Lower Lake running, passing games fuel non-league road victory
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
HEALDSBURG >> The young Healdsburg Greyhounds have some nice pieces, just not enough of them, and the Lower Lake Trojans took full advantage Friday night, spotting their opponents six points before roaring back for a 30-6 win in non-league varsity football action Friday night at Recreation Park.
The Trojans (2-0) didn’t get to play a full game for the second straight week as Healdsburg forfeited with 2:46 left in the third quarter because of injury concerns. The Greyhounds were short several suspended players and simply didn’t have the manpower to withstand Lower Lake’s pounding physical presence on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
A week earlier against Esparto in their season opener at Lower Lake, the Trojans won 22-7 despite playing less than half – Esparto gave up midway through the second quarter because of injuries (Esparto had an outright forfeit to Los Molinos on Friday night as well).
“I can’t remember anything like this,” Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski said of back-to-back games cut short by his opponent’s injuries.
Dating back to last season, each of Lower Lake’s last three wins have come in games that didn’t go the full four quarters.
“I understand his reasons,” Jakubowski said of his Healdsburg counterpart, first-year head coach Taylor Tappin, “but it’s kind of frustrating for us. They (Greyhounds) are just trying to make it through their season, but we’re starting to get better and need the playing time. We were just starting to get going.”
Lower Lake’s streak of playing less than a full game should end next week when it returns home to face the 2-0 St. Helena Saints in the North Central League I opener for both teams.
“Next week will be our first four-quarter game,” Jakubowski said. “We need to come out and start strong, which we didn’t do against them last year.”
The 2024 meeting between the Trojans and Saints was a bonafide classic in case you’ve forgotten. St. Helena led 37-8 after one half but ended up hanging on for dear life in a 43-37 overtime victory.
So far this season for Lower Lake, slow starts have him the norm. Both Esparto and Healdsburg took early leads only to never reach the end zone again.
The Greyhounds, who have an athletic quarterback in junior Frank Rea and a couple of sure-handed receivers in senior Hayden Mariani and senior Max Morris, took the opening kickoff and marched 75 yards in 11 plays, consuming nearly six minutes on the clock, to go ahead 6-0. Rea went 4-for-4 for 40 yards on the opening drive while also running four times 36 yards, including a 6-yard touchdown run.
Lower Lake answered with its own touchdown drive, albeit an expedited one, moving 62 yards in only six plays thanks to a 16-yard run by Anthony Russell, the start of his big night against the Greyhounds, and a 35-yard pass from quarterback Ashton Hartmann to Jony Ventura. Jason Gandeza’s 5-yard run with 2:32 remaining in the quarter knotted the score at 6-6.
As impressive as Healdsburg’s first drive was, Lower Lake’s defense owned the rest of the game, limiting the Greyhounds to just one first down the remainder of the first half. Meanwhile Lower Lake’s offense moved the ball pretty much at will on the ground and through the air.
A fumble by the Greyhounds led to Lower Lake’s next score early in the second quarter as Hartmann hit Jordan Rohrbacker in the end zone on a 19-yard play, dropping the ball into his hands as Rohrbacker did a nice job of keeping his feet inbounds at the edge of the end zone. Russell ran in the conversion for a 14-6 lead.
The Trojans muffed a punt after stopping Healdsburg on a three-and-out, but the Trojans forced another punt that left them with field position at their own 19-yard line. Hartmann took them right down the field, going 4-for-5 for 50 yards on an 81-yard drive capped by his own 9-yard keeper. Hartmann hooked up with Brody Shields on the conversion pass to make it 22-7 with 1:34 left in the half.
Instead of running out the clock, the Greyhounds threw two incomplete passes on their next possession. While they ran the ball on third down, Lower Lake immediately called a timeout to stop the clock, and Lower Lake got the ball back at its own 27 with 59 seconds left. Hartmann’s 39-yard strike to Christian Rodriguez moved to the Healdsburg 34, but the Trojans couldn’t get any closer, eventually turning the ball over on downs.
Lower Lake put the game away on its second possession of the third quarter, that after stopping a long Healdsburg drive that ran out of downs at the Lower Lake 27 where the Trojan defense dropped a scrambling Rea short of the first-down marker on a fourth-and-nine scramble.
Rea represented the bulk of the Healdsburg offense with 63 yards rushing and 104 yards passing, mostly short passes that were an extension of the team’s running game. Mariani had seven catches for 66 yards and Morris four receptions for 38 yards.
The Trojans moved 78 yards in seven plays to put the game away, ripping off huge chunks of yardage courtesy of Russell runs – 19, 10 and 15 yards for the touchdown – and a 30-yard pass from Hartmann to Rodriguez.
Russell also added the conversion run following his touchdown to make it 30-6.
“Anthony Russell is a good kid who is really making the most of his opportunities this year,” Jakubowski said of the junior who carried the ball sparingly as a sophomore last season. “He’s really relishing the opportunity of being in that roll as our primary running back.”
Russell finished with 130 yards on 14 carries.
Hartmann, a three-year starter at quarterback, finished another abbreviated night with solid numbers, going 10-for-18 for 177 yards. He spread around completions to five different players, Ventura and Rohrbacker being his chief targets, each with three catches. Rodriguez had two receptions for 69 yards. Hartmann was on the money with a handful of other passes that were dropped.
“We’ve got the weapons on the outside that can make some plays,” Jakubowski said. “We just have to catch a few more of those passes.”
Lower Lake dominated both sides of the line of scrimmage even though it wasn’t at full strength against Healdsburg.
The Trojans’ defense certainly did its part as Healdsburg reached the red zone only once. Lower Lake recovered a fumble and had three sacks – Steven Rich and Jorge Carlos each credited with 1 ½ sacks apiece. Gandeza also turned in a strong effort, according to Jakubowski.
GAME NOTES: While next week’s league opener against St. Helena will be a better indicator of where the Trojans stand as far as the upcoming league race is concerned, Jakubowski said this year’s team has a much better vibe about it than last year’s squad, which also won both of its non-league game before going 1-7 in league action … “I had a lot of ‘me’ guys last year,” Jakubowski said. “Not this year.” … Jakubowski credited a pair of players with keeping his team on an even keel in the early going, leaders on and off the field – Ventura and Kody Ranous, a two-way lineman.
