Lower Lake looks to finish in upper half of league
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LOWER LAKE >> A bigger and deeper line, both on offense and defense, and a solid group of skill players bodes well for the Lower Lake Trojans as they kick off their 2024 varsity football season Friday night in Esparto.
Head coach Jay Jakubowski’s squad will be facing a Spartans club that fell 28-0 to the Delhi Hawks a week ago in Delhi.
“They ran the ball 88 percent of the time,” Jakubowski said of the Spartans (0-1). “They moved the ball but they couldn’t score.”
Lower Lake’s coach said his team’s defensive line will be tested right away against a physical Esparto club.
“They’re a power team with a huge center and two huge guards,” Jakubowski said. “It will be their physical size against our speed and size up front on the defensive line.”
With a varsity roster of 33 players and 77 players between the junior varsity and varsity clubs, Lower Lake will have the ability to spell players at different positions this season.
The team’s depth, especially up front, should play a huge role in Lower Lake’s success.
“We have depth in the line for the first time in a while,” Jakubowski said.
The Trojans also return starting quarterback Ashton Hartmann, who is just a junior, and their top two returning running backs, Zakai Vilmenay and Zach Jones, are both seniors. While Lower Lake doesn’t have the big playmakers at wide receiver they’ve featured in the past, pass-catchers who could make things happen in the open field, Jakubowski said he has a solid wide receiver core between veterans Jimmy Shankles and Luke Campbell and a host of newcomers.
“We don’t have a Taylor Warren or a Buddy Felder, but we have good route runners,” he said.
Anchoring the line are seniors Vinny Wilson and Jeffrey Barbosa and junior Brody Woodberry.
Four sophomores who Jakubowski is counting on to make an impact this season are Brody Shields (safety/wide receiver), Jordan Rohrbacker (tight end/wide receiver), Anthony Russell (running back/outside linebacker) and Kody Ranous (tackle).
While the Trojans have had some lean years since last posting a winning record in 2019 (0-7 in 2021, 1-9 in 2022 and 3-7 in 2023), Jakubowski believes better days are ahead, starting this season.
“I think we’re going to better as far as last season goes,” Jakubowski said. “I honestly feel we can finish in the top four of the league (North Central League I). These kids have come up playing football together. There is a lot of team unity, not as much individuality that’ve we have in the past. They’ve worked hard in the offseason and built off that summer success. We went to the Humboldt camp (end of June) and did well. Clear Lake was there too.”
If there is a “must” for the Trojans this season, it’s this, according to Jakubowski.
“We need to stay disciplined and stay focused,” Jakubowski said. “We may not have some of the super athletes we’ve had in the past, but we are more of a team. We have hard working kids who need to stay focused.”
Lower Lake is one of three county teams opening its season Friday night and one of four county teams in action this weekend. Also on Friday, Middletown hosts Piner while Kelseyville travels to McKinleyville. On Saturday night, Upper Lake plays Terra Linda in San Rafael. Clear Lake has a bye this weekend and kicks off its season Friday, Sept. 6 in Arbuckle against Pierce High School.
