UPPER LAKE — Cornerstone Christian had a corner on the Cougar market Friday night in Upper Lake.
In an eight-man varsity football game featuring two teams with the same Cougars mascot, it was the Antioch version, undefeated on the season and ranked fifth in the state, taking it to the guys from Lake County, 40-7, at Upper Lake High School.
Cornerstone Christian (8-0) entered play as the fifth-ranked eight-man football team in the state, not to mention the top-ranked team in the North Coast Section and in Northern California overall.
“They’re a good team, but we showed in the first quarter that we could play with them,” Upper Lake head coach Vince Moran said.
The Cougars held Cornerstone Christian, a team that was averaging 63 points a game going into Upper Lake, to a season low in points.
“That’s a little bit of a moral victory,” Moran said. “One of our goals was to hold them to their season low in points and we did that.”
Cornerstone Christian led just 6-0 after one quarter. Upper Lake was able to stay in the game by eating up large chunks of clock with its running game, which was able to string together a handful of first downs.
“In the second quarter we kind of imploded and made a lot of mistakes,” Moran said. “They had a lot of big scores. We had bad snaps, dropped snaps, just made too many mistakes. Being a young team we’ve got to mature in that aspect. You can’t make those types of mistakes against good teams.”
Cornerstone Christian ended up outscoring Upper Lake 28-0 in the second quarter for a 34-0 halftime lead.
Upper Lake received the second-half kickoff and used a series of runs to drive down the field and set the stage for a 10-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Cody Banks to wide receiver Benat Love, with Love adding the extra-point kick. Cornerstone Christian scored later in the third quarter to make it 40-6.
Neither team found the end zone in the fourth quarter.
Upper Lake (1-6) ran the ball 40 times and also attempted 20 passes. Banks finished with 37 rushing yards to lead the team while Bradley Sneathen added 30 more and Richard Guadaycan 28.
Both teams turned the ball over twice. Sneathen and Gage Goode recovered fumbles for Upper Lake. Sneathen, Upper Lake’s middle linebacker, and cornerbacks Goode and Love led the Cougars in tackles.
The Cougars are home next Friday to play Round Valley in a North Central League III game at 6 p.m.
