COVELO >> Compared to their tough North Central League III interlock games against Stuart Hall and Rincon Valley Christian the previous two weeks, the Upper Lake Cougars barely worked up a sweat while hammering Round Valley 50-0 in the North opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon in Covelo.
Upper Lake (1-0 league, 3-1 overall) built a 42-0 halftime lead and the final two quarters were played with a running clock and featured mostly reserves for the Cougars, who return home this coming Saturday night to play Roseland College Prep in their annual homecoming game.
“We came out and looked strong,” Upper Lake co-head coach Vince Moran said of the short amount time the Cougars starters spent on the field against Round Valley, which didn’t field a varsity team a year ago because of a lack of players. “We wanted to pass a little more and did that.”
Moran also wanted to give his starters something less than a full workload after two physically demanding games against Rincon Valley Christian and Stuart Hall. Backfield workhorse Jacob Kalawaia carried the ball only six times – compared to 30 times the previous week against Rincon Valley – but still managed to gain 66 yards and score a touchdown. In fact, no Upper Lake running back had more than eight carries. Dante Bassignani led the way with eight carries for 89 yards and two TDs while Junior Fernandez added seven carries and 46 yards.
“Dante had a pretty good day,” Moran said.
Unleashing their air attack early on against the Warriors, the Cougars scored three times as quarterback Ray Moran hooked up with Hank Nevarez twice for touchdowns and with Eddie Crandell for a third score. Moran completed 15 of 23 passes overall for 142 yards. Crandell had seven catches for 66 yards.
Jovany Martinez, the Cougars’ placekicker, also played the entire game on the offensive line because of a missing starter and played well at both positions, according to Moran.
“Several of his kickoffs were touchbacks,” Moran said.
The Cougars sacked Round Valley’s quarterback seven times, twice by Jared Thornberry. Fernandez also recovered a fumble.
Moran said he expects a bigger challenge on Saturday night against Roseland Collegiate Prep, which is fielding a football team for the first time.
“They should be a little tougher,” Moran said. “They’ve got a pretty good quarterback and fullback.”
Upper Lake’s junior varsity team will play Middletown in a non-league game to kick things off at 5:30 p.m., with the Upper Lake-Roseland Collegiate Prep varsity game to follow.
In other football action Saturday:
St. Pat/St. Vin 50, K’ville 29
At Vallejo, the Kelseyville Knights managed to hang tough early on before St. Patrick/St. Vincent pulled away with a 36-point second quarter in the non-league game.
“If you’re going to sharpen your skills you need to do it against a good team and they were that,” Kelseyville coach Erick Larsen said of the Bruins, who improved to 4-0 on the season. “We wanted to learn about ourselves and we did. We wanted to improve our running game and we we did that too.”
Added Larsen, “St. Patrick is a well-balanced team. They can spread you out with their wide receivers and they have a really good running back. You have to completely respect their quarterback because he can scramble like nobody’s business. He can throw on the run or when he’s in the pocket.”
While the first quarter ended in a 7-7 tie, with Kelseyville’s Patrick Mick scoring on a 24-yard run early in the period, St. Patrick/St. Vincent broke the game open with a 36-8 second quarter.
“Big plays got us,” Larsen said.
The Knights got a big play of their own in the quarter when quarterback Adam Garcia connected with Zack Watkins on a 76-yard touchdown. That cut the Bruins’ lead to 43-15 at halftime as Garcia passed to Adrian Villalobos on the conversion.
It was 50-15 going to the fourth quarter when the Knights were able to close the gap with two more Garcia touchdown passes – 39 yards to Villalobos and 65 yards to Scott Sanchez. Garcia finished the game 5-for-10 for 204 yards.
Mick powered Kelseyville’s running game with 107 yards on 13 carries. Villalobos had 48 yards on the ground to go along with two catches for 37 yards.
JD Prescott’s nine solo tackles and five assists, including two tackles for loss, anchored the Kelseyville defense. Robert Chavez added six tackles and four assists. Bryan Carillo and Kyle Moore each had two sacks.
The Knights (2-2) resume their North Central League I schedule Friday at home against Cloverdale. Kelseyville hosts Clear Lake the following Friday.
