UPPER LAKE — Well, that could have gone better.

The Upper Lake Cougars, one win away from the school's first boys soccer championship, met Point Arena High School in a winner-take-all North Central League III finale Friday afternoon in Upper Lake where the Pirates breezed to a 7-0 victory that was every bit as lopsided as the final score indicates.

Trinidad Arroyo (1) scores the first goal of the game despite the best efforts of Upper Lake's Angel Serafin midway through the first half. Arroyo added three more goals in Point Arena's title-clinching 7-0 win Friday in Upper Lake.

Upper Lake (4-2-3 league, 5-6-4 overall) spent nearly the entire game fending off attack after attack by Point Arena (5-1-2, 6-1-2), a team the Cougars had faced twice previously this season with much better results, including a 3-2 win at home.

A number of things caught up to Upper Lake, according to first-year head coach Thomas Santana, who said he would leave up to his players whether or not to apply for an at-large berth in next week's North Coast Section Division 2 playoffs.

"We're probably going to be playing someone down in San Francisco," Santana said of the many private schools that also play in Division 2. "We've got a lot of basketball players and I know some of them want to get their season started (practice opens Monday). If we do apply, we'll be traveling far. I'm not going to force them to go, I'll leave it up to them if we apply."

First-round games are Wednesday.

Upper Lake keeper Darian Loans Arrow deflects a Point Arena shot that ricocheted off the frame and back into the field of play where it was kicked into the net for a goal, but the score was waved off because of offsides in the first half of a still scoreless game. Point Arena went on to win 7-0. (Photos by Brian Sumpter)

Playing in their biggest game of the season and perhaps in the history of a boys soccer program that has never experienced much success, the Cougars were definitely a bit tight to open the game and never did anything to alleviate those nerves as the game progressed. While a quick score might have accomplished that, Upper Lake put absolutely no pressure on Point Arena's keeper in either half. There were only a handful of shots in his direction all day, but none that had any real chance of going into the net.

Santana said a handful of injuries, including one to Manuel Villalobos, one of Upper Lake's chief offensive threats, didn't help.

"We played in the rain at Tomales last week and he hurt himself," Santana said. "He's one of our key players."

While the lack of any real big-game experience didn't help the Cougars' cause, it was more a case of a lack of soccer experience that proved the team's undoing, according to Santana, who has a roster with only two seniors on it.

Upper Lake keeper Darian Loans Arrow corrals the loose ball to end a Point Arena attack.

"Maturity," he said. "Most of our guys haven't played a lot of soccer. We have some great athletes, just athletes without much soccer experience."

And it showed.

While Point Arena had a goal disallowed midway through the first half for being offsides, Trinidad Arroyo of the Pirates scored on a two-on-one fastbreak a few minutes later to put his team in front to stay. It was the first of four goals by Arroyo, who scored three more in the second half.

The Cougars kept it at 1-0 until right before halftime when the Pirates scored with less than a minute to go.

While it was only a 2-0 deficit and with an entire half left to play, plenty of Upper Lake players made the slow walk to the sidelines with heads firmly down.

The second half offered only more frustration as the Pirates kept the Cougars pinned in their own end of the field. Point Arena scored two quick goals for a 4-0 lead and kept on adding from their, including a nice header that made it 6-0.

When the final whistled sounded, Point Arena players were jumping up and down all over the field screaming out with joy.

Besides the four goals by Arroyo, Cristo Zamora, Orlando Sanchez and Alexis Ramirez scored for the Pirates.

"We had a great season, but we just didn't have it today," Santana said.

The North Coast Section will release the Division 2 playoff field Sunday afternoon.