By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley High School Varsity Football team continued its preseason schedule on September 23, with a trip to Boulder City. It was a cool Saturday afternoon game that reminded fans of a November day and the playoffs.
Boulder City is not a member of the 3A Sunrise this year as they try to rebuild a program that has fallen on hard times.
Those hard times are due to a lack of interest in football for Boulder City students. The proof of that is they have only two teams: a varsity and a freshman team that has some sophomores (players who haven’t played before) playing.
Last Saturday with the visitors bleacher filled, the Pirates overcame six turnovers to shut the Eagles out 16-0 in a game that helped to improve the Pirates win/loss record to 3-1.
Moapa Valley is however still a long ways away from consistently moving the ball down the field and being productive in the red zone, (20-yard line to across the goal line). Moapa Valley played Saturday with rotating quarterbacks throughout the game; Daxton Longman and Luke Bennet alternating possessions.
The Pirates scored their first touchdown when Logan Jackson scored from 15 yards out. He ran over some Eagles on his way with 1:36 to play in the first quarter.
Jackson would get a second touchdown when he finished with an 11-yard run up the middle. With the extra point, this gave the Pirates a 14-0 lead.
Moapa Valley’s final points came when they recovered an Eagle fumble in the end zone.
The Pirates finished with 361 yards of total offense. Pirate rushing was 219 yards led by Braeden St. John’s 90 yards on 17 carries. Jackson finished with 64 yards on 9 carries and two touchdowns. Moapa Valley finished with 4 fumbles and 2 interceptions. One by each quarterback.
But this game was won by a strong defense. Most of the game, the defensive team stepped up and made big plays when called upon. For example, Boulder City had advanced the ball to the Pirates one-yard line. After a quarterback sneak, the ball was placed literally at the one-inch line. Another quarterback sneak was fumbled in the backfield giving the ball to the Pirates and ending an Eagle threat.
The Pirate defense finished by holding the Eagles to 152 total yards of offense. Just 37 yards came from the Eagle running game on 24 carries.
Eagle quarterback Austin Langley was pressured most of the game as he completed 11 passes of 27 attempts for 115 yards. Half of that yardage came on two passes where Langley was literally moving backwards wrapped up in the arms of Pirate defenders. Somehow, the passes were completed for some big plays and first downs.
Moapa Valley will return home this week as they host the Las Vegas Wildcats on Thursday night. The Wildcats have struggled this year. They have not won a game yet. Arbor View 59-7 to start the year pounded them. Then travelled to Snow Canyon High School in Santa Clara Utah and were beaten 35-13 there. They were going to play Desert Pines but were stormed out and the game was cancelled. They were beaten by Shadow Ridge 47-13 two weeks ago and then lost a close one to Coronado 30-28 last week.
Las Vegas runs a lot of single back stuff in their offense. Their two leading rushers are runningbacks. They spread the field and will throw the ball 40% of the time.
Quarterback Zach Matlock is 31 of 58 passing for 365 yards and two touchdowns and has thrown three interceptions. They have totaled 606 yards rushing this season with Elijah Hicks leading the way running for 329 yards and two touchdowns. Cody Summer led the team with three touchdowns and has run for 160 yards. They have scored seven offensive touchdowns this year.
The Wildcat defense has allowed 1737 yards of total offense this year so far; 1364 of that came from rushing while 373 yards came from passing.
