Knights rout Cardinals 40-14 to clinch share of North Central League I title
By Mike Hansen, senior correspondent, and Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKEPORT >> Big plays made a big difference in another big Bass Bowl win for the Kelseyville Knights, 40-14 winners over the Clear Lake Cardinals in Bass Bowl XIV on Friday night at Don Owens Stadium in Lakeport.
While taking a 9-5 lead in the Bass Bowl series, Kelseyville (7-0 league, 8-1 overall) also clinched a tie for the North Central League I championship, its first since 2018. The Knights can claim the undisputed crown and cap an undefeated league season with a victory next Friday against the St. Helena Saints (6-1, 6-3) in Lakeport. If St. Helena, which is led by former Kelseyville head coach Erick Larsen prevails, the league race will end in a three-way tie – Kelseyville, St. Helena and Willits will all finish 7-1.
Kelseyville head coach Leo Flores, an assistant under Larson at Kelseyville, said he’s heard through the Napa County media grapevine that next week’s meeting is being called the “Larsen Bowl.”
“I just want to know if there’s a special trophy,” Flores joked. “I mean if it’s a bowl game, the winner has to get something.”
On the subject of trophies, the Knights retained possession of the Bass Bowl wooden sculpture for a second straight year after taking it to the Cardinals again, and by almost the same final score as last year’s 42-14 drubbing in Kelseyville.
“Any win is good, but I’m really happy for the seniors,” Flores said. “It was their last Bass Bowl and I wanted to give them another win to put under their belt.”
While Flores improved to 2-0 in Bass Bowl competition, Clear Lake veteran coach Mark Cory fell to 3-5 after watching his Cardinals surrender the first 34 points of the game.
Clear Lake held tough for about a quarter and a half before Kelseyville broke open a 7-0 game, building a 20-0 lead by halftime.
“We did a good job at the beginning. They were moving the ball, but we were able to make them earn it,” Cory said of the Knights’ game-opening 80-yard scoring drive, one that consumed almost eight minutes on the clock. Kelseyville had to convert a pair of third-down plays and a fourth-and-2 late in the drive to reach the end zone, which it eventually did on a Michael DeJohn 6-yard run with 4:09 left.
Kelseyville’s offense struggled a bit after that, going three and out on its next possession. Clear Lake moved the ball just into Kelseyville territory but couldn’t convert on a fourth-and-two play as the Knights took over on downs.
A bad snap put Kelseyville into a hole on its third possession of the night as the Knights were facing a third-and-30 early in the second quarter. They ended up punting, a short kick that left the Cardinals with great starting position, but Clear Lake went three and out before punting the ball back to the Knights, who now found themselves pinned deep in their own territory once again, this time at the 12. They didn’t stay there very long.
Senior running back Kyle Watkins, who saw only limited action the previous two weeks while recovering from an ankle injury that sidelined him for two games, broke loose on an 86-yard counter on a third-and-eight play, scoring with 5:36 left in the half to give Kelseyville a 13-0 lead. It was his 13th rushing touchdown of the season but his first since the Knights’ 24-21 win over Middletown on Sept. 20.
Flores said freshman wide receiver Hugh O’Boyle delivered a key block about 10 yards down the field to spring Watkins free.
“He didn’t give up on the play and his block opened things up,” Flores said.
“We gave up too many big plays,” Cory said of what would be the first but not last big play by the Knights. “They hurt themselves with penalties a few times, which helped us, but they were able to make big plays and we weren’t.”
Flores concurred with Cory’s assessment, especially when it came to penalties and a couple of mishandled snaps that were partly attributable to the wet conditions. He also said the Knights sometimes get ahead of themselves and speed things up when it’s not necessary.
“The kids get really excited and that’s when we have a tendency to shoot ourselves in the foot a little bit. We rush when we don’t have to. Sometimes I have to call a timeout to settle them down.”
Clear Lake moved the ball down to the Kelseyville 32-yard line with 2:32 left in the half and it appeared as though the Cardinals might make a game of it at that point, but just as the drizzle stopped falling the Knights’ Roman Mathis picked off an AJ Bruch pass.
With time running out, the Knights pushed the ball down the field in a hurry, moving into Clear Lake territory on back-to-back runs, including a 20-yard gain by running back Bryce Keener, back in action after missing two games with a hamstring injury. Watkins then broke off a 25-yard run to the Clear Lake 15.
With only 29 seconds left and Kelseyville facing a third-and-10, Watkins picked up 10 more yards to the Clear Lake 5 as the Knights called a timeout with :20 left. Kelseyville scored on the next play, quarterback Brock Barrick hitting a wide-open Watkins in the flat for a touchdown, the first of three Barrick passing TDs during the game.
Jose Juarez kicked the extra point to make it 20-0 with 10 seconds before halftime.
Clear Lake received the second-half kick and pushed the ball across midfield with the aid of Kelseyville penalties and a Bruch pass to Payton Portlock before the drive bogged down and the Cardinals had to punt. The kick rolled toward the goal line and was downed at the Kelseyville 4.
The Knights were facing a third-and-four from the 10 when Barrick motored 75 yards on a keeper to the Clear Lake 15. Barrick, who rushed for more than 100 yards for the second time in his last three games, capped the drive a short time later with a 3-yard run as the Knights pushed their lead to 27-0 with 5:45 left in the third quarter.
Clear Lake failed to cover the ensuing kickoff as the ball squirted away from a Cardinals player on the wet grass and Kelseyville recovered at the Clear Lake 37. While lining up for a fourth-and-four play, Kelseyville caught a break when the Cardinals jumped offsides. Barrick hooked up with Watkins on a 25-yard pass on the next play for a 34-0 lead.
The Cardinals found the end zone on each of their next two possessions. A long pass from Bruch to Nolan Ewing and a shorter pass to Portlock, who made a nice one-handed grab, set up the first touchdown, a 3-yard run by Zane McAuley to make it 34-6.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals took advantage of a short field to score again. McAuley had a big gain of 24 yards on a third-and-10 play. After another short run, Bruch and Adrian Truby hooked up for an 11-yard touchdown, which combined with a deflected conversion pass from Bruch to Truby cut the Kelseyville lead to 34-14.
Kelseyville answered with a 63-yard drive for its final points, those coming on a 21-yard pass from Barrick to tight end Jayden Teabo with 6:12 left to play.
Watkins finished with 179 yards on 11 carries while Barrick added 102 yards and DeJohn 84, giving him 1,001 yards for the season. For Clear Lake, McAuley was the leading rusher with 64 yards while Bruch completed 9 of 22 passes for 111 yards. Barrick was 6-of-12 for 97 yards throwing the ball.
On defense for the Knights, River Calhoun had four solo tackles and 10 assists while DeJohn added five solo tackles, six assists and a sack.
“The defense did a great job to get us the ball as many times as they did,” Flores said.
“We knew they were going to score a lot of points,” Cory said. “They’re a good team. We just couldn’t do much in that first half against them. We might have had more penalty yards than any other type of yards.”
While Kelseyville is hosting St. Helena next week to close out the regular season, the Cardinals’ season is over as they will receive a forfeit win from Cloverdale because the Eagles no longer field a varsity team, the result of too many injuries this season. The Cardinals’ final record for 2024 will stand at 2-6 in league and 2-8 overall. Clear Lake’s junior varsity team will travel to Cloverdale for its final game
