By Dave Belcher

Moapa Valley Progress

Moapa junior Cody Tolbert defends against Virgin Valley senior Kasdan Felshaw in the Hammer Game on Friday night at Jeff Keel stadium. Photo by Angelina Glaubitz.

The Bulldogs came to town on Friday for the annual “Hammer Game”. The game crowns the winner with 1st place standing in the league and the home field advantage for the first and second rounds in the state playoffs.

The Virgin Valley team came in with sole possesion of first place dur to the 14-0 win they had over Boulder City a few weeks ago. This would be their final league game. The win would give them that coveted top seed.

But Moapa Valley was coming into the game as the owner of the “Hammer”. More important a win in this game coupled with a win in two weeks in Boulder city would give the Pirates another league title and the top seed.

With the home stadium packed Moapa struck first right out of the gate when Jake Rebman blocked the first punt of the Dawgs. Instead of falling on the ball the Virgin Valley punter ran and tried to kick it out the back of the end zone. The ball went to the middle of the end zone where Kris Postma fell on it and Moapa had its first score of the night. The Pirates punched in two points when they ran the ball into the end zone for an 8-0 lead and 10 minutes to play in the first quarter.

That would be the first sign of doom for Virgin Valley who only gained a total of 34 yards of total offence on the night.

The Pirates on the other hand blew opportunities to make the game a total rout which it could have been. The Pirates had two touchdowns called back one on a Mortensen run and the other on a punt return. Both came back due to holding calls.

Moapa made it inside the five twice and came away with nothing. This included an attempt from the one yard line, only to have procedure penalties stop their drive.

The Bulldog defense was something of a bright spot for Virgin Valley. They kept the game close by pressuring Moapa quarterback Dakota Watters, forcing him to miss on passes he would normally complete for big yards and touchdowns.

Moapa’s second score came when Watters punched it in with a keeper in the second quarter. After another two point conversion (a McConell run) Moapa led 16-0 and took that lead with them to the locker room at half.

Neither side’s offense could get on track throughout the game. The final points of the evening came when Urias dropped back to pass. He did his best to get rid of the ball by passing it to a lineman from the end zone. For that, Urias was called for intentional grounding and Moapa was awarded the safety and the 18-0 victory.

The game was full of mental mistakes. It felt like every time the Pirates reached the red zone they would have a procedure call. Each time this set them back to where the Bulldog defense could stop the Pirate runs or knock down a pass.

On the other side the Bulldogs offense spent most of their time in their own territory as the Moapa defense completely shut them down.

Urias led Virgin Valley with 17 yards rushing as the Dawgs had 26 total for the night. Urias was 4-14 and a pick with 17 yards.

Moapa was led by Mortensen who had 91 yards then McConell who had 25 and Watters who had 24. In all Moapa had 146 rushing yards. Passing Watters was 9-20 and a pick for 71 yards. Moapa’s total offence was 217 for the game.

Next week, the Bulldogs will get a week off as they take a bye. They then travel to Coronado for their final game of the regular season.

The Pirates will host Silverado on Friday for homecoming. Silverado comes to Moapa with a 2-5 record. But they can’t be taken lightly. The Skyhawk’s beat the Pirates last season in Vegas 38-19. Thurmon leds the Skyhawk’s in rushing with 869 yards and 9 touchdowns on the season. They have only passed for 305 yards, 2 touchdowns and 6 interceptions.