LAKEPORT — How did the Clear Lake Cardinals snap their six-game losing streak to the Kelseyville Knights? That’s simple. Travis Howe is how.
Howe scored four touchdowns in the first three quarters — three receiving and one on a punt block return — and Treppa Marcks, battered and bruised, put the game away in the fourth quarter when he carried the ball 14 times for 60 time-consuming yards, a touchdown, and a final lay-it-on-the-line, stretched-out-to-the-max first-down carry that sealed Clear Lake’s 37-30 victory over Kelseyville in Bass Bowl X on Friday night at Don Owens Stadium in Lakeport.
It was Clear Lake’s first Bass Bowl win since 2012 and the Cardinals celebrated their victory by parading the tall wooden Bass Bowl trophy around the field shortly after the game ended.
“When he gets his hands on the ball … he’s amazing,” Clear Lake head coach Mark Cory said while describing Howe’s huge night — eight catches for 180 yards, including TD receptions of 23 yards in the first quarter to put the Cardinals ahead to stay at 7-6; 33 yards in the second quarter to give them a 21-6 lead; and 49 yards in the third quarter to make it 29-14 just 44 seconds after Kelseyville had closed the gap to 21-14 on a Robert Chavez run that capped a 12-play, 70-yard drive that used up almost five minutes on the clock.
Howe’s other touchdown came on a punt block by teammate Jason Johnson less than minute into the second quarter. Howe was the first to reach the ball, he scooped it up and sprinted into the end zone to give the Cardinals a 13-6 lead.
“He’s made big plays for us all year and he made a bunch tonight,” Cory said. “And it’s his first year of high school football.”
Largely because of the play of Chavez in the second half, the Knights didn’t go down without a huge fight. After a quiet first half for the All-League senior running back, Chavez capped two long scoring drives in the third quarter with touchdown runs of 2 and 3 yards to pull the Knights to within 29-22 by quarter’s end.
But the Cardinals weren’t going to let this one get away. After barely using Marcks, their junior running back, in the first three quarters, they fed him the ball the final 11 plays of a 12-play scoring drive in the fourth quarter capped by his 11-run TD run with 4:12 left for a 37-22 Clear Lake lead. Marcks also added the two-point conversion run.
“The game was on the line, he had a bad shoulder and a bad knee, and he gave us what we needed,” Cory said. “He saved us.”
And not once, but twice.
Kelseyville went 59 yards on only five plays, aided by a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Clear Lake, to score one last time on a Chavez 1-yard run — his third touchdown of the second half — to make it 37-30 as Chavez also ran in the conversion.
The Knights tried an onside kick that Clear Lake’s Maddox Albaum recovered. A late hit called against Kelseyville on the play gave the Cardinals great field position at the Kelseyville 36-yard line, and they went right back to feeding Marcks the ball. He gained three yards on first down, followed by a Kelseyville timeout; three yards on second down, followed by another Knights timeout; and exactly four yards on third down, stretching out at the last second to reach the first-down marker and put the game on ice with just more than a minute left.
“Treppa just kind of took it upon himself,” Cory said.
“Give credit to Clear Lake for running the ball right at the heart of our defense,” said Kelseyville head coach Erick Larsen, who lost for the first time in five Bass Bowl appearances. “They earned the win.”
Kelseyville’s struggles on special teams but especially in the secondary were too much to overcome, according to Larsen.
“Our secondary play has been our Achilles heel,” Larsen said. “We tried to use the outside linebackers to help but we still didn’t do a very good job in the first half. We did better in the second half.”
Clear Lake quarterback Darius Ford was a perfect 10-for-10 on the night, most of those passes aimed at Howe, who broke a number of tackles during the night, including two on his 49-yard TD catch in the third quarter.
Kelseyville’s one and only lead of the game was set up Clear Lake’s lone turnover, a fumble that Chavez recovered at the Kelseyville 41 early in the first quarter. The Knights went on an eight-play drive that ended with a 20-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Cory Holt to a wide open Brandon Garcia to make it 6-0. One play before the touchdown Chavez ripped off a 10-yard gain on fourth-and-six.
Clear Lake pushed in front on its very next possession, moving 60 yards in nine plays, including six runs for 22 yards by Roman Uribe, who carried the ball 10 times in the opening quarter.
Chavez, playing the final game of an outstanding high school career, finished with 219 yards on 29 carries, 141 of those yards and all three of his TDs coming in the second half.
“He’s fabulous,” Larsen said. “I’ve coached him since the fourth grade and I knew he was something special then. I hope he goes on and plays at the next level.”
While Clear Lake (3-4 league, 4-6 overall) is eligible to apply for an at-large berth in the upcoming Division 7 playoffs that take place the weekend of Nov. 15-16, Cory said he will leave it up to his players.
“We’ll probably end up playing someone like Salesian (the projected No. 1 seed) and I don’t know if we can end our season any better than we did tonight. But it’s up to them.”
Kelseyville (1-6, 2-8) never really gained traction in 2019, just one year removed from winning the NCL I title with a 7-0 record. After a 1-2 preseason against stiff competition, the Knights opened league play with back-to-back lopsided home losses to St. Helena and Middletown, two games during which Chavez played a grand total of one half because of injuries.
“We did have to battle through a lot of injuries all season long,” Larsen said. “The kids did well handling the adversity. They never turned sour and I have to commend them for that.”
Clear Lake won the junior varsity game 24-12.
