Pirate Football Is Back

By DAVE BELCHER

Moapa Valley Progress

The Pirates of Moapa Valley High School will return to the football field this Friday night. A new team with the same goals: first, the league title, then advance to the state championship and bring home another state title.

Last year the Pirates finished with a 7-4 record overall. They finished 3-1 in league play and the second seed in the Sunrise, right behind Virgin Valley who beat the Pirates in league play 14-7 in Virgin Valley. It was the first win against Moapa Valley that the Bulldogs had accomplished since 2007.

Moapa Valley finished their season last year losing to state champion Desert Pines in the state quarter finals 28-7. It was the first time the Jaguars had ever beaten Moapa Valley in football.

The Pirates will return 12 lettermen from last year with six starting players on the offense and six players on the defense. But the team also brings in a group of athletes who are inexperienced at the Varsity level.

The Pirates return Daxton Longman as the quarterback who finished with 1406 yards passing, throwing 15 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. He threw the ball 185 times with 90 receptions for a 48% completion percentage.

Derek Reese returns as a wide receiver. He caught 13 passes for 210 yards and five touchdowns.
Runningback Braeden St. John also returns with his 48 carries and 2 touchdowns for 193 yards on the ground in the 2016 season.

Gone is Jacob Leavitt who was one on the state’s best running backs with 1559 yards and 23 touchdowns. Dayton Wolfley will also be missed as the receiver caught 40 passes for 687 and scored 7 touchdowns. and saw a lot of playing time last year.

On the defense, Moapa Valley will be led by three linebackers who can handle their responsibilities very well: Leo Rios, Logan Jackson and Reese.
“We will have a young offensive and defensive line led by sophomores,” said Brent Lewis the head coach. “We are young but we have a lot of potential.”
Lewis added that this actually may be the best line he has had in a while.
The Pirates will play another tough schedule this season; something other teams have been avoiding. But maybe that’s why Moapa Valley has dominated the southern 3A while others are home preparing for the winter sports in November.

The Moapa team will start the season at home on Friday night against Sunrise Mountain who finished with a 4-7 record last year and have a great chance to make a deep run in the playoffs. The Miners have never beaten Moapa Valley in football.

The Pirates travel to Hurricane next Friday night, Sept 1. Last year the Pirates beat the Tigers 25-13.
One highlight of the season will be in week five which is also a road game for the Pirates. This one will be played on Saturday September 23 at 1 pm, instead of on Friday night, and it will be played in Boulder City. For the first time in a long time this matchup will not be a league game. The Eagles have gone independent for football to rebuild their team. They hope that this will attract more players to football. The Eagles won just one game in each of the two last seasons.

League play will start October 6 when Chaparral comes to town.
That game will be followed by another highlight of the season: the “Hammer Game” with Virgin Valley. This rivalry match will also take place on MVHS homecoming night. Last year’s loss will make this game highly entertaining as the Pirates we play to recapture “the Hammer”.This game is always huge no matter what! Last year the Bulldogs celebrated the win into the early morning hours the next day as they BBQed the night away celebrating the rare win.

This year’s state championship game is scheduled to be held Thanksgiving weekend in Reno. Because of the seeding in the south, where the Sunrise and Sunset alternate the top seed each year, if both top seeds qualify for the state semi-finals the Sunrise would travel to the north meaning a possible two trips north this year for the Sunrise champion.

There is a lot of excitement ahead this year as the Pirates look to return to the state championship and bring home number 17.

MVHS 2017 Varisity Football Season Schedule

Aug 25 7 PM Sunrise Mtn
Sep 01 6 PM Hurricane
Sep 08 7 PM Shadow Ridge
Sep 15 7 PM Mojave
Sep 23 7 PM Boulder City
Sep 28 7 PM Las Vegas
Oct 06 7 PM Chaparral

Oct 13 7 PM Virgin Valley
(Homecoming)
Oct 20 7 PM Del Sol

Nov. 3 Region Quarterfinals
Nov. 9 Region Semi-finals
Nov. 18 State Semi-finals
Nov. 25 State Championship North

Home games in bold
Schedule subject to change without notice

Varsity Football Roster

Dallas Larsen      Junior 1          Chase Hoy              Junior 4          Luke Bennett      Junior 5
Leo Rios               Junior 7          Josh Lyon               Senior 7           Josh Cox             Junior 9
Braeden St. John Junior 11       Daxton Longman Senior 14         Maika Enosa      Senior 21
Derek Reese        Junior 23        Coby Longman     Junior 2          Bronc Barlow     Junior 33
Brody Leavitt      Senior 42        Logan Jackson     Senior 44         Gavin Henrie     Senior 50
Tyler Holmes      Senior 52        Ray Marquez        Senior 53         Kaleb Frankford Junior 60
Sam Respess       Senior 61        Jesse Robison       Junior 62        Adrian Huerta     Sophomore 68
Kyle Carlson       Senior 69        Justin Henderson Senior 70       Kele Henderson   Sophomore 72
Mckay Raban     Senior 74        Easton Dalley         Senior 76        Kellen Wallace    Sophomore 78
Blaine Macias     Junior             Cameron Grady     Junior             Damon Leavitt    Junior
Devyn Collins     Junior             Garrison Draper    Junior              Hayden Munns  Junior
Hayden Redd     Sophomore     Luke Barlow          Sophomore      Odin Lyman      Junior
Todd Anderson  Junior              Trey Jones             Senior               Tristan Lehman Sophomore

Published roster represents information available at time of print. Subject to change