FERNDALE — Although they didn’t bring their best game to Ferndale, the Clear Lake Cardinals had more than enough offense, even with starting quarterback Jake Soderquist on the bench for all but one play of the second half, to handle the Ferndale Wildcats 33-18 in non-league varsity football action Saturday in Ferndale.
Game time temperature was 78 degrees, an incredible relief for all of the Clear Lake fans who made the long trip north following last week’s heat wave in Lake County. However, that didn’t stop local residents from complaining about the “hot” conditions.
Despite what the final score said, the Cardinals (2-0) were never in any danger of dropping their first road game of the 2022 season. While Ferndale (1-2) definitely gave Clear Lake everything it had, mounting several drives that used up significant chucks of time on the clock, the Cardinals’ defense forced enough stops to limit the Wildcats to a solitary score until late in the fourth quarter, by which time Clear Lake held a 33-6 lead.
The Wildcats marched 71 yards in 10 plays to close to 33-12 with 4:08 left in the game and scored again with 2:20 remaining when Isaak Kasso picked off a Graden Greer pass with Clear Lake inside the Ferndale 10-yard line and returned it 98 yards for a touchdown.
“We won because we were the better team, but we weren’t sharp today,” Clear Lake head coach Mark Cory said. “Maybe in some ways we were, but overall I thought we could have done a lot better. Good teams find a way to win the game and make big plays and that’s what we did today.”
Clear Lake built a 20-6 first-half lead with Soderquist behind center. He didn’t start the second half because of a calf bruise and was limited to just one play over the final two quarters when his backup, Graden Greer, had to briefly leave the field because of a leg cramp. Soderquist took one snap before exiting for the sidelines as Greer returned to the field.
“He tried to walk it off for a quarter and a half and it wasn’t working,” Cory said of Soderquist’s injury.
With Soderquist in the lineup, Clear Lake took a 6-0 lead on a brief two-play series midway through the first quarter. Clear Lake took over on a punt at its own 47-yard line and was in the end zone almost immediately on back-to-back completions — 25 yards to Cody Hayes and 28 yards to Ayden Williamson for the touchdown.
The Cardinals needed just three plays following a Ferndale punt to go up 13-0 on their first possession of the second quarter. Starting at the Ferndale 43, Clear Lake gained seven yards on consecutive running plays before Soderquist connected with running back Hank Ollenberger on a short pass that turned into a 36-yard touchdown. After picking up the first down over the middle, Ollenberger broke back to the outside toward the Clear Lake sideline and weaved his way into the end zone.
A key sequence followed. Ferndale put together its best drive of the day after Jack Westfall’s 41-yard kickoff return. The Wildcats marched 42 yards on eight time-consuming plays — seven of them runs — to close to 13-6 on Westfall’s 4-yard run with 3:20 left in the half.
If the Wildcats were feeling pretty good about making a game of it, the feeling was shortlived. Ollenberger took the ensuing kickoff, headed up the middle of the field, found a gap to his left and was down the Clear Lake sideline before Ferndale fans back in their seats after celebrating Westfall’s touchdown. Jesse Hayes’ extra-point kick made it 20-6 with 3:07 remaining.
“That was the play of the game for us,” Cory said. “We pride ourselves on our special teams and that was a big play.”
Ferndale made a late push for the end zone in the final minutes but the drive stalled on downs inside the Clear Lake 30.
Protecting that 20-6 lead in the second was left to a Clear Lake offense run by backup QB Greer and a Cardinals defense that was very much up to the task.
Greer started slowly, missing badly on his first two passes and then mishandling a punt snap that Ferndale recovered at the Clear Lake 45, but Clear Lake’s defense forced the Wildcats to turn the ball over on downs.
When Clear Lake went back on offense, Ollenberger and Jesse Hayes, a freshman, combined for five straight carries that moved the ball to the Ferndale 25. Greer then completed his first pass of the day, a 4-yarder to Cody Hayes that brought up a third-and-4. Jesse Hayes took it from there, taking the handoff and bursting up the middle where he dodged Ferndale defenders on his 21-yard romp to the end zone and a 26-6 Cardinals lead.
“We kind of got Jesse and Hank going and that saved it for us in the second half,” Cory said.
Ollenberger finished 74 yards on 14 carries — almost all of that in the second half — while Jesse Hayes gained all 49 of his yards in the second half.
And while Clear Lake’s running game helped ease the hurt with Soderquist out of the game, so did Soderquist’s replacement, Greer. After a shaky start to his day, he completed all four of his passes for 46 yards on the Cardinals’ next possession, which started late in the third quarter and finished with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Greer to Cody Hayes with 9:10 remaining in the game. That made it 33-6 as Jesse Hayes kicked the extra point.
“He started to get a feel for it,” Cory said of Greer.
Three of Greer’s passes during the 53-yard scoring drive went to Cody Hayes, who ended up with five receptions for 58 yards.
While the Wildcats’ long 71-yard scoring drive in the fourth quarter was impressive, Clear Lake’s defense never let the Wildcats near the end zone at any other point in the second half.
The game ended fittingly enough when Clear Lake’s Wade Wittman sacked the Ferndale quarterback with time running out and also stripped him of the ball, which Ollenberger recovered. Greer took a knee to run out the final seconds.
Cory said the Wildcats’ final points on the long interception return by Kasso were his fault.
“They (Ferndale defenders) were pressed together inside so I thought we could go outside,” Cory said. “That was a bad call.”
Clear Lake faced an interesting dilemma on its final scoring drive. The Cardinals had a first-and-goal from the Ferndale 1 following an 11-yard run by Jesse Hayes. Greer tried to roll into the end zone for the score, but he cramped up and fell to the ground at the 3. With no third-string quarterback on the roster, Soderquist limped back onto the field to take the snap on second-and-goal, and he was dropped for a 1-yard loss. Greer then replaced Soderquist on third-and-goal and connected with Cody Hayes for the touchdown.
While Ferndale’s offense found the end zone only twice, the Wildcats did use up a fair share of the game clock as they ran the ball 38 times fo 132 yards compared to Clear Lake’s 24 carries for 124 yards. Both teams also turned the ball over three times.
“We still have work to do,” Cory said in reference to the turnovers as well as other things that he felt were lacking in Clear Lake’s performance against Ferndale.
The stellar play of Clear Lake’s offense line continued as the Cardinals didn’t allow a sack for the second game in a row.
Cory praised the effort of the Wildcats, who the Cardinals easily handed a year ago in Lakeport, winning 33-8.
“Those kids played hard, they got after it,” he said of the Wildcats.
Ferndale won the junior varsity game 21-18.
Varsity game notes: Soderquist had an ice bag on the back of his calf for much of the second half and Cory said he didn’t know how the injury would affect his quarterback’s preparations for next week’s opponent, Rio Vista. Soderquist attempted six passes in the first half and completed four for 94 yards and the two touchdowns, his fifth and sixth of the season … Clear Lake finished with 268 yards of total offense to Ferndale’s 212 … Clear Lake travels to Rio Vista on Friday to play the 2-2 Rams, 62-8 losers to Winters (1-2) last Friday … One of the Ferndale game officials had to leave the field in an ambulance in the first half. There was no official word on his condition or why he had to leave the game … Clear Lake had a fair showing of fans, a handful of whom also were able to attend a portion of the Clear Lake varsity volleyball team’s championship run Saturday at the Arcata Tournament.
”
