Knights win defensive battle in falling rain at Don Owens Stadium in Lakeport
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LAKEPORT >> A third-quarter safety is all that separated the Kelseyville Knights and Clear Lake Cardinals through the better part of three quarters of their junior varsity football game Friday night at Don Owens Stadium in Lakeport.
Kelseyville finally extended that 2-0 lead on Jayden Fabisch’s 12-yard touchdown run with six minutes left in the game, and the Knights went on to beat the Cardinals 9-0 in North Central League I action, running their league record to 6-1 and securing no worse than a second-place finish in the final league standings. If the Knights win next week against St. Helena (at Lakeport) and Middletown (7-0) loses at home to Upper Lake (4-3), Kelseyville will earn a share to the NCL I title.
Rain that fell off and on throughout the evening made the field a bit tricky to navigate for both teams and certainly lent itself to the low-scoring nature of the game. Weech Burrows Pasalo led the Knights’ defensive unit with four solo tackles and five assists while receiving plenty of help from his teammates, including Aurilius Santos (three solo stops, five assists) and Case Pivniska (three solo stops, four assists). Other tackle leaders were Ethan Wheeler (two solo stops, four assists) and both Angel Ruiz and Deake Lyndall, each with two solo stops and three assists.
The safety was credited to the team defense as the Clear Lake quarterback kicked the ball out of the end zone with 1:10 left in the third quarter to make the score 2-0 in the Knights’ favor.
Fabisch anchored the Kelseyville running attack with 69 yards on 12 carries.
George Gonzalez converted his only extra-point try despite the wet conditions.
Clear Lake’s JV squad travels to Cloverdale on Friday for its league and season. There is no varsity game as Cloverdale has folded up its team because of too few healthy players.
