How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – In a penalty- and injury-plagued game, the Kelseyville Knights roughed up a bruised Lower Lake Trojans football team Friday night, dominating in the second half and posting a convincing 60-18 win in Friday night’s North Central I – North league game.
The victory extends Kelseyville’s winning streak to six games this season, and brings their overall record to 6-1 (2-0 in league play), while the Trojans fall to 4-3 overall this season and 0-2 in league play.
After the game, Trojans head coach Stan Weiper talked about playing with a significantly weakened team.
“We lost (running back Roy) Percoats this week, and he’s a very, very good player,” Weiper said. “Then EJ Jermany got hurt out there tonight, so there goes our entire backfield. After that, you’re just looking at putting in anyone with two legs in the backfield.”
Also injured was Lower Lake quarterback Devante Scott, who suffered a pulled groin in the first half, and wide receiver Aaron James, who was carried off the field by stretcher with a serious ankle injury while play was halted for 30 minutes in the second half.
Of the 60 points his team scored against the Trojans, first year head coach Rob Ishihara said, “That’s the most points we’ve ever scored since I started coaching here.”
The two teams traded touchdowns in their opening possessions for most of the first quarter of Friday night’s game, with quarterback Chris Augon scoring on a couple of one-yard quarterback keeps for Kelseyville, while Lower Lake capped touchdown drives with a 16-yard run by Scott and a three-yard dash by Trojan running back Jack O’Hara.
But with the score tied at 12-12, a bad snap on a fourth-down Lower Lake punt attempt deep in their own territory was recovered by Kelseyville at the Trojans’ seven-yard line, and the Knights scored two plays later on a five-yard sweep by running back Mike Allen.
With 2:34 left in the half, the Trojans turned the ball over on downs, and the Knights made good use of the time remaining with a 49-yard Mike Davis touchdown reception that brought the score to 25-12 after Diego Barajas made the extra point for Kelseyville.
Lower Lake tried to close the gap before the half ended, but Mike Davis intercepted a wayward Devante Scott pass at midfield and ran it back to the Trojans’ six-yard line with just 22 seconds on the clock.
Two plays later the Trojans returned the favor when defensive back Marcus Radovan intercepted an errant Chris Augon pass, and the score stood at 25-12 going into halftime.
“Whenever anything positive happens to us, something negative happens,” Scott lamented midway through the game.
After a couple of Kelseyville penalties helped Lower Lake drive the ball down to the Knights’ two-yard line on their opening possession of the second half, the Trojans fumbled and Davis recovered the ball in the Lower Lake end zone.
A sharp, well-timed cutback on a critical fourth-down quarterback option by Augon allowed him to sprint 30 yards downfield for a touchdown and brought the score to 33-12.
After the game both coaches cited this Trojan turnover and the ensuing Knight score as significant, with Weiper adding, “It was probably the turning point in the game.”
Kelseyville went on to score four more unanswered touchdowns in the second half, including touchdowns by Mike Allen (a 1-yard run), Davis (a 19-yard pass), Garrett Huggins (on defense, recovering a Trojan fumble in their end zone) and Braiden Wayent (a 42-yard rush), an offensive onslaught that pushed the Knights out in front of Lower Lake 60-12.
Lower Lake’s only score of the second half came late in the 4th quarter on a wild play, when Scott took a Kelseyville kickoff all the way down to the Knights’ 15-yard line before fumbling to teammate Alphonzo Daniels, who picked up the ball and carried it into the Kelseyville end zone, making the final score 60-18.
Kelseyville’s Chris Augon completed three of six passes (all to Mike Davis) for 90 yards in Friday night’s game, and his team had a whopping 513 yards total offense, while Lower Lake’s Devante Scott completed just two of 18 passes for 17 yards in the game.
Defensively for the Knights, Davis had five tackles, two assists, a fumble recovery and an interception, while Devin Baker had four tackles and six assists.
Lower Lake’s Junior Varsity team fared better against Kelseyville, scoring several times late in the second half and walking away with a 41-14 victory.
The Trojans JV squad is now 5-2 overall (2-0 in league play), while the Knights JV team is 3-4 overall and 1-1 in league play.
Next week Kelseyville puts their first-place North Central I – North league standing on the line when they travel to Middletown to face off against a formidable Middletown Mustangs football team, who beat the previously-undefeated Timberwolves at Fort Bragg Friday night by a score of 38-14 and improved their record to 6-1 overall (1-0 in league play), while Lower Lake travels to Willits to face off against the Wolverines, who defeated Upper Lake Friday night and improved their overall record to 5-2 (0-1 in league play).
Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .
