By Dave Belcher

Moapa Valley Progress

A lot of motivation was trapped within the hearts and minds of the Boulder City Eagles Friday night as they hosted the Moapa Valley Pirates in the first game in league play for each school.

Boulder City was the favorite for the game. With a record of 12-6 the Eagles were facing the Pirates who had a record of 1-13.

The gym was filled ready to erupt in anticipation of an Eagles victory and the rivalry game was renewed for this year.

For Boulder City, it turned out to be a great night as they manhandled the smaller Pirates routing them 78-44 gaining control of the league 1-0.

The game started with Boulder City having the hot hand scoring 26 points in the first quarter doubling up the Pirates score who had 13 for the 1st quarter. Nate Hafen lead all scores on the floor Friday night with 19 points and helped the Eagles push the lead to 49-29 at the half as their spot-on shooting continued in the second Quarter with 23 points.

Boulder City was seeing the scoreboard and possibly thinking of a payback for the beating they took from the Pirates two years ago when they hit the century mark against the Eagles: 100-65.

But the talk ended when the Eagles cooled off on scoring; only 11 in the third while holding the Pirates to three points in the quarter and pushing the lead to 60-32.

Jackson Mortensen was the Pirates leader in points with 10 followed by McConell and Hughes each scoring 9.

The fourth quarter saw Boulder City extend the lead as they scored 18 in the quarter while the Pirates finished the game with 14 of their own.

Boulder City shot 4-12 from three point land with Blake Worrall making two of them for 6 of his 10 points in the game. As a team the Eagles were 10-18 from the free throw line. Michael Walker added 15 points to the Eagle cause. The Eagles shot a blazing 58 percent for the night.

On Tuesday the Pirates hosted the Clark Chargers who were coming into the game with a record of 11-2. The Chargers came as the fourth ranked team in the state according to Maxpreps.com.

The Chargers didn’t waver that night as they beat Moapa 77-43.

Clark jumped out to an 18-8 lead after the first quarter. The pace then quickened with the Chargers scoring 24 while the Pirates scored 15. Clark took a 19 point lead into the locker room 42-23 at the half.

Dakota Watters lead the Pirates with 14 points connecting on 8-12 from the free throw line.

As a team the Pirates were 13-26 for fifty percent from the charity stripe.

Shane Terrill finished with 8 points while Jackson Mortensen and Conner Mortensen each scored 6. The Pirates scored a total of 20 points in the 2nd half of the game.

Bryan McGriff lead the Chargers with 20 as Clark poured in 33 in the second half to win going away.

Henderson and Washington each added 10 for the winning team who is now 12-2 on the season.

Moapa will be on the road for the next two weeks as they travel to Spring Valley High School in Las Vegas tonight. Spring Valley is coming off a pounding from Bishop Gorman 106-68. On Friday they head to Enterprise Utah who the Pirates lost to once this year in the Virgin Valley tournament in a close one 42-40.

One week from Friday the Pirates will travel to Virgin Valley for their first meeting with the Bulldogs this season.