disastrous start to the 2016 season when league losses to Rincon Valley Christian and Calistoga in the Cougars’ first two games knocked them out of the running before a league race could ever take shape.
“The seniors are part of the resurgence of this football program. They are the core group that has helped us get through all of this,” Smith said.
Now comes 2017, a switch from afternoon games to night games, and the opportunity for the seniors to go out winners in a newly reconfigured NCL III in which they are the favorites to win a North division that also includes Laytonville, Round Valley, Anderson Valley, Roseland Collegiate Prep (Santa Rosa) and South Fork.
The new NCL III South includes defending league champion Rincon Valley Christian, Calistoga, Tomales, Potter Valley, Stuart Hall (San Francisco) and Branson (Ross).
Former NCL III schools Point Arena and Mendocino are not fielding varsity teams this year although Point Arena does have a JV squad.
“Eight-man football is growing,” Smith said.
Big numbers
Also expanding are Upper Lake’s roster numbers. Whereas the Cougars had barely enough players to field an 11-man team every week during the tortuous 2014 season, this year’s eight-man squad is 18 players deep – and the junior varsity team is 17 players strong.
“We’re going to use that depth as a luxury because that’s not going to be a yearly thing,” Smith said.
Taking a page out of Upper Lake’s glory days of 11-man football during the 1980s and early 1990s, you can expect to see plenty of power running from these Cougars this season. While the 2015 and 2016 teams ran pretty balanced attacks – in fact, last year’s squad had more passing yards (1,439) than rushing yards (1,340) – expect this year’s team to be more weighted toward the run, perhaps a lot more.
“We’re not going to need him to throw for 200-plus yards a game to have a chance,” Smith said of new starting quarterback Ray Moran, who takes over for the graduated Derek Pritchard. “I’m very excited about Ray. He’s a mobile quarterback and in our read option he’s a serious weapon.”
Upper Lake’s returning starters include linemen Nick Warner and All-League first-team selection Kahlil George, wide receiver and special teams standout Nathan Sneed, slot receiver Eddie Crandell, running back/safety Chris Fecht, and All-League first-team defensive end Jacob Kalawaia (team-leading 13 sacks), who also led the Cougars in rushing a year ago with 585 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Both Crandell and Dante Bassignani, a running back and middle linebacker, missed portions of the 2016 season because of academic ineligibility, a problem Smith is confident won’t surface again in 2017.
“Eddie has the best hands I’ve seen around here,” Smith said. “Dante gave us a huge lift last year at middle linebacker. Having both of those guys to start this season is big.”
Also returning are tight end/defensive end Andrew Brackett, lineman J.T. Claunch, linebacker/tight end Colton Goetjen, lineman Jovanny Martinez, and wide receiver/defensive back Armando Santos, special teams standout Travis Smith, and kicker Austin Hill.
Among those players who saw limited action with the varsity a year ago but will be counted on to contribute much more this season are junior wide receiver Kenny Hodges, junior running back/linebacker Junior Fernandez and sophomore receiver/safety Hank Nevarez.
With a good-sized line, big tight ends and fullback Kalawaia leading the way, the Cougars’ goal on offense is to be physical and push people around, according to Smith.
“We’ll establish the running game and throw off of that,” Smith said.
Schedule
Another plus for the Cougars this season, unlike their first two years in a single-division NCL III, is the schedule. They won’t open with league games as was the case in 2015 and 2016. Upper Lake plays at Los Molinos in a non-league game next Friday, then interlocks with NCL III South teams Stuart Hall on Sept. 2 and Rincon Valley Christian on Sept. 15, which is Upper Lake’s first official home game under the lights. The interlock games with South opponents do not count toward the Cougars’ league record.
At season’s end there will be a two-week playoff to determine the overall NCL III champion. The North winner plays the South runner-up and the South winner plays the North runner-up in the semifinals. The semifinal winners meet the following week in the Redwood Bowl championship game.
While there is still no North Coast Section playoff for eight-man teams, that could change in the near future, according to Smith. It just won’t be this season.
“Our goal is to finish out those 10 games,” Smith said of Upper Lake’s eight-game regular-season schedule and two weeks of playoffs.
League race
Looking ahead to the NCL III North race, Smith said he’s not looking past a South Fork team that is playing eight-man football for the first time. “They’ve struggled against 11-man teams the last couple of years, but they have a good football tradition and have good, solid athletes. I’m thinking they’re going to be pretty solid.”
Anderson Valley, the team that Upper Lake shared the league title with two years ago, is another team with a proud football tradition, according to Smith.
“And Laytonville always brings it,” Smith said.
“This is a year we’ve got athletes and depth to make a run,” Smith said when asked about Upper Lake’s title chances.
