Cloverdale falls to 2-3; visits Lower Lake on Friday
The Eagles hit a bump in the road in week two of the NCL1 football schedule, falling to a much improved Willits squad on Friday, 34-14.
The setback evened Cloverdale’s league record to 1-1 and extended its season mark to 2-3.
“Willits is a vastly improved football team,” Eagle’s head coach Greg Alexander said. “They had tremendous size and wore us down over the four quarters.”
Further complicating matters was an injury suffered by senior running back/safety Shayne Turner, hampering Cloverdale’s chances.
“Shayne went out, which didn’t help, but overall we just made too many mental mistakes and couldn’t slow down their run game,” Alexander noted.
The Eagles will attempt to right the ship this Friday, Oct. 4 when they visit Lower Lake. The Trojans (1-1, 3-2) are coming off a 29-21 win over Fort Bragg on Sept. 27 and also appear to be a much stronger team than in previous years.
“Lower Lake can run and throw the ball effectively, so this will be a tough challenge going to their place,” Alexander predicted. “Right now we’re very close to being a complete team. If we can limit our mental mistakes we will put ourselves in a position to compete.”
Eagles fall to Wolverines
The Sept. 27 visit to Willits featured a good start for Cloverdale. The Eagles answered an early Wolverines’ score when quarterback Colby Furia found receiver Logan Axell on an eight-yard touchdown strike to knot the game at 7-7 at the end of one.
Trailing 13-7 in the second, Furia engineered another drive culminating in a two-yard scoring burst from Anthonie Rebottaro to take the lead at 14-13.
The Eagles stopped a would-be Willits score on the ensuing drive with a fumble recovery at their own four-yard line, but a Wolverines’ sack in the end zone put them back in the lead, 15-14. Willits finished the half with a decisive march ending in a short touchdown run to make it 22-14 Wolverines at the half.
Cloverdale would not score again in the second half, as the Wolverines continued to control the line of scrimmage with an effective running game the rest of the way en route to a 34-14 victory.
“Coming out down a score out of halftime we had our chances,” Alexander said. “We hit a 55-yard pass to start the second half but weren’t able to produce any points on that drive or the rest of the game.”
