UPPER LAKE — The defense set the tone early and Upper Lake’s special teams and offense took it from there in a 38-12 homecoming victory over the Calistoga Wildcats on Saturday night at Upper Lake where the Cougars snapped a two-game North Central League II losing streak in style.
Delaney Allison returned a punt 36 yards for a touchdown late in the first quarter to open the scoring and the sophomore’s 18-yard reverse for another score late in the second quarter staked the Cougars (1-2 league, 4-2 overall) to a 16-0 halftime lead.
Calistoga (1-2, 3-2-1) was never closer than 10 points after that, and then only briefly, as Upper Lake never let the Wildcats build up much in the way of momentum. And Upper Lake head coach Vince Moran has his defense to thank for that.
“Our pursuit set the tone for the game, eight guys all rallying to the ball,” Moran said. “We haven’t had that the last few weeks. We looked like a different team tonight.”
Moran was referring to a 28-20 league-opening loss to California School for the Deaf followed by last week’s 32-16 setback to Stuart Hall, two games during which the Cougars dug themselves deep first-half holes to climb out of, and they couldn’t quite come back all the way in either contest.
While Upper Lake’s offense needed time to find its groove again this week, Moran said that had as much to do with the Wildcats as anything else.
“They’re big and their fast,” Moran said. “And they can hit.”
Upper Lake’s defense countered that with extremely impressive physical play of its own. While the Cougars gave up a handful of first downs, which was inevitable given the talents of a big and elusive Calistoga quarterback in Edgar Caldera (28 carries for 166 yards), they turned the Wildcats away empty on all five of their first-half possessions — three times forcing punts, intercepting a pass to stop another drive, and watching Calistoga miss badly on a 48-yard field goal to end the half.
The Cougars struck quickly for their first points as Allison’s punt return followed by Benjamin Beecher’s conversion run made it 8-0. Jonathan Barnes’ interception — the only turnover of the game — set up the Cougars’ next score, which was nearly as sudden. Upper Lake took over at the Calistoga 27 and scored two plays later when Allison caught the flow of the Calistoga defense going the other way on a reverse as he picked his way into the end zone. Allison also caught the two-point conversion pass from quarterback Jerod Rosales for a 16-0 lead.
“Offensively we just kept plugging away,” Moran said of an Upper Lake attack that didn’t pile up a lot of yards — 139 rushing and 39 passing — but also didn’t need to because it was so efficient when it did have the ball.
Aided by a Calistoga unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, the Cougars needed only five plays to score in the third quarter, Beecher’s 4-yard run capping things and giving Upper Lake a 22-6 lead. That followed a touchdown by Calistoga two minutes earlier as Caldera’s 1-yard sneak brought the Wildcats to within 16-6, albeit briefly.
While the Cougars misfired on the two-point conversion following Beecher’s score, they were 4-for-5 on the night in that department, reversing an early season trend, according to Moran.
“We’ve been struggling with that,” Moran said of the team’s lack of success on two-point tries.
Nick Foster touchdown runs of 2 and 39 yards on Upper Lake’s first two possessions of the fourth quarter sealed the victory, Foster adding the conversion run both times. His 2-yard score made it 30-6 with 9:53 remaining. Calistoga scored only 18 seconds later on a 49-yard Caldera run, but Upper Lake answered 15 seconds later when Foster scored from 39 yards out. In all, three touchdowns in a 33-second span to close out a week’s worth of homecoming festivities at the Northshore school and keeping Upper Lake afloat in the NCL II race.
“The funny thing is that I wanted to take time off the clock,” Moran said of the situation right before Foster, who was in the game to replace a banged up Beecher, broke loose on his 39-yard score.
“But what are you going to do?” Moran said. “He scored, so I’ll take that.”
Beecher took a hard hit on his 13th and final carry of that night , that early in the fourth quarter, which shook him up.
“He wanted to stay in, but I wasn’t going to take any chances,” Moran said in evaluating the game situation, with Upper Lake having the game locked up by that point.
Caldera accounted for 190 of Calistoga’s 216 yards of offense.
Foster finished with 60 yards on only five carries while Rosales, who was used sparingly, completed four of five passes, two of them to Foster for 20 additional yards in gains.
Fullback/defensive end Will Henry carried the ball just one, but for a big 27-yard gain right before Beecher’s touchdown run in the third quarter. He also had two sacks on defense. Like Beecher, Henry finished the game on the bench, his sore back flaring up again.
The overall upbeat mood of his team was noticeable from the start, according to Moran, who added that the Cougars also had a good week in practice leading up to kickoff.
“They came out confident from the start and that wasn’t the case in our first two (league) games,” Moran said. “Our guys were capable of winning those games, but we didn’t show up confident and play like we did tonight.”
Upper Lake takes next week off before returning to action Oct. 21 on the road at South Fork (1-1, 3-3), a 38-8 loser to Branson (3-0, 4-1) on Saturday. In other NCL II action Friday, Stuart Hall (3-0, 3-2) beat California School for the Deaf 50-14.
“We can use the week off to get some guys healthy,” Moran said of the league bye, which coaches generally frown upon midseason.
GAME NOTES: A game that was scheduled to kick off at 6 p.m. didn’t actually start until 7:06 p.m. It followed a series of three youth games between the Northshore Cougars and the Westshore Cardinals of the Mendo-Lake Empire Youth Football League, all part of Upper Lake’s homecoming extravaganza. Westshore won the pee wee contest 20-12 while Nortshore won the junior varsity and varsity games by scores of 13-0 and 40-33, respectively … Allison broke off a long run and nearly scored early in the second quarter, but the play was brought back on an illegal formation penalty … How well did Upper Lake’s defense play? The Cougars stopped eight Calistoga running plays for losses while four others resulted in no gain … Best example of parents being parents you’ll ever see; Upper Lake had a 22-6 lead in the third quarter when a couple of adults were calling for Moran to send his reserves into the game. Sound like a safe lead? Middletown scored 20 points during a six-minute span Friday night in the fourth quarter at Fort Bragg to stun the Timberwolves 27-22. Moran said he didn’t hear the parents and only smiled when told after the game what they wanted. “Things can change pretty quickly,” Moran said. “We needed to win this game.” In other words, a 16-point lead in the third quarter of an eight-man football game, especially one you have to win, is about as far from safe as you can get … Maddy Young and Angel Serafin were named Upper Lake’s homecoming queen and king.
