LAKEPORT >> Mark Cory said he doesn’t expect anyone to pick Clear Lake to beat No. 1 seed St. Patrick/St. Vincent in the semifinals of the North Coast Section Division V football playoffs next Saturday in Vallejo.
“There’s no one anywhere who is going to pick us,” Clear Lake’s second-year coach said. “But it’s one of those games where you get a chance to measure yourself as a team and we’re looking forward to it. We know they have a good club.”
Clear Lake (7-3) earned a shot at St. Patrick/St. Vincent with a 34-29 victory over the Arcata Tigers on Saturday night in a quarterfinal-round game at Don Owens Stadium in Lakeport, a contest that wasn’t decided until Rodrigo Lupercio burst up the middle for a 12-yard gain on a fourth-and-two play from the Arcata 43 with 52 seconds remaining.
Rather than punt the ball and give Arcata’s passing attack a chance for a last-second victory, the Cardinals rolled the dice and the gamble paid off. Tigers quarterback Austin Kadle had already passed for 262 yards and two touchdowns while rallying Arcata from a 28-7 third-quarter deficit, but he never got a final chance to win the game thanks to Lupercio and some solid blocking up front by Clear Lake’s line, one that helped the Cardinals gain 437 yards.
“Our linemen did a good job and they keep getting better every week,” Cory said.
While Kadle certainly did his job for the Tigers by completing 23 of 36 passes and also running for a touchdown, it was the quarterback on the other side of the field who owned the night. As a result, Alex Adams also owns Lake County’s single-season passing yardage record, and he’s not done yet.
“My quarterback was pretty special tonight,” Cory said of Adams a three-year varsity veteran who never could have imagined he would be in the position he was Saturday night two years ago on a bad Clear Lake team that ultimately forfeited a pair of games.
Adams passed for 226 yards and three touchdowns and also ran the ball 22 times for 90 yards and another score. He scrambled out of some sure sacks and broke the Tigers’ defense down – and the Tigers’ hearts – time and time again during the game.
“He makes something happen more times than not,” Cory said. “There are times when I’m saying, ‘No, don’t do that,’ and he makes a big play out of nothing.”
Adams needed 155 passing yards against Arcata to break the county’s single-season passing record set a week ago by Lower Lake’s Hokulani Wickard in a playoff loss to Piedmont. He officially passed Wickard (1,978 yards) on a 35-yard pass play to his favorite target, wide receiver Austin Davis, late in the second quarter, putting him at exactly 2,000 yards for the season.
Adams’ first two touchdown passes of the night, both in the first quarter, staked Clear Lake to a 14-0 lead. The first one, a 16-yarder to Erik Valadez, capped a short 31-yard drive after Arcata went for it on a fourth-and-one play from its own 34-yard line and ended up losing three yards as Clear Lake’s defense stuffed a run up the middle with ease.
A short Arcata punt of only 21 yards set up Clear Lake’s next touchdown late in the first quarter. Clear Lake covered the 40 yards to the end zone in 11 plays, the final one a 5-yard touchdown pass from Adams to Lupercio on a fourth-and-goal play. Lupercio had two Arcata players hanging all over him but pulled both the final two yards to reach the end zone.
Clear Lake upped its advantage to 21-0 in the second quarter on a long and time-consuming 95-yard drive capped by a 32-yard touchdown pass from Adams to Davis down the Clear Lake sideline.
The game was about to get away from Arcata at that point but the Tigers answered Clear Lake’s touchdown with a 93-yard scoring drive of their own, Kadle connecting with wide receiver Parker Gray on a 25-yard pass on fourth-and-goal.
Clear Lake pushed its lead back to 21 points early in the third quarter, once again after Arcata gambled and lost on a fourth-and-one play from near midfield, the Cardinal defense stopping a run for no gain. In fact, it was Clear Lake that converted a fourth down on its scoring drive, Adams hooking up with Davis for 23 yards on a fourth-and-eight play to set up a touchdown one play later on Luperico’s five-yard run.
Again, the Tigers found themselves on the brink of elimination and they answered with a seven-play scoring drive that ended with a Dimitri Patterson 16-yard run up the middle.
Adams’ only real mistake of the night, an interception thrown early in the fourth quarter, allowed Arcata to pull within a touchdown of Clear Lake following an 80-yard drive capped by Kadle’s 5-yard keeper with 7:50 left to play.
Clear Lake ended up turning the ball over on downs following a long drive to the Arcata 4-yard line with just over three minutes remaining, but the Tigers couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity. Two plays in their next series Kadle’s pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage and Clear Lake lineman Juan Carlos Flores came down with the ball around the 10-yard line and returned the interception to the 1. Adams scored on a keeper seconds later and the Cardinals had a 34-21 lead with 2:48 remaining.
To Arcata’s credit, Kadle marched the Tigers down the field for a quick score, his 10-yard pass to Micah Birdsall and the ensuing two-point conversion run cutting Clear Lake’s lead to 34-29 with 1:07 to go.
Clear Lake lined up for the expected onside kick and Justin Cantrell smothered the ball with ease.
“They kept battling,” Cory said of the Tigers. “We barely squeaked it out, but it was a huge win for our program. The sophomores (now seniors, such as Adams) were basically thrown to the wolves two years ago and have come a long way since then.”
Cory had high praise for not only Adams, but also for Lupercio, who ended up rushing for 79 yards and catching six passes for 58 yards. Davis finished with three catches for 90 yards.
“Lupercio was big tonight,” he said.
Clear Lake enters Thanksgiving week still alive and with a chance to reach a sectional championship game for the first time since the 1998 season when the Cardinals defeated St. Vincent (of Petaluma) to win the old Class A championship.
“If you’re practicing on Thanksgiving day, you’ve had a good season,” Cory said.
The Clear Lake-St. Patrick/St. Vincent winner meets the winner of the other semifinal between Kelseyville and Middletown (Friday in Middletown) for the Division V championship the weekend of Dec. 1-2.
