Cardinals shut out Lower Lake 14-0, improve to 5-0
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LAKEPORT >> LJ Hopkins ran 70 yards for the first score of the game and returned a punt for another touchdown Saturday at the Westshore Cardinals improved to 5-0 on the season with a 14-0 victory over the Lower Lake Trojan in a Mendo-Lake Empire Junior Football League junior varsity game Saturday in Lakeport.
Lower Lake (3-2) and Westshore battled to a scoreless first half.
“Both defenses were playing physical, and yards were hard to come by,” Westshore head coach Jeremy Hopkins said of the first two quarters.
Hopkins’ long touchdown run followed a Lower Lake punt. He also kicked the conversion to give Westshore an 8-0 lead. The Trojans had to punt again on their next possession, but Westshore fumbled the ball away. Again, the Cardinals’ defense held firm and forced a punt, and Hopkins scooped up a low, bouncing kick and raced 65 yards down the sideline, tiptoeing to stay inbounds, and scored.
Westshore’s defense did the rest to close out the shutout victory and maintain its perfect record atop the junior varsity standings.
Hopkins finished with 127 rushing yards.
Defensive leaders were Layton Butcher with 10 tackles, Hopkins with six, Julian Rascon with five, and John Franklin, Chance Poland and Josiah Smith with four each.
“The D was awesome,” Hopkins said of the Westshore defense. “We were flying all over the place and gang tackling. Layton Butcher was playing with his hair on fire. The kid was everywhere.”
Added Hopkins, “All of our linebackers played really well, they were swarming everywhere. Franklin, Hopkin, Butcher and Adrian Wright were on their game. Josiah Smith at defensive tackle was living in their backfield, making it hard for Lower Lake to get things going.
“It was a battle out there. Lower Lake is big, strong and physical, and they gave us all we could handle,” Hopkins added.