UPPER LAKE — Westshore running back Mikel Compton rushed for two touchdowns and quarterback A.J. Bruch passed for one score and ran for another Saturday night as the varsity-level Cardinals of the Mendo Lake Empire Junior Football League closed out a perfect regular season with a 26-8 victory over the Northshore Cougars in Upper Lake.
Westshore (10-0) hosts fourth-place Sonoma in the first round of the MLEJFL playoffs Saturday night in Lakeport at 7:30 p.m. The winner advances to the championship game the following weekend against the winner between Middletown (9-1) and Willits on Saturday in Middletown at 6:30 p.m.
“This game was all about defense,” Westshore head coach Derek Butcher said of the Cardinals’ regular-season finale against Northshore. “They like to run a lot of trickery in their play-calling, so we had to be ready for anything. Our defense did a great job stopping whatever Northshore threw at us.”
Compton’s 61-yard touchdown run early in the first quarter put Westshore on the board first. Upper Lake closed to 6-2 on a safety when the Cardinals recovered their own punt snap in the end zone.
Bruch’s 25-yard pass to Kaleb Bell in the second quarter gave Westshore a 12-2 halftime lead.
It wasn’t until the final seconds of the third quarter that the Cardinals were able to pull away as Compton scored on a 15-yard run and Jesse Hayes added the extra-point kick (worth two points in youth football) for a 20-2 lead.
“Offensively we were like a woodpecker in a petrified forest,” Butcher said. “We just kept pecking away until we finally found something that worked.”
Bruch’s 11-yard run in the fourth quarter gave Westshore a bit more breathing room at 26-2. Northshore closed to 26-8 on a 3-yard run with 2:54 left in the game.
Compton finished with 118 yards on nine carries while Hayes added 69 yards on 13 carries.
For the Westshore defense, leaders were Nathan Boomer with two solo tackles and four assists, Colton Mendoca with two tackles and three assists, Hayes with two tackles and two assists, including a quarterback sack, Ryken Villanueva with two tackles and two assists, Compton with one tackle and four assists, Zane McAuley with two tackles and one assist, Mikah Meo with three assists, and Sawyer Smith with one fumble recovery, one interception and one tackle.
In other Westshore-Northshore action Saturday, Northshore won 6-0 in the junior varsity game while Westshore won 20-6 in the pee wee game. Westshore’s pee wees (9-1) finished second in the league standings and play third-place Lower Lake (7-2-1) Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in first-round playoff action at Lakeport.
In other playoff action Saturday in Middletown, Middletown’s undefeated pee wees (10-0) host Willits (6-4) at 2:30 p.m., the Middletown JVs (10-0) host St. Helena (7-2-1) at 4:30 p.m., and the second-place Middletown varsity (9-1) plays Willits (7-3) at 6:30 p.m.
