St. Helena beats Upper Lake in back-and-forth NCL I battle
Lake County Sports on Facebook
UPPER LAKE >> Upper Lake didn’t come away with the win Friday night at home against the St. Helena Saints, falling 32-28 in a back-and-forth battle, but if the Cougars have proven anything in their first four games season, it’s that they’re back to stay on the 11-man football radar.
“We’re going to be competitive, but we just couldn’t finish it off tonight,” Upper Lake head coach Stan Weiper said.
Trailing 32-28 with three minutes remaining, Upper Lake (1-1 league, 2-2 overall) picked up one first down before St. Helena stopped the Cougars on downs. The Saints (1-1 league, 1-3 overall) ran out the clock to secure its first win of the season after coming excruciatingly close a week ago in a 20-14 loss at Willits, and during its first game of the season, a 20-17 overtime loss to down-the-road neighbor Justin-Siena.
“I was upset that we weren’t able to pull off the win, but we had some errors in the secondary, broken coverages, that really hurt us,” Weiper said.
One of those errors was quarterback Troy Taber’s 50-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Dean Sommer that gave the Saints a 32-22 lead and proved to be the game-winning score. Taber, who played at Middletown last year before transferring to St. Helena in the offseason, completed just 5 of 22 passes, but they were big ones – for 187 yards overall and two touchdowns, both of them to Sommer (four catches for 135 yards).
In fact, it was a 71-yard pass from Taber to Sommer that opened the scoring as the Saints moved out to a 6-0 lead in the first quarter. Taber also ran for a touchdown in the second quarter to make it 12-8 Saints in the seesaw battle. He was St Helena’s leading rusher with 79 yards.
Upper Lake held leads of 8-6, 14-12 and 22-20 before the Saints pushed out in front 32-22 on a Sam Beck 5-yard scoring run and Taber’s second touchdown pass to Sommer.
The Cougars closed to 32-28 on the third Delaney Allison touchdown run of the game, this one a 6-yard. Allison, who finished with 107 yards on 23 carries, also scored on a 7-yard in the first quarter after which Brody Blancas added the conversion run to give the Cougars an 8-6 lead.
Allison’s second touchdown run, a 4-yard run in the second quarter, put the Cougars up 14-12.
After St. Helena had gone back in front 20-14 in the third quarter on a 10-yard Beck run, Upper Lake’s Wes Wyman hauled in a 54-yard pass from Jerod Rosales to briefly tie the game before Blancas’ second conversion run made it 22-20 in the Cougars’ favor.
Rosales, a senior, went 10-for-17 for 204 yards and a touchdown. Blancas was his favorite target, catching three passes for 79 yards.
Upper Lake overcame a bit of adversity in the first quarter to keep the game close.
“We lost a player (lineman) in the first quarter after St. Helena scored its touchdown,” Weiper said.
The Upper Lake player was ejected for throwing a punch and could now miss up to three games for his actions.
While that certainly hurt, Weiper said the breakdown in Upper Lake’s pass coverage was far more injurious to the game’s outcome.
“In the NCL I you can’t make mistakes and get away with it,” said the veteran Weiper, who is coaching his third NCL I team after stints at Lower Lake and Kelseyville. “We can’t give up big plays at critical times. We need to do a better job with that.”
There were some brights spots for the defense. Mikel Compton had nine unassisted tackles, two assists and an interception while teammate Billy Stillman added six solo stops, two assists and an interception. Nathan Boomer added eight solo stops and Dylan Aragon had seven unassisted tackles and two assists.
Upper Lake hits the road next Friday to play Lower Lake (1-1, 3-1), a game both teams need to stay in the upper half of the league standings.
In junior varsity action, St. Helena beat Upper Lake 13-8, handing the Cougars (1-1 league, 3-1 overall) their first loss of the season.
Game notes: St. Helena finished with 187 yards passing and 175 rushing … Former Kelseyville head coach Erick Larsen is in his second season with the Saints just as Weiper is in his second season at Upper Lake. The Saints went 6-5 overall and 4-4 in league, including a 41-8 win over Upper Lake, last season, qualifying for the North Coast Section playoffs. In their first year of 11-man football since 2014, the Cougars went 1-8 last season, including 1-7 in league … St. Helena heads into a bye week and returns to the field Oct. 4 at Lower Lake.
