{"id":4083,"date":"2025-09-27T23:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T23:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=4083"},"modified":"2025-09-27T23:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T23:34:08","slug":"ejections-mar-clear-lake-37-6-win-at-upper-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=4083","title":{"rendered":"Ejections mar Clear Lake 37-6 win at Upper Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Four players tossed in first half as teams take two hours to complete first half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lake County Sports on Facebook<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UPPER LAKE >> So much mayhem was going on in the first half Friday night at Upper Lake High School you could have sworn Allstate was filming a commercial there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a game where Clear Lake\u2019s Jesse Hayes scored four more touchdowns, and in four different ways, and a North Central League I varsity football contest where Upper Lake scored its first points of the season, the spotlight instead fell on the four players ejected in the second quarter of Clear Lake\u2019s 37-6 win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the game ended with a relatively uneventful second half outside of a 28-0 Clear Lake third quarter that led to a running clock in the fourth quarter, the first half was a trainwreck, taking two hours to complete because of repeated penalties \u2013 22 called on Upper Lake in the second quarter alone — most of them for personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct such as taunting, that repeatedly halted the game as officials met to confer on the field. Even the head coaches \u2013 Upper Lake\u2019s Derek Milhaupt and Clear Lake\u2019s Augie Perez \u2013 talked on the field in the second quarter in an attempt to restore some kind of order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milhaupt and Perez are friends and former Clear Lake players. Both said they\u2019ve never experienced what transpired on the field Friday, beginning in the first quarter and blowing up in the second quarter, with Clear Lake taking a 9-6 lead into halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unacceptable,\u201d Milhaupt said of the conduct of his players. \u201cYou don\u2019t have control over what penalties are called, but you do have control over your conduct, and you do have control over taunting another player. It\u2019s really selfish conduct and we\u2019re not going to tolerate it. One of our star players was repeatedly taunting their players. I just don\u2019t get it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ejected players \u2013 three on Upper Lake and one on Clear Lake \u2013 are ineligible for their next game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milhaupt said it remains to be seen if the three Cougars ejected Friday will return to the team even after sitting out a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are going to be consequences,\u201d he said. \u201cI tell my players all the time that everything you do has consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little embarrassing facing your old team and have this happen,\u201d Milhaupt said. \u201cI\u2019m going to go out there the rest of the season with kids who want to play football and want to play right. Even if I have only 11 kids, I\u2019m not going to forfeit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milhaupt said he did not blame the officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey gave us fair warning,\u201d he said. \u201cIt got to a point that they told us anything cheap, any more taunting and they would eject the player. I think they did a decent job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was no rhythm to the game at all in the first half,\u201d Perez said. \u201cThe game got out of control in the first quarter. Kids were talking back and forth and there were late hits everywhere. I\u2019m not going to say my kids weren\u2019t talking, they\u2019re not angels, but some of the (Upper Lake) penalties were over the top.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Perez, \u201cIt was ugly, it\u2019s like nothing I\u2019ve ever seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How ugly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey weren\u2019t playing football,\u201d Perez said of the conduct of both teams on the field. \u201cIt looked like a bunch of high school kids trying to get back at each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milhaupt said the trouble began soon after a handful of Upper Lake players who were benched to open the game (for violating team rules) finally got out onto the field in the latter stages of the first quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs soon as they got in, things got crazy,\u201d Milhaupt said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t football it was bull—-.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to the actual football that took place, Clear Lake\u2019s Hayes returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown as the Cardinals (3-0 league, 3-1 overall) went up 7-0. Upper Lake (0-3, 0-5), shut out in each of its first four games this season, answered a short time later on a 45-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Billy Stillman Jr. to receiver Antario Wyman, cutting Clear Lake\u2019s lead to 7-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only other points of the first half were a safety scored by Clear Lake\u2019s Preston Van Meter in the second quarter, making it a 9-6 game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Order was restored in the second half although Upper Lake had lost its top three running backs to ejection, leaving Milhaupt and the Cougars with few options and players out of position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third quarter was all Clear Lake \u2013 Hayes ran for one score, caught another and returned an interception for his fourth touchdown of the game. Tony Moreno\u2019s 55-yard pick-six interception return gave the Cardinals its final touchdown as kicker Copper Garrity added the extra point, going 5-for-5 on the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upper Lake picked off three Clear Lake passes, two of them in the end zone in the first half to stall Cardinal drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hayes finished with 126 yards rushing and 36 receiving. Nearly all of the Cardinals\u2019 yards came on the ground. Kingston Hoaglen added 32 yards on two carries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complete Upper Lake stats weren\u2019t available, but Wyman finished with 220 all-purpose yards, drawing Milhaupt\u2019s praise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Cougars elect not to call up junior varsity players next week, they\u2019ll have just \u201c11 or 12 players\u201d when they host Fort Bragg for homecoming next Friday, according to Milhaupt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to forfeit games,\u201d Milhaupt said of his remaining schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perez said the Cardinals, other than losing one starter to ejection, hope to get back to playing football next Friday night during a non-league road game against Mt. Shasta (1-3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHalf the time we didn\u2019t know what was going on,\u201d Perez said of the first two quarters against Upper Lake. \u201cThere were so many conferences between the officials. The refs lost control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the first-half chaos, Clear Lake emerged with a third straight win and a share of the league lead along with Middletown and St. Helena, both 3-0 as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upper Lake won the JV game 18-0 (see related story).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four players tossed in first half as teams take two hours to complete first half Lake County Sports on Facebook UPPER LAKE >> So much mayhem was going on in the first half Friday night at Upper Lake High School you could have sworn Allstate was filming a commercial there. In a game where Clear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,110,26,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4084,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083\/revisions\/4084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}