LOWER LAKE — A 92-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Zayne Barker to freshman tight end Reme Strong in the first quarter was all the Kelseyville Knights needed to beat the Lower Lake Trojans 6-0 in the North Central League I and season finale for both of these varsity football teams Friday night at Gordon Sadler Field in Lower Lake.
Strong caught the short pop pass 10 yards down the field and broke it up the middle for the touchdown.
“And that kid has some wheels,” said Kelseyville head coach Erick Larsen, who was able to utilize the talents of a handful of junior varsity players because there was no JV game (Lower Lake folded its team on Monday).
“They snuck one in on us,” Lower Lake head coach Jeremy Jakubowski said.
Kelseyville (2-5 league, 2-8 overall) also mounted two long drives during the game that produced no points. The Knight attempted a pair of field goals that placekicker Joey Gentle missed in the second quarter.
“They pounded the rock,” Jakubowski said of the Knights, who were fairly balanced with 29 runs for 111 yards and 21 passes for 126 yards, including the first varsity completion for freshman Tyler Bryant.
Lower Lake’s offense managed just 91 total yards and never mounted a serious threat against a Kelseyville defense that was led by the play of sophomore defensive tackle JoseCarmen Calvillo and cornerback Gentle, a junior.
“Jose had a monster game,” Larsen said. “And Joey did a great job. He misses a kick (field goal) and turns around and plays great defense.”
Calvillo finished with seven solo stops and one assist while Barker had seven tackles and three assists. Calvillo also recovered a fumble, one of three Kelseyville takeaways.
Even though his defense played well all night, Larsen said it’s impossible to feel comfortable leading by a single touchdown.
“It was still a stressful game with just a six-point lead,” he added.
Both teams fought the injury bug all year while the Trojans also had to cancel two league games because of COVID-19 quarantines. They also had to cancel a non-league game because they didn’t have enough healthy players mainly because of football injuries, especially to linemen.
Jakubowski said things aren’t likely to improve in the near future under the current COVID-19 conditions he has to deal with daily.
“We started the year with 40 JV kids,” Jakubowski said. “After we returned from our two-week COVID layoff (the Trojans forfeited back-to-back league games with Willits and Cloverdale) we had three kids left.”
Between losing the entire 2020 season to the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuing COVID fallout into this season, the momentum the Lower Lake football program generated during a successful 2019 campaign (7-4 record, playoff berth) has evaporated, according to Jakubowski.
“We have our hands kind of tied and a lot of hard work in front of us,” Jakubowski said. “People love it in when we’re down.”
Larsen fought his own battles with COVID-19 tracing and protocols during the season, not to mention football injuries that cost him key players beginning with the annual Lake County Scrimmage in mid-August. While the Knights never lost a game to COVID-19, they did forfeit 2-0 to St. Helena last month because of football injuries and disciplinary actions taken the day of that game.
Ending the season on a positive note was some consolation as Larsen looks forward to better things in 2022.
“The kids played well together tonight and we a have a young group,” he said. “I think I had seven sophomores on the field at one point.”
Though he wasn’t expected to play because of an injury, Sam Vanoven did appear in the second half for the Knights and ended up leading the team in rushing with 51 yards on nine carries.
“I talked with him before the game and it’s something he wanted to do. He had the support of his parents,” Larsen said.
Kelseyville’s only other win during the season was a 43-12 victory at Fort Bragg on Oct. 1. The closest Lower Lake came to a win in 2021 was a 19-18 loss to Fort Bragg on Oct. 15 in Lower Lake.
