By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley High School football team finally looked like the Pirate teams from the past several years on Friday night as they pounded Del Sol 66-19 in a home game. The Pirates are tied for the second seed and a home playoff game with Chaparral who they will play Friday night at Chaparral.
Two Pirate players stood out in this game. Dayton Wolfley had his best game of the year intercepting three Maalik Flowers passes, then catching three passes from Pirate quarterback Daxton Longman for two touchdowns. Jacob Leavitt ran the ball 13 times for 245 yards as he ran past the Dragons defense showing his speed and quickness along the way. Leavitt looked like a pinball bouncing off Dragons who couldn’t wrap him up or bring him down. Leavitt had three touchdowns.
Braeden St. John ran 7 times for 69 yards and a touchdown while Dalyn Leavitt carried the ball 5 times for 40 yards and a touchdown.
Longman didn’t need to throw the ball much in the win as he had 6 throws totaling 210 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Derek Reese caught one of Longman’s passes and scored from 46 yards out as he got two great blocks down field to help him into the end zone.
Leavitt started the scoring with a 15 yard run with 7:49 in the first quarter.
But Del Sol’s Titan Williams then took the kickoff and returned it 86 yards for the first Dragon touchdown.
Moapa Valley would score three minutes later when Longman found a wide open Wolfley in the middle of the field for a 46-yard touchdown.
After the kickoff, Leo Rios recovered a Dragons fumble and returned it 45 yards for the Pirates second touchdown. A fumble on the kickoff, recovered by the Pirates, resulted in the Derek Reese 46-yard touchdown reception down the Pirate sideline for a 26-7 Pirate lead at the end of the first quarter.
Wolfley caught his second touchdown when Longman found him wide open in the middle of the field. Wolfley’s run finished in the end zone 65 yards later.
Dalyn Leavitt scored his touchdown with 3:50 to play in the first half on a 23 yard run up the middle.
Del Sol would score their second touchdown when Williams finished with a 13 yard run with 2:14 to play in the half.
But Moapa Valley wasn’t nearly finished yet. In the first play after Del Sol’s touchdown, Jacob Leavitt took the ball 56 yards for a touchdown. Leavitt then ended the first half with a 9 yard run after a Wolfley interception gave the ball back to the Pirates deep in Dragon territory. That started the running clock with 53 seconds to play in the first half and the score 52-13.
The second half went quickly with the running clock. St. John scored when he returned a Dragon punt 39 yards for his first touchdown of the second half. Johnathon Spearman scored the Dragons last touchdown when he hauled in a 55-yard pass from Flowers with 7:56 to play in the game. St. John would get the Pirates final touchdown and his second of the game from 4 yards away with 37 seconds to play for the final score 66-19.
Moapa Valley finished with 594 yards of total offense, 384 on the ground and 210 in the air. The Pirates had 37 plays on offense.
The star runner for Del Sol, Taarik Flowers, ran for 113 yards on 22 carries without a touchdown. Spearman had 2 receptions for a total of 77 yards and a touchdown for Del Sol.
With the loss, Del Sol is guaranteed the fourth seed in the Sunrise and will get the honor of traveling to Desert Pines in the first round of the playoffs.
The Pirates were hoping for a Virgin Valley loss last Friday to Chaparral for a chance at the top seed from the Sunrise. That didn’t happen so this week’s game at Chaparral is for the second seed and a home game in the first round of the playoffs for the winner.
The second seed will host, as mentioned, and will be on the same side as Desert Pines in the bracket for a possible second round match-up.
The third seed will travel to the second seed of the Sunset and be on the Virgin Valley side of the bracket for a possible second round game.
Chaparral has two very good receivers and a good quarterback in the offense. Quarterback Santiago Vialpando has thrown for 1823 yards this season with 23 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. That is their offense. They have just 659 yards rushing with 7 touchdowns. Their leading rusher is Jacob Ford with 77 carries for 325 yards and 5 touchdowns. Game time is 7 PM at Chaparral.
