By DAVE BELCHER
The Progress
It was a ‘worst to first’ turnaround for the Moapa Valley Youth 6th grade football team last weekend. On Saturday, Oct. 30, the team beat Parowan, 20-6, to take it all: the League championship.
This same group of young men were unable to score a single touchdown, much less win a game in their previous year. What a turnaround!
To get to the championship game, the Pirates had to beat the second seed Snow Canyon. Parowan, the 3th seed knocked off the 1# seed Canyon View to qualify for the championship game.
“Two small schools making it to the championship was pretty cool,” said Coach Shane Hickman. “Parowan was a much improved team from when we played them earlier in the season.”
Ashton Hickman started by returning the opening kick 45 yards for great field position for the Pirates. He would finish with a QB sweep into the endzone for a 6-0 Pirate lead.
Parowan tied the score at 6-6 with a touchdown on their first possession. Aden Brooks made a great play stuffing the run to stop the extra point. That would be the only touchdown of the game for Parowan.
Chad Leavitt scored the Pirates’ second touchdown with a 65 yard run. Hickman converted the extra point with another sweep for a 13-6 Pirate lead.
This is Chad’s first year playing football, but has demonstrated that his speed is a weapon to reckon with. He has made several long impressive runs showing his speed this year.
Moapa made their biggest improvement from last year with their ability to block the edge to set up the sweep. Miles Wheeler, a receiver, tight ends Wesley Adams and Parker Davies became experts in blocking the edge.
Leavitt would score the final touchdown with a 20 yard run. He added the extra point for the final score, 20-6.
“Defensively, we played very well”, said Hickman. “Our kids really improved this year with the responsibilities of each position. The kids really started to catch on to the importance of doing the job that their position requires rather than being out there doing their own thing.”
Toby Wood had 2 sacks in the game. Felix Ramirez had 3. Hickman had an interception while the defense was strong with Wade and Miles Wheeler, and Dawson Staley each having tackles for a loss.
A big thank you goes out to the volunteer coaches and their wives who were able to help and teach these kids about football including Wes Adams, Jory Levy, Larry Staley, Aaron Walker, David Brooks and Danny Foret.
5 thoughts on “MV Youth Football Team Wins Championship”
Thank you for all of those complements. It really was a big turnaround!
Yeah last year you guys didn’t win one game. But this year we turn the team around and played hard tackled low and scored some touchdowns.
This year was a monstrous year, we absolutely killed our jobs. Me and Aiden brooks we contained our edge and did our job. Our coaches sure were proud of us, we put our blood sweat and tears into the year and had one desire to win, we had a lot of hope to win. we made a GIANT turnaround!
Last football season our team never even scored a touchdown. But then this year we had big changes. We won the championship and our team was so happy. It was amazing.
Last year we were sucky but this year we turned everything around. Are team was strong this year better than last. Foot is a good sport to play for anger.