UPPER LAKE >> Those new lights the Upper Lake Cougars installed at their field prior to last season weren’t needed on Friday night.
Home for the first time this year, Upper Lake instead let Mother Nature provide all the light that was necessary for an usual 5 p.m. start against the Calistoga Wildcats in a non-league varsity football game at Upper Lake High School.
Calistoga came away with the win, pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 39-20 victory that keeps Upper Lake winless on the season at 0-3.
The kickoff, originally set for 7 p.m., was pushed up two hours because the Coastal Mountain Officials Association didn’t have any officials to send to Upper Lake. After several options were considered, including moving the game to Calistoga, playing on Saturday or canceling the game, Upper Lake athletic director Brian Figg saved the day by locating one official — Logan Weiper — who ended up working the game alone.
Upper Lake head coach Vince Moran said he wasn’t happy with how the events unfolded on Friday nor with playing an entire game with a solitary official.
“I’ll give him credit, he did a good job all by himself,” Moran said of Weiper. “But I don’t know why we only had one official. It’s not like the game was a surprise. It’s been on the schedule for a long time.”
The lack of a full officiating crew helped both teams at times, but it wasn’t even close to being the deciding factor for Upper Lake. That had more to do with a healthy dose of Calistoga breakaway speed, four Upper Lake turnovers, some poor execution inside the red zone, shoddy tackling and the failure of Upper Lake defenders to take the correct pursuit angles. The latter two came into play immediately when Calistoga’s Christian Caldera returned the opening kickoff 69 yards for a touchdown. He appeared to be bottled up deep at his own end but reversed field and escaped the clutches of two Cougars before breaking into the clear.
“And we were down 6-0 just like that,” Moran said.
Upper Lake was able to overcome many of its mistakes with a solid running attack that produced 173 yards, most of that coming from Hank Nevarez, the biggest threat in Upper Lake’s offense. Nevarez rushed for 119 yards on 10 carries with a touchdown and also caught three passes for 50 yards and another TD. He did all of that despite playing at less than 100 percent.
“He was banged up and we had to take him out of the game to rest him a couple of times,” Moran said of his lightning-quick junior running back who also contributed on defense with two sacks and a fumble recovery.
But it wasn’t enough.
Upper Lake took its one and only lead late in the second quarter when quarterback Ray Moran hooked up with wide receiver Desmond Mueller on a 19-yard touchdown pass. The Moran-to-Mueller conversion pass gave the Cougars a 14-13 halftime lead.
Calistoga pushed ahead to stay on its first play from scrimmage in the third quarter when Caldera connected with Jasiel Flores for a 56-yard touchdown. The play was designed to pick up a few yards but Flores shed two Upper Lake tacklers before he had crossed the first-down marker.
The Wildcats added to their lead early in the fourth quarter when Flores burst up the middle for a 23-yard score. He went into the end zone untouched for a 26-14 Calistoga lead.
Upper Lake’s final gasp at making a game of it came with 5:31 remaining when Nevarez caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Moran. The Cougars misfired on the conversion run and trailed 26-20.
Needing a stop on defense to get the ball back, Upper Lake couldn’t deny Calistoga on a fourth-and-four play from the Upper Lake 32-yard line. Caldera spotted running back Jesus Rojas-Mendoza working his way free near the Cougars’ sideline and dropped a pass right into his hands. Rojas-Mendoza had one player to beat, which he easily did for a touchdown and a 33-20 lead.
Flores scored on a 3-yard run with 1:43 left to cap the Calistoga win.
Upper Lake briefly tied the game at 6 midway through the first quarter on a 2-yard run by Nevarez. The Cougars were on the move again a short time later but fumbled the ball away at the Calistoga 8-yard line. The Wildcats made the most of the miscue by driving 72 yards for the score. One play after converting on fourth-and-three deep in their own territory, the Wildcats struck in a hurry as Caldera hit a wide open Daniel Parada over the middle for a 62-yard touchdown and a 13-6 lead.
Upper Lake actually outgained Calistoga 282-262.
“We looked better than we have all season long, but mistakes in the first half hurt,” Moran said of the game-opening kickoff return and the lost fumble deep in Calistoga territory.
“We kept playing hard, but there were just too many mistakes,” he added. “Our offensive line needs to play better, our receivers need to do a better job. And we don’t have a lot of speed. Still, we made strides and we’ll build off of that.”
