By GANNON HANEVOLD
Moapa Valley Progress
With three games on the schedule, and two of them coming on the road, the girls of Moapa Valley High School Flag Football team knew they were in for a tough one last week. With it being the last week before the team heads to their winter break, the team was hoping to go out with some momentum. They sure found a way to do so.
In the first game of the week on Tuesday, Moapa Valley hosted the Western Warriors. Behind two touchdown passes from quarterback Alex Peay, the Pirates pulled off a narrow victory in an exciting game. The final score would be 18-14, and it was a strong start to the week.
Following that victory, Moapa headed into Las Vegas on Wednesday for their next game, this time against a Division 4A opponent. On the other side of the ball would be the Spring Valley Grizzlies.
At the end of the first half, the Pirates held yet another lead and things were looking promising in favor of their second straight victory. With an 18-7 lead, the Pirates were able to hold on to win with a 26-14 final score.
Once again, Alex Peay had a strong performance as she threw the ball for 190 yards and two more touchdown passes to go along with a 75% completion percentage.
“Through these last few games I’ve been able to connect with certain receivers who I wasn’t able to connect with before,” Peay said of the strong performance in the week.
She also explained the parts of her play she’s looked to improve. “I’ve worked on throwing certain routes to get the ball further down the field,” she said. “And we’ve worked a lot on our run game which really helped in the games this week.”
With victories in their first two games, the Pirates had one more left on the calendar: yet another road test. This time, the Pirates took on Sunrise Mountain.
The Miners switched into the Sunset division last season. So the Pirates haven’t seen them on the field since 2015, when they swept them in league play. This time, while the teams were very different two years later, the result was the same.
An interception and 79 yards receiving from senior Lexi Schraft helped guide the Pirates to a narrow victory. Once again, Peay was solid through the air, shaking off a thrown interception to throw for 200 yards and a touchdown to Jessica Leon.
The final score would be a 14-13 victory for Moapa, which certainly made for an intense finish. It was an exciting way for the Pirates to wrap up the week.
Peay said the three wins were crucial for the team’s confidence before taking a few weeks off of the game field. “These games were extremely important,” she said. “It gave the girls a taste of what could happen and the work needed to get there. It also gave us the experience needed to work well with each other.”
Maxime Van der Laan, who has become a big playmaker for the Pirate offense as a receiver was also excited. “It just felt really good to make a comeback after the loss the Friday before,” she said. “When you work hard at practice and focus on what you want to achieve you can come a long way.”
Van der Laan, who was on the receiving end of a touchdown against the Grizzlies, also added that the team was incentivized with a pizza party for getting three wins last week. She said her teammates were pretty “pumped” about achieving that goal.
Last season, the Pirates reached just two wins for the entire year.This year’s group has already fought their way to a 5-5 record.
