Lower Lake falls 43-37 in overtime to St. Helena despite heroic comeback
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LOWER LAKE >> Down 34-0 late in the first half against the St. Helena Saints, the Lower Lake Trojans were a lot closer to drawing a running clock than pushing their opponent into overtime Friday night during North Central League I varsity football action at Gordon Sadler Field in Lower Lake.
And yet overtime is where the surprised Saints and even-more-surprised Trojans ended up, somehow, someway.
While the story didn’t have a completely happing ending as the Trojans fell 43-37 in overtime to the Saints, Lower Lake’s refusal to roll over in the face of nearly impossible odds barely missed becoming one of the greatest comeback stories – if not the greatest – in Lake County high school football history.
“Last night was a bit crazy,” Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski said of the wild finish, one during which Lower Lake, trailing 37-8 at halftime, outscored St. Helena 29-0 in the final two quarters to force overtime.
“Not too often will you spot a team 34 points in the first half and then have a chance to win, especially a well-coached team with some great players like St. Helena,” Jakubowski added. “The team that took the field in the second half was the team we are capable of being, and the crazy part was it was a played-led conversation that led to their success.”
Lower Lake (1-3 league, 3-3 overall) was in all sorts of trouble late in the first half, and when the Trojans finally did get on the scoreboard with a little more than a minute remaining in the second quarter on a touchdown pass from Ashton Hartmann to Luke Campbell, followed by a Zach Jones conversion run, the Saints had no reason to be concerned.
In fact, St. Helena was able to scratch out three more points before halftime as Camilo Aguirre booted a 27-yard field goal to make it 37-8.
“We were able to move the ball late in the first half, but they had a great plan and played great offensively,” Jakubowski said of the Saints (2-1, 2-3).
With St. Helena set to receive the second-half kickoff, opportunity finally knocked for Lower Lake, and the Trojans answered the door.
“We got an opportunity on the opening kickoff of the second half when Zach Jones recovered a kickoff mishap that gave us the ball,” Jakubowski said.
The Trojans cashed in almost immediately, Jones scoring on a 7-yard run to cap a short series. Michael Williams adding the conversion run to make it 37-16.
“After we scored you could feel the energy changing,” Jakubowski said.
Still facing a sizeable deficit, Lower Lake was just getting warmed up far as momentum was concerned. While it was completely in St. Helena’s favor in the first half, it was about to hit the Saints like a tsunami. St. Helena was driving for a score of its own when the Trojans’ Brody Shields came up with the defensive play of the game, stripping a St. Helena ballcarrier and pouncing on the loose football.
“Brody Shield stripped the ball away from their ballcarrier and we were able to turn it into points,” Jakubowski said.
Lower Lake closed to 37-22 a few minutes later on another Hartmann to Campbell pass, though the two-point conversion failed.
Unable to move the ball on offense or stop Lower Lake on defense, which was a complete turnaround from the first two quarter, the Saints probably weren’t sweating yet, but they started to after Hartmann scored on a 2-yard keeper with two minutes left in the third quarter. Jimmy Shankles kicked the extra point to make it 37-29, and now the Lower Lake crowd was into it every bit as much as the Lower Lake sideline.
The Trojans completed the comeback at the 9:24 mark of the fourth quarter when Hartmann connected with Christian Rodriguez on an 80-yard touchdown play that cut St. Helena’s lead to 37-35. The ensuing two-point conversion try for the tie was good as Hartmann ran into the end zone.
And now Gordon Sadler Field was rocking.
“When Ashton hit Christian on a deep post for a touchdown, I felt we had a chance to make it a game,” Jakubowski said.
With plenty of time left for both teams to win it in regulation, neither could.
While Lower Lake was unable to score during the California tiebreaker, the second straight week the Trojans have gone to overtime with their opponent – they fell 20-12 in double overtime the previous week at home against Upper Lake – St. Helena finally found its way back into the end zone on a game-winning 31-yard pass from quarterback Jhony Covarrubias to Eric Torres.
Despite the team’s incredible comeback falling just a bit short, Jakubowski said the Trojans should take pride in the fight they put up in the second half and into the overtime.
“I am so proud of our players and their resolve,” he said. “We had a subpar week of practice and several distractions. We played lackluster in the first half. Zach played outstanding at linebacker and our defensive line began to play like they have in the past, allowing us to eliminate the big plays and slow down their offense. There was definitely no quit in our guys and I’m so proud of them.”
Hartmann finished the game 9-for-20 with 232 yards, three touchdowns and a two-point conversion run. Rodriguez had three catches for 105 yards while Campbell caught four passes for 76 yards. Zakai Vilmenay’s 66 rushing yards on 13 carries led the Trojans on the ground.
St. Helena’s Covarrubias also had a big game. He was 14-for-23 for 178 yards with three TDs passing, and he added another 37 yards rushing with two more TDs. Sam Beck was the Saints’ leading rusher with 133 yards on 28 carries and one TD. Former Middletown High player Troy Taber caught a pair of touchdown passes, part of a four-reception night for 64 yards.
Lower Lake hits the road next Friday to play Clear Lake (0-3, 0-5) while St. Helena travels to Middletown (1-2, 2-3).
St. Helena won the junior varsity game Friday, beating Lower Lake 29-12. The Trojans are 0-4 in league play and 0-4 overall.
