LAKE COUNTY — Two weeks after they were originally scheduled to play, the Clear Lake Cardinals and St. Helena Saints finally meet in a Week 10 battle of undefeated North Central League I varsity football leaders Friday night in St. Helena.
The delayed meeting was made possible when Willits canceled its road game Friday against Clear Lake in Lakeport because of COVID-19 and Fort Bragg canceled its home game Friday against St. Helena.
With good weather in the forecast and St. Helena’s artificial turf field not affected by last weekend’s monsoon, the NCL I co-leaders will have a fast track to play on. The winner takes over sole possession of first place in the league standings with just one week remaining in the regular season. On Nov. 5, Clear Lake (4-0, 6-1) is home against Cloverdale (2-3, 4-3) while St. Helena (4-0, 6-1) hosts Middletown.
In other Week 10 games involving Lake County teams, Middletown (4-1, 5-3) visits Kelseyville (1-4, 1-7). Lower Lake is off because of COVID-19 and Upper Lake has an open date on its schedule.
Clear Lake at St. Helena
The last two undefeated teams in the NCL I go head to head in what could be the first of two meetings between the two schools this year. Since both squads are moving on to the North Coast Section Division 5 playoffs next month, they could end up playing again either at St. Helena or in Lakeport, with Friday’s winner likely to host any such postseason encounter.
“We have divergent styles,” Clear Lake head coach Mark Cory said of the Saints’ running attack versus the Cardinals’ spread-offense passing attack.
St. Helena has four players with 300 or more rushing yards this season, led by the tandem of senior running backs in Ivan Robledo (586 yards, nine touchdowns) and Harrison Ronayne (568 yards, 7 TDs). Quarterback Spencer Printz (359 yards, 7 TDs rushing) is also a capable passer (456 yards, 4 TDs).
“They have an excellent team,” Cory said. “If they can just slam it at you, they will. They really haven’t had to throw it much, but it’s a better throwing team than they’ve had in a few years.”
Preparing for rushing attacks such as St. Helena’s and Middletown’s isn’t easy, according to Cory.
“I think the hardest part is trying to simulate in practice what they do,” he said. “It took us a while to get our footing against Middletown. They were having great success running the ball early against us, but once we figured out their schemes we caught up to it.”
Middletown opened up a 18-6 lead with three rushing touchdowns in the first half against Clear Lake, but the Cardinals went on to win 26-18 on Oct. 1 in Lakeport.
Led by senior quarterback Jack Daskam, the Cardinals have thrown the ball with great success this season. Of his many downfield targets, wide receiver Zane Robinson has stepped to the forefront in recent weeks, including a four-touchdown game a week ago in a 47-0 win at Fort Bragg. Daskam’s many other targets include Jake Soderquist, Tyler Haskell, Cody Hayes and Ethan Maize.
The Cardinals’ running game of Maize, Hank Ollenberger and a scrambling Daskam have been able to keep opponents honest.
Clear Lake’s defense figures to get its biggest test of the season, especially when matched against the Saints’ powerful running attack.
“It’s the best running team we’ve seen this season,” Cory said. “Our defense has to make them earn what they get. We haven’t given up many big plays and we need to make them grind it down the field.”
How the Cardinals manage their emotions in a big game will be key to their chances, according to Cory.
“There are going to be ups and downs and you have to deal with them as they come along. You need to take it play by play and don’t get caught up in all the emotion. This group has done a good job of that this season,” Cory said.
Healthwise, the Cardinals are in a good place going into St. Helena and are hoping their recent COVID encounter won’t re-occur down the road.
“Probably as healthy as we’ve been in a long time. No one was dinged up in the Fort Bragg game,” Cory said.
St. Helena hasn’t played a game since its 49-6 road win Oct. 8 at Cloverdale. Their scheduled game with Clear Lake on Oct. 15 was canceled because Clear Lake had players in COVID-19 quartantine, and the Saints’ scheduled home game last week against Kelseyville turned into a forfeit win because of a combination of last-second COVID contact tracing results and team disciplinary problems that reduced the Knights’ varsity roster to 12 players.
“I don’t know how it will affect them,” Cory said of the Saints’ two-week layoff. “It took a little while for us to get rolling against Fort Bragg (after a one-week layoff), but they’ve been able to practice the whole time and we couldn’t (because of COVID quarantine), so it’s not quite the same situation.”
Kelseyville at Middletown
The Kelseyville Knights have promoted a handful of sophomores from the junior varsity level and have shuffled the deck in terms of moving some veteran players around to different positions as they prepare to take on the Middletown Mustangs.
“If we don’t get hit with COVID tracing, we’ll suit up 20 players,” Kelseyville head coach Erick Larsen said. “It’s been a real challenge this season, but I appreciate the kids keeping positive.”
Up from the JV squad and immediately moving into starting positions on the varsity are Edgar Favela (left tackle) and Ignacio Montero (right tackle).
Sam Vanoven is moving into the backfield while Steven Frace will start at right guard.
“We’ll have a nice little change of pace,” Larsen said.
With only two games remaining in their season — Friday against Middletown and Nov. 5 at Lower Lake — Larsen said the Knights’ goal is to finish as strong as they possibly can during a season when injuries, COVID and most recently team disciplinary moves have taken their toll.
As for the visiting Mustangs, who are still in the running for the league title going into the weekend, Larsen said, “It’s your typical Middletown team. They don’t make many mistakes, their line blocks real well and their running backs can run the ball. If you get too caught in their running game, they’ll play-action you.”
“Erick’s done the best he could to put kids on the field,” Middletown veteran coach Bill Foltmer said of his coaching counterpart. “Kelseyville has to be one of the unluckiest teams in Northern California this year with what’s happened to them with COVID and football injuries, but you better believe we’re not taking them lightly.”
Foltmer said his team’s 28-0 loss at home to Kelseyville in 2018, which is the same season the Mustangs went on to win a section championship, is the kind of thing that can happen if you get complacent.
“We only put six points on the board last week against Cloverdale,” Foltmer said. “Yeah, we won the game but we’re not in any position to be taking anyone lightly.”
As far as Kelseyville’s 72-0 loss at Cloverdale on Oct. 15, Foltmer said he hasn’t looked at any film from that game.
“That’s not Kelseyville,” Foltmer said. “We looked at their game films from Fort Bragg (43-12 win) and Willits (7-0 loss). They played well in both of those games and they had a chance to beat Willits.”
Middletown has had a good week in practice and the team is relatively healthy going up against the Knights.
“As far as practice goes and putting in the effort, this is an excellent group,” Foltmer said of his 2021 roster. “It comes down to how well we can stop them and how well they can stop our offense.”
