LAKE COUNTY — Week one of the high school football season, better known as zero week, is in the books and the Clear Lake Cardinals own the first win among Lake County varsity teams after rallying from a 17-6 halftime deficit to beat Ferndale 28-17 on Saturday in Ferndale.
In Friday night action, Middletown, Lower Lake and Kelseyville all opened at home and came up short. Middletown dropped a 33-13 decision to Division 2 Napa, Keleyville also scheduled up and lost 28-6 to Division 5 San Marin, while Lower Lake fell 57-28 to Carson High School of Carson City, Nevada.
Upper Lake’s eight-man team scrimmaged on Saturday against Crystal Springs-Upland at Hillsborough in preparation for its season opener Friday night at home against Virginia City.
Week two won’t be nearly as busy with Clear Lake, Lower Lake and Middletown all having byes. Besides the Virginia City at Upper Lake game, the only other Friday action has Kelseyville visiting Division 3 Ukiah.
Following are some of the highlights and lowlights from the first week of football action (Kelseyville statistics against San Marin were not available):
Statistics
Rushing — Lower Lake quarterback Vann Wilkins finished with 49 yards on 10 carries in his varsity debut. In another varsity debut, Clear Lake running back A.J. Adams rushed for 41 yards on 12 carries with two touchdowns and a two-point conversion.
Passing — Lower Lake’s Vann Wilkins completed 15 of 27 passes for 321 yards and four touchdowns, Clear Lake’s Darius Ford went 18-for-35 for 255 yards and two TDs, and Middletown’s Isaac Perez went 9-for-19 for 202 yards and a TD.
Receiving — Lower Lake’s Semaj Clark and teammate Makhi Johnson both topped the century mark. Clark had five catches for 125 yards and two TDs while Johnson had three catches for 107 yards and two TDs. Middletown’s Nico Barrio finished with three catches for 127 yards and a TD. Clear Lake’s Rolando Amaya had four receptions for 105 yards while teammate Travis Howe had seven catches for 80 yards and two TDs.
Special teams
0-for-PAT — Lake County teams didn’t kick a single extra point in week one.
Don’t kick it to him — Middletown kicked off to open the game against Napa. The kick went to Travis Bowers, who returned it for a touchdown, running over people along the way.
Defense
Good things come in threes — Travis Howe, Roman Uribe and Chance Darnal all had interceptions for Clear Lake.
Pitching a shutout — What the Clear Lake defense did to Ferndale in a 22-0 second half that favored the visiting Cardinals.
Miscellaneous
Hard to watch — Lower Lake was penalized 18 times for 210 yards and had two players ejected in its loss to Carson. The Trojans were flagged for seven 15-yard infractions in the third quarter alone.
Ahead of the game — Clear Lake went 0-3 in the preseason a year ago, so the Cardinals are ahead of the game in 2019.
Streaks — Factoring in the seven games they lost to end the 2018 season, Lower Lake has dropped eight in a row. The five-game winning streak Middletown carried over from last season ended with its loss to Napa.
Horse sense — Horse racing, part of the Humboldt County Fair, was taking place nearby during the Clear Lake-Ferndale game on Saturday. “Some of my kids told me they had never seen horse racing before,” Clear Lake coach Mark Cory said. “I even found myself looking up a couple of times.”
Clock went out — When the Lower Lake scoreboard went dark in the third quarter, 10:24 was originally placed on the clock, but that was then changed to 5:55, which was the correct call (Carson had scored with 5:55 left) and the clock went out moments later. Given how long it took to play that third quarter — more than an hour — no one wanted to see that quarter drag out any longer.
Official shortage — Lake County has only enough zebras for two officiating crews this season (five officials comprises a full crew), which means some Friday games will be moved to either Thursday or Saturday when the county is hosting more than two games that are not in Middletown (Middletown contracts with a different officials association). The first time that happens is Sept. 6 when Clear Lake hosts Pierce, Lower Lake hosts El Molino and Kelseyville hosts Fortuna. One of those games will most likely be switched to Saturday night.
No results, no story — For junior varsity mamas and papas wondering why they’re not reading about the JV games, it’s real simple. If we don’t receive results, we can’t write a story.
Tri-tip sandwich — High marks to Lower Lake’s concession stand. It hit the spot.
