By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
Last week the teams remaining in competition played in the state semi-final round. Here are the results.
Southern 3A
Mojave at Virgin Valley
This game had the best two runningbacks in the 3A competing against each other.
Jayden Perkins came into the game with 24 rushing touchdowns with 219 carries for 1880 yards. He was the top rusher in the state. Perkins was also the fifth leading receiver with 27 receptions for 705 yards and 7 touchdowns. He totaled 31 touchdowns and is the scoring leader in southern Nevada with 186 points.
Mojave has Ta’wee Walker who has carried the ball 147 times for 1485 yards and 18 touchdowns. Walker is third in rushing in southern Nevada right behind Del Sol’s Taariq Flowers.
Earlier in the year Mojave travelled to Virgin Valley and shut the Dawgs out 26-0, the only time Virgin Valley was scoreless all season.
With the hype, Mojave came into the game as the #2 seed in the Sunset. Virgin Valley, on the other hand, had won the three-way tie for the #1 seed from the Sunrise.
On Mojave’s first possession, Walker scored outrunning the Dawgs 59-yards for the touchdown. The next Mojave possession saw Dequincy Mitchell finish the drive from 5-yards out giving the Rattlers a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
Walker scored his second touchdown with a 60-yard run with 4:22 remaining in the first half giving the Rattlers a 20-0 lead.
Virgin Valley then found some momentum marching down the field. Perkins finished with a 3-yard touchdown run. After Gabe Oster kicked the extra point, the Dawgs trailed 20-7 with :22 seconds remaining before halftime.
Virgin Valley received the second half kick-off and Perkins broke loose and started down field. Walker caught him, though. On the tackled, he stripped the ball from Perkins and recovered it. Walker would then score with a 40-yard reception from Xavier Delong. With the 2-point conversion complete to AJ Williams the Rattlers established a change in Momentum and a lead of 28-7 with 9:08 to play in the third quarter.
Cresent Crandall answered for the Bulldogs. He broke loose and sprinted 69 yards for the touchdown cutting the Rattlers lead in half, 28-14.
Two minutes later, Delong found Isaiah Harper for a 77 yard catch and run for a touchdown. The Rattler added six points for a 34-14 lead.
Perkins would then score his final touchdown as a Bulldog when he scored from 12-yards away with 1:37 to play in the third quarter. Oster’s kicked missed leaving a score of 34-20.
Any hopes of a miracle ended on the kick-off. John Harper ran the kick-off 75 yards in 15 seconds to extend the lead back 20 points.
The icing came with 8:46 to play when Quincy Smith broke a 76-yard run for the final, 46-20.
Mojave used huge plays to score their touchdowns. All but one touchdown scored was on 40-yards or more.
Mojave finished with 507 yards of total offense: 329-yards on the ground and 178 in the air.
Virgin Valley finished their season with 432 yards of total offense: 302-yards rushing and 130 yards passing. Cade Anderson finished with 9 completions on 18 attempts with an interception. Perkins finished his high school career with 148 yards rushing with 2 touchdowns on 27 carries. He caught 3 passes for 34 yards giving him a sum of 182 yards total offense.
Virgin Valley finished the season with a 7-4 record.
Mojave will travel to Fernley, the top seed in the north, for the semi-final game. Game time is 1:00 pm.
For the second year in a row the plan of realignment has worked as the larger schools from Las Vegas have advanced to the state semi-finals in football. It will likely be an all-south championship game as it is hard to believe that Fernley or Spring Creek, the northern semi-finalist, will stand a chance this Saturday.
Sunrise Mntn at Desert Pines
Desert Pines would have to forget the game time and not show up to lose the state championship as they have established themselves as the favorite once again. The Jaguars completely dominated Sunrise Mountain with a 48-0 win.
On the first possession of the game for the Jaguars, Michael Lofton broke an 83-yard touchdown run with 8:43 to play in the first quarter. Ta’vion Dirden-Allen recovered a Miner fumble and returned the ball on Sunrise Mountain’s next possession. This gave the Jaguars a 14-0 lead.
Tye Moore scored on a 19-yard pass reception from Tyler Williamson with 8:59 to play in the first half. Four minutes later Dejon Pratt intercepted a Miners pass and returned the ball 77-yards for the touchdown and a 28-0 lead. Three minutes later, Darnell Washington caught a 28-yard touchdown pass from Williamson with 2:12 to start the running clock.
Devin McGee scored in the third quarter with a 10-yard run and Jaden King finished the scoring with a 4-yard run with 1:46 to play in the game.
Sunrise Mountain was held to just 132-yards of total offense: 54 rushing and 78 passing. Desert Pines finished with 390 yards of total offense: 275 rushing and 115 passing.
The Miners finished with a record of 6-5. Desert Pines will host the Spring Creek Spartans this Saturday at 1:00 pm.
Northern 3A
Truckee at Fernley
The Fernley Vaqueros beat the Truckee Wolverines, 21-11, to advance to this week’s state semi-final game with Mojave. It was the Fernley defense that stepped up and held Truckee without a touchdown until 6:14 remaining in the game.
Zach Burns scored Fernley’s first touchdown on a 28-yard pass from quarterback Cameron Bertok with just under three minutes left in the first quarter. Truckee scored a 26 yard field goal on a Emmanuel Valenzuela-Jones kick early in the second quarter.
Burns then scored a five-yard touchdown with 1:58 to play in the first half on a 12 play 75-yard drive. Burns would score his third touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter with a 5-yard run giving the Vaqueros a 21-3 lead.
The final two Truckee possession saw the Wolverines gain just 11 yards in 13 plays ending the season with an interception. Truckee had 177 yards rushing in the game while Fernley ran for 276 yards.
Fallon at Spring Creek
Spring Creek seemed to come out flat in their game last Friday night against the Green Wave. Fallon was forced to punt after their first drive ended in very little yardage. The punt pinned the Spartans deep in their own territory at their 5-yardline.
Spring Creek’s first play of the game ended in a fumble. Fallon recovered ball at the five. Greenwave quarterback Sean McCormack ran the ball up the middle on the first play and gave the Fallon Greenwave a 7-0 lead.
After another Spring Creek punt gave the Greenwave a start from midfield. It took just two plays for Fallon to score again. After a run to the 32-yardline by McCormack. Brock Richardson ran the last 29-yards for the score and Fallon lead 14-0 with 6:25.
Dakota Larson of Spring Creek would score the first touchdown for the Spartans just before the first quarter ended with a catch from Thomas Ledford. That cut Fallon’s lead to 14-7.
The start of the second half saw Spring Creek fumble again, this time at midfield. Rodart of Fallon picked the ball up and returned it to the Spartan 1-yardline. Richardson scored on the next play giving the Greenwave a 21-7 lead.
Painter would score for Spring Creek next with a 3-yard run and a 21-14 Fallon lead.
With 27 seconds remaining in the third quarter Edson found the endzone from 11-yards away. That tied the game at 21-21.
Ledford would give the lead to Spring Creek when he finished a 75-yard drive with a 6-yard touchdown run with just under five minutes to play in the game.
Painter scored the final touchdown with two minutes remaining in the game for the final score 35-21.
Spring Creek will travel to Desert Pines this Saturday for a rematch of last year’s championship game.
