MVHS………………………..56
Sunrise Mountain…………6
By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
Too easy, is it a concern? This was a question after last Friday night’s Pirate blowout win over Sunrise Mountain at Moapa Valley High School, 56-6.
“It gave us a chance to play some kids and give them some experience,” said Head Coach Brent Lewis after the win. “It will make us stronger, deeper and more experienced down the stretch and in the playoffs.”
There were couple of concerns which arose. First was injuries. Two Pirates got banged up resulting in them sitting out the rest of the game. Another concern was lack of competition in a close hard fought game. The lack of that kind of experience has, in the past, haunted the Pirates late in the playoffs.
However, there’s nothing that can be done because the league is weak. “Same game plan this week,” said Lewis.
This week’s game at Rancho will be played on Saturday night due to the Jewish Holiday. The same results are expected.
It was tough from the beginning for the Miners. They fumbled the opening kickoff with the Pirates recovering the ball. This gave the Pirates the ball at the Miners 9 yard line. Bodily then took the handoff and ran it into the end zone for the first Pirate touchdown of the night with 11:46 remaining in the first quarter. The point-after missed and Moapa Valley held a 6-0 lead.
Now hesitant to field the ball, on the next kickoff, the Miners receiver waited for the ball to roll into the end zone just ahead of the Pirates who were sprinting down the field. With the ball in the end zone and downed, it came out to the 20 yard line where the Miners started most of their drives for the game.
The Miners couldn’t complete a pass in their first drive going three and out and forcing a punt. Moapa Valley started their second scoring drive from Miner territory around the 20 yard line. Bodily finished with a 20 yard touchdown run. With Hymas’s pass to Mulcock for the two point conversion the Pirates lead 14-0 with 10:01 remaining in the first quarter.
The Miners fumbled the kickoff again; then chased and recovered the ball into the end zone for another touchback.
Unable still to complete a pass from head coach Chris Sawyer’s spread offense, (Sawyer was Virgin Valleys Head coach for the last two years before moving to Las Vegas), the Miners punted.
Moapa Valley started their next scoring play at the Miners 44 yard line. On the first play Hymas hit Mulcock with a 44 yard pass for another touchdown. Derrick Cope’s point-after kick was good and the Pirates were up 21-0; all while Pirate fans were still getting burgers from the booster sign up drive. There was 9:03 left in the first quarter as the Pirates were scoring a touchdown every minute. That would end.
The Miners finally caught the kickoff and returned it to the 20 yard line. Then they got their first down when a Pirate roughing the passer penalty gave it to them. The Miners then punted four plays later.
Moapa Valley started the next touchdown drive from their 20 yard line after a personal foul called against them. It took two plays to score. The first play was a pass from Hymas to RJ Hubert to the Miners 40. Bodily then took the handoff and ran it 40 yards for the touchdown with 6:34 remaining. The PAT was good giving the Pirates a 28-0 lead.
Once again the Miners fumbled the kickoff then recovered it at their 5 yard line. On the fourth play, a punt. But Steven Graves found a hole then blocked the kick, knocking the ball out the back of the end zone for a safety and a 30-0 Pirate lead.
The Miners then kicked off where the ball went out of bounds at the Miners 45 yard line where the Pirate chose to keep the ball and start their next touchdown drive. That drive ended with a Bodily pass reception with 5:05 remaining in the first quarter and Moapa Valley adding to their lead 36-0 after the PAT was missed.
Trystin Deal scored Moapa Valley’s next touchdown on a one yard run with 10:00 minutes left in the first half. Bo Redd would get the Pirates their next touchdown on a 3 yard run with 2:41 remaining in the half.
From that point, on the Pirates used everyone else for the rest of the game. Deal got his second touchdown and the Pirates last score in the third quarter on a 5 yard run. The extra point was blocked.
Alton Sanders would get Sunrise Mountains only touchdown, a 36 yard pass, with 4:00 minutes to play in the third quarter.
Sunrise Mountain falls to 0-4 overall and 0-2 in league play. Moapa Valley improves to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in league play in first place.
Boulder City is 1-0 in league and in second place. Everyone else in the Sunrise has at least one league loss.
