Football Preview: Upper Lake Cougars vs. Fort Bragg Timberwolves
The Upper Lake Cougars have the luxury of staying home for another week and will welcome the Fort Bragg Timberwolves at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Upper Lake is headed into the matchup out to prove that what happened against Kelseyville on Friday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Upper Lake lost 27-6 to Kelseyville. The match marked the Cougars' lowest-scoring game so far this season.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Fort Bragg). They blew past Clear Lake 41-19 last Friday. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest win the Timberwolves have posted against the Cardinals since September 18, 2015.
Alex Nicholson was his usual excellent self, rushing for 221 yards and a touchdown while picking up 9.6 yards per carry. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 120.6 rushing yards per game. Another player making a difference was Ross Knapp, who picked up 192 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Fort Bragg was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 369 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in October of 2023.
Fort Bragg didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. In fact, those interceptions all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Knapp.
Upper Lake's loss dropped their record down to 4-3. As for Fort Bragg, they pushed their record up to 3-3 with the victory, which was their fifth straight at home dating back to last season.
Upper Lake might still be hurting after the 28-6 defeat they got from Fort Bragg when the teams last played back in October of 2023. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Nicholson, who rushed for 174 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 7.6 yards per carry, and also threw for 64 yards and a touchdown. Now that Upper Lake knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
