ROSS — It wasn’t exactly the way the Upper Lake Cougars and head coach Vince Moran wanted to end their regular season, but a 70-40 road loss to Branson School of Ross on Saturday afternoon didn’t do much to hurt the team’s postseason chances.
Upper Lake (2-4 league, 5-4 overall) still came away with a first-round home game in the North Coast Section eight-man football playoffs. In fact, Cougars not only open at home Friday night at 7 p.m., but they’ll host a team they beat 38-12 back on Oct. 8 in Upper Lake, the Calistoga Wildcats (4-4-1).
“I thought there was a good chance we would be on the road,” Moran said after the Cougars were overwhelmed by Branson’s passing attack in their North Central League II finale. “But we’ll take it. It’s a good matchup for us. I think it’s a confidence boost for our guys knowing we’ve beaten them before.”
While Calistoga might be a good matchup for Upper Lake, the Branson Bulls certainly were not.
“They were on point,” Moran said of the Bulls’ performance. “We would make changes on defense and they would audible to the next play. They have a tall quarterback and his receivers did a good job of getting open for him.”
Branson (6-4) led 28-8 after one quarter and 40-8 by halftime. Upper Lake outscored Branson 32-30 in the second half, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
“Their line did a good job,” Moran said of Branson’s pass protection.
While the Cougars did have two sacks, they didn’t put much pressure on Branson’s quarterback most of the game. Upper Lake sophomore quarterback Jerod Rosales wasn’t as lucky. Harassed by the Bulls’ pressure all day, he went just 6-for-17 for 71 yards with four interceptions and one touchdown.
“He really got roughed up,” Moran said of Rosales. “He was taking a beating out there.”
Upper Lake lost big despite generating a solid running attack led by two 100-yard-plus rushers — Benjamin Beecher (17 carries for 131 yards, two TDs), and Delaney Allison (10 carries for 128 yards, two TDs). Allison scored the Cougars’ first two touchdowns on runs of 43 and 64 yards, and Beecher the next two on runs of 3 and 20 yards. Sandwiched between the four TDs was a safety when Branson snapped the ball out of the end zone.
The Cougars’ final touchdown came on a Rosales 49-yard pass to Nick Foster.
There were seven turnovers in the game — four by Upper Lake and three by Branson. Luke Summerfield and Billy Stillman had Upper Lake’s sacks.
