Posted: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:13 AM - 9,641 Readers

By: Brian Sumpter

STATISTICAL LEADERS

Rushing -- Vince Rave of Clear Lake carried the ball 18 times for 186 yards and three touchdowns in a 34-26 win over Lower Lake. Kelseyville workhorse Geno Poloni had 178 yards on 33 carries and a TD in a 17-7 loss to Fort Bragg. Upper Lake's Ward Beecher finished with 162 yards on 18 carries and a TD in a 44-0 rout of Calistoga while backfield mates Bradley Brackett and Travis Floyd added 108 yards apiece. Floyd also ran for scores of 2, 36 and 9 yards. Lower Lake's Jerald Drummond had 96 yards on 21 carries and a TD.

Passing -- Upper Lake's Travis Coleman made his two completions count, throwing 37- and 22-yard touchdowns to running back Ward Beecher. Lower Lake's Richard Tucker went 11-for-21 for 190 yards and two TDs against Clear Lake, which had a productive night from its quarterback, Kenny Henninger, who was 3-for-3 for 48 yards and a TD.

Receiving -- Lower Lake's Alphonso Daniels had three catches for 81 yards and a TD while Upper Lake's Beecher had two TD receptions for a total of 59 yards. Lower Lake's Jesse Meldrum had three catches for 51 yards against Clear Lake. Middletown's DJ Brookshire caught three passes for 46 yards in a 16-2 loss to St. Helena.

Highlights

Special teams -- Clear Lake's Vince Rave set up one of his three touchdown runs against

Lower Lake with a 26-yard punt return in the first quarter. Middletown's Dylan Finley blocked an extra point.

Getting defensive -- Upper Lake limited Calistoga to a single first down and 25 yards of offense Saturday afternoon in Upper Lake. Kelseyville's Geno Poloni was in on 11 tackles and also had an interception against Fort Bragg. Teammate James Green was in on nine tackles, one of those a sack.

Sack attack -- Clear Lake sacked Lower Lake QB Richard Tucker six times. Mike Reynolds had 2 ½ of those. Dylan Finley picked up his county-leading seventh sack of the season for Middletown, which held undefeated St. Helena to its lowest point total of the season (16).

Safety, safety, safety -- Middletown's only points against St. Helena came on a safety for intentional grounding in the end zone. Kelseyville gave up two safeties in its loss to Fort Bragg. The first came on a punt snap out of the end zone, another when a Kelseyville player retreated into the end zone to recover a Knights fumble.

0-7 blues -- For Kelseyville and Lower Lake, who do meet on the final week of the regular season.

Thursday football -- Clear Lake and Middletown will close out the regular season on Thursday, Nov. 10 in Middletown instead of Friday, Nov. 11. The game is being moved up a day because of the Veterans Day holiday.

Still undefeated -- Middletown's JVs improved to 7-0 by handing the St. Helena JVs their first loss of the season, 19-7. Middletown running back Victor Montanez rushed for 249 yards on 24 carries and had all three of the Mustangs' touchdowns. Oh, yeah, he also had eight tackles on defense.

Perfectly thrown -- Clear Lake's quarterback Kenny Henninger hit Adrian Perez in stride on a 38-yard touchdown pass with 9:43 left in the fourth quarter as the Cardinals pushed ahead of the Lower Lake Trojans to stay at 27-26. The pass came on a fourth-and-10 play.

Back-to-back touchdowns -- Clear Lake scored touchdowns on consecutive plays from scrimmage in the fourth quarter. The first was (see above) Kenny Henninger's touchdown pass to Adrian Perez. When the Cardinals got the ball back 4 ½ minutes later, running back Vince Rave took a handoff on first down and went 66 yards for another touchdown that sealed Clear Lake's 34-26 victory over Lower Lake.

4-for-4 -- Clear Lake lost four fumbles against Lower Lake and the Trojans turned all four turnovers into touchdowns, including a 43-yard return by Josh Gamble, who recovered two fumbles on the night.

If you ever want to see an upset coach -- Line up offsides on a fourth-and-short play in the fourth quarter of a close game. Clear Lake did that against Lower Lake.

Should of used it -- "Cardinals get Rave review" should have been the headline.

Hoop Classic update -- Upper Lake has dropped out of the Record-Bee Hoop Classic basketball tournament. The tournament will continue with Clear Lake, Kelseyville, Lower Lake and Middletown. Current Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad led Upper Lake to its only varsity victory in the tournament in 2004. Much has changed since then.

Volleyball race heats up -- Clear Lake (9-1) travels to St. Helena (9-1) on Thursday night in North Central League I action. Before then, Clear Lake hosts Lower Lake (7-3) tonight.

Ferndale and everyone else -- Ferndale trounced both Hoopa (41-7) and St. Bernard (56-0) in the first round of round-robin play in the Humboldt Del-Norte Little 4. St. Bernard entered last weekend's game against Ferndale (6-1) with a 6-0 record.

Bass Bowl II update -- Clear Lake hosts Kelseyville on Nov. 4 at Lakeport. Kelseyville's last chance to get a win before that game is Friday night at home against Middletown.

Congrats -- To the Upper Lake varsity boys' cross country team for its fine fifth-place finish at the Mount Sac Invitational on Saturday. Mount Sac is one of the toughest competitions around.

*  Story Contributed by: Brian Sumpter