Lake Fights Pearland in Loblolly Field
14-28
October 14, 2001

The Clear Lake Falcons stood toe to toe with a strong Pearland squad last Saturday and slugged it out.  In the end, Clear Lake came up short, 28-14. If not for a few big Pearland plays, the outcome could have been different.

Lake’s defense set the tone on the first series, holding a strong Pearland offense to three and out on the first series.  On the first Clear Lake offensive series, the Falcons were moving the ball behind the strong line blocking by Brown, Niemczak, Taylor, Hewer, and Senviel,  Scott, Howard and Groves were carrying the ball for Lake. When the drive stalled Geoff Cole landed a nice punt on the Pearland 16.

On the next series, the defense came swarming, Chris Davidson, David Perkins and Azzie Beagnyam led the charge up front, with Nowinski stepping in from the secondary to make a big stop.  After strong pursuit, Lake was poised to make another big stop when the Pearland back reversed field and ran for the end zone.

Lake took the ensuing kick off on their own 30 and started to drive behind a well coached and hard hitting line: a pass to Groves for 7, Scott for 5 and the first, Scott  on the draw for 9, another Groves reception from Howard for 8, then Howard on an option for 10 more. This was a text book drive.  Howard rolled out to the right, and was sprung for a big gain by a key block by Steven Senviel.  Lake had a 1^st and goal at the six.  Scott took it in for the score, and Cole evened the score at 7-7 with the PAT.

Cole laid another nice kick off on the Pearland 25 with no return.  The Lake defense held tough again with Nowinski coming up with the fumble recovery, but the offense couldn’t hold the drive and had to punt.

With less than 4 minutes in the half, Pearland came up with two scores, despite big defensive stops by Guitheinz and Kinslow in the red zone.  Pearland took a 21-7 lead into the locker room at half. 

Lake started off the second half in the hole after falling on the kickoff on their own 5 yard line.  After a good punt, and a defensive hold, Lake took over in good field position.  Howard scrambled for 15 and the first. With 4:49 left in the third quarter, the Lake drive stalled.  Then out of the bag of tricks came a fake punt of sorts, the result was a 20 yard completion from Everett to Priest. On the next play, Howard hit Bubby Hunter who was pulled down on the one.  Howard took it in for the score and Lake was within striking distance at 21- 14. 

After taking the Lake kickoff at the 26, the defense was tough, led by Azzie Beagnyam.  But then came the break of the game for Pearland.  With the Lake defense applying the pressure a twice tipped pass fell into the hands of the Pearland receiver who took the ball to the 5.  After Pearland took it in, the score stood at 28-14.

Lake came back determined, but a series of penalties left   Lake with a 1^st and 40.  Lake went to the bag of tricks and came up with a throw back from Scott to Howard, but it wasn’t enough. 

With time running out, two late breaks turned the tide in a hard fought game, and Pearland would get the win.  Lake fought tough until the end, but missed the big breaks which seemed to go Pearlands way most of the afternoon. 

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