{"id":895,"date":"2024-09-21T16:17:05","date_gmt":"2024-09-21T16:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=895"},"modified":"2024-09-21T18:46:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-21T18:46:00","slug":"cards-keep-in-close-for-3-1-2-quarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=895","title":{"rendered":"Cards keep it close for 3 1\/2 quarters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Crusaders pull away in final seven minutes for 45-13 win<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Mike Hansen, senior correspondent, and Brian Sumpter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LAKEPORT >> Clear Lake High School\u2019s level of execution improved, just not enough to hang around with the undefeated St. Bernard\u2019s Crusaders for a full four quarters on Friday night at Don Owens Stadium in Lakeport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eureka private high school pulled away late to blow open what had been a competitive game for 3 \u00bd quarters, beating Clear Lake 45-13 in a non-league contest that drops the Cardinals\u2019 season record to 0-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe settled in and played some really good football until midway through the fourth quarter,\u201d Clear Lake head coach Mark Cory said. \u201cThen we imploded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe played much better than we have been,\u201d Cory said in comparing Friday\u2019s effort with his team\u2019s first two games \u2013 a 51-7 loss at Pierce and a 32-6 league-opening loss last week at Upper Lake. \u201cWe got better tonight. We played good defense, were pretty physical during the middle of the game. We had our moments on offense, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re not very good about digging ourselves out of holes,\u201d 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\u2019s points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we came up with turnovers, we couldn\u2019t cash in,\u201d Cory said. \u201cThey did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Bernard\u2019s (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\u2019 next possession with 5:46 left in the first quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While things appeared as though they might get out of hand early for the Cardinals, Clear Lake\u2019s defense, one that forced five turnovers on the night, finally showed up. Fabian Moreno\u2019s interception of a Trenten Hagler pass (Brunton left the game after being sacked) gave the Cardinals the ball at the St. Bernard\u2019s 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\u2019s extra-point kick closed the gap to 15-7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first of two Adrian Truby interceptions on the night put the ball back in the Cardinals\u2019 hands minutes later, but they turned it over on downs after failing to convert on a fourth-and-one play near midfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Bernard\u2019s 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\u2019 30-yard line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019 18-yard line followed by a run with a five-yard facemask penalty tacked on that moved the ball to the 7. Zane McAuley\u2019s 7-yard touchdown run capped the drive with 9:48 remaining. The extra-point kick was blocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Bernard\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cory called it a turning point in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was kind of a big play because we still had momentum at that point and it was still close,\u201d Cory said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Bernard\u2019s 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\u2019t make anything out of it and had to punt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quarter ended with Clear Lake\u2019s defense forcing a punt by St. Bernard\u2019s, the Cardinals taking over at their own 30. A late hit by the Crusaders and two Clear Lake moved the ball into St. Bernard\u2019s territory, but the drive bogged down on penalties and the Cardinals were forced to punt again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collins recovered his second fumble at that point, giving Clear Lake great starting field position at the St. Bernard\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s when the Clear Lake implosion began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagler and Manzi hooked up on 49-yard touchdown pass that pushed the Crusaders\u2019 lead to 29-13 with 7:30 left in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a Clear Lake punt in the final minutes of the game, St. Bernard\u2019s tacked on a 70-yard touchdown run to make it 45-13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe last part of the fourth quarter we couldn\u2019t get out of our own way,\u201d Cory said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 at least until the final minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday we had some energy, which we really didn\u2019t have in our first two games,\u201d he said. \u201cWe showed we are capable of competing. We need to keep working hard and improving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake returns to its league schedule next Friday at home against Middletown (1-2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Game notes: <\/strong>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\u2019s 41-14 win. The lights were not an issue against St. Bernard\u2019s, according to Cory, as everything was working just fine \u2026 \u201cIt\u2019s because Kelseyville played on our field, I still blame them,\u201d Cory said totally in jest \u2026 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crusaders pull away in final seven minutes for 45-13 win By Mike Hansen, senior correspondent, and Brian Sumpter LAKEPORT >> Clear Lake High School\u2019s level of execution improved, just not enough to hang around with the undefeated St. Bernard\u2019s Crusaders for a full four quarters on Friday night at Don Owens Stadium in Lakeport. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895"}],"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=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":902,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}