Crusaders pull away in final seven minutes for 45-13 win
By Mike Hansen, senior correspondent, and Brian Sumpter
LAKEPORT >> Clear Lake High School’s level of execution improved, just not enough to hang around with the undefeated St. Bernard’s Crusaders for a full four quarters on Friday night at Don Owens Stadium in Lakeport.
The Eureka private high school pulled away late to blow open what had been a competitive game for 3 ½ quarters, beating Clear Lake 45-13 in a non-league contest that drops the Cardinals’ season record to 0-3.
“We settled in and played some really good football until midway through the fourth quarter,” Clear Lake head coach Mark Cory said. “Then we imploded.
“We played much better than we have been,” Cory said in comparing Friday’s effort with his team’s first two games – a 51-7 loss at Pierce and a 32-6 league-opening loss last week at Upper Lake. “We got better tonight. We played good defense, were pretty physical during the middle of the game. We had our moments on offense, too.”
It remained 22-13 for a long stretch before costly turnovers by the Cardinals and big plays by the Crusaders started an avalanche of St. Bernard’s points.
“Right now, we’re not very good about digging ourselves out of holes,” Cory said of facing numerous long down-and-distance plays that hurt the Cardinals on several occasions, not to mention turning the ball over on back-to-back kickoff returns in the fourth quarter that led to 10 quick St. Bernard’s points.
“When we came up with turnovers, we couldn’t cash in,” Cory said. “They did.”
St. Bernard’s (4-0) built an early 15-0 lead on the strength on a 63-yard screen pass from Luke Brunton to Tyler Hinrichs just 57 seconds into the game followed by a two-point conversion run, then a 10-yard screen pass from Brunton to Michael Manzi on the Crusaders’ next possession with 5:46 left in the first quarter.
While things appeared as though they might get out of hand early for the Cardinals, Clear Lake’s defense, one that forced five turnovers on the night, finally showed up. Fabian Moreno’s interception of a Trenten Hagler pass (Brunton left the game after being sacked) gave the Cardinals the ball at the St. Bernard’s 45-yard line as the quarter drew to a close. As the second quarter opened, Clear Lake quarterback AJ Bruch connected with Jace Beard on a third-and-three pass that Beard carried 38 yards into the end zone for a touchdown. Nolan Ewing’s extra-point kick closed the gap to 15-7.
The first of two Adrian Truby interceptions on the night put the ball back in the Cardinals’ hands minutes later, but they turned it over on downs after failing to convert on a fourth-and-one play near midfield.
St. Bernard’s had the ball in Clear Lake territory again with less than a minute to play, but another Truby interception with 22 seconds left ended that threat at the Cardinals’ 30-yard line.
Clear Lake received the second-half kickoff and promptly marched 60 yards for a touchdown. Key plays were a pass from Bruch to Ty Bingham down to the St. Bernards’ 18-yard line followed by a run with a five-yard facemask penalty tacked on that moved the ball to the 7. Zane McAuley’s 7-yard touchdown run capped the drive with 9:48 remaining. The extra-point kick was blocked.
St. Bernard’s answered with a touchdown drive of its own, receiver Hinrichs taking the snap from the quarterback position and running five yards for a score that made it 22-13 with 6:58 remaining.
Clear Lake appeared to have something working on its next possession until a dropped pass, one that would have resulted in a first down on third-and-seven, led to a punt.
Cory called it a turning point in the game.
“That was kind of a big play because we still had momentum at that point and it was still close,” Cory said.
St. Bernard’s coughed up the ball on a fumble recovered by Tyler Collins, the first of his two fumble recoveries on the night, but the Cardinals couldn’t make anything out of it and had to punt.
The quarter ended with Clear Lake’s defense forcing a punt by St. Bernard’s, the Cardinals taking over at their own 30. A late hit by the Crusaders and two Clear Lake moved the ball into St. Bernard’s territory, but the drive bogged down on penalties and the Cardinals were forced to punt again.
Collins recovered his second fumble at that point, giving Clear Lake great starting field position at the St. Bernard’s 33. Backed up by a holding penalty, the Cardinals eventually gave up the ball on downs after lining up for a punt but instead throwing a pass that fell incomplete.
And that’s when the Clear Lake implosion began.
Hagler and Manzi hooked up on 49-yard touchdown pass that pushed the Crusaders’ lead to 29-13 with 7:30 left in the game.
Clear Lake mishandled the ensuing kickoff, leading to a 33-yard goal that made it 32-13. When the Cardinals fumbled away a second straight kickoff return, Hagler hit Quinten Ikeya with a long pass down to the Clear Lake 2, and Hinrichs scored on the next play for a 39-13 lead.
After a Clear Lake punt in the final minutes of the game, St. Bernard’s tacked on a 70-yard touchdown run to make it 45-13.
“The last part of the fourth quarter we couldn’t get out of our own way,” Cory said.
Even though the last half of the fourth quarter was tough to watch, Cory said he came away from the game feeling encouraged by the positive steps his players took to keep things close against a tough opponent – at least until the final minutes.
“Today we had some energy, which we really didn’t have in our first two games,” he said. “We showed we are capable of competing. We need to keep working hard and improving.”
Clear Lake returns to its league schedule next Friday at home against Middletown (1-2).
Game notes: Another positive for the Cardinals was nothing caught fire Friday night. A week earlier with Kelseyville playing at Don Owens Stadium against Fort Bragg, a light standard caught on fire following Kelseyville’s 41-14 win. The lights were not an issue against St. Bernard’s, according to Cory, as everything was working just fine … “It’s because Kelseyville played on our field, I still blame them,” Cory said totally in jest … Bruch, a junior playing his first year of varsity ball, finished the game 11-for-28 for 119 yards, one TD and one interception. Beard (two catches for 43 yards) and McAuley (two for 38) were his leading receivers. McAuley also led the Cardinals with 56 rushing yards on 21 carries.
