By BOB SNELL
The Progress
It took 24 minutes of football for Virgin Valley to get the bad taste out of its mouth from losing to rival Moapa Valley on the previous week, the final day of the regular season.
But on Thursday, Oct. 28, the Bulldogs erupted for 40 first-half points in cruising to a 52-12 victory over visiting Eldorado of Las Vegas. It was the 3A South Region first-round playoff contest played inside Evan Wilson Stadium.
The win sends Virgin Valley, which improved to 8-2 overall, into a regional semifinal matchup Friday at Pahrump Valley (4-3). Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m. The winner will advance to the 3A State semifinal on Nov. 13.
It will be the fourth time in the last seven months that the Bulldogs have had to travel to Pahrump. Virgin Valley has come out on top in all three previous meetings against the Trojans, including a 48-18 victory on Sept. 10.
“That was Pahrump’s first game and our third,” VVHS head coach Matt Woods said. “We better have our big boy pants on Friday. They’re a big and physical team. They’ll try to pound the ball down our throats. Defensively, they don’t let teams run up the middle.”
Against Eldorado, the Bulldogs jumped in front midway through the opening period on a 28-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Gavin Brown to Jimmy Kelly, one of three scores the duo would connect on. Edgar Perez booted the point after putting Virgin Valley on top 7-0.
The Sundevils came right back cutting the margin to 7-6 on a 37-yard TD pass from Matt Gallegos to D’Angelo Moore with 4:23 left in the quarter. Eldorado wouldn’t score again until Gallegos’ three-yard run with 3:05 remaining in the contest.
In between those scores, Virgin Valley reeled off 45 straight points.
Brown, who completed 13-of-16 passes for 300 yards and six touchdowns, connected with Benson Leavitt for 37 yards and Ashten Roman for two yards to give the Bulldogs a 20-6 lead at the quarter.
Kellen Dugan ran 12 yards for a score and Brown tossed TD passes to Kelly (44 yards) and Cutler Crandall (30 yards) giving the Bulldogs a 40-6 halftime advantage.
Brown hooked up with Kelly, who caught five passes for 123 yards, for a 46-yard score on the second play of the third quarter extending the lead to 46-6.
“Eldorado stacked the box and we were able to get the ball to our outside threats,” Woods said. “That’s why Gavin was able to throw six touchdown passes. We’re not expecting Pahrump to do that against us.”
Having both Crandall and Roman back from early-season injuries has been a plus for the Bulldogs.
“It’s good to have them back,” Woods said. “That’s a couple of two-way starters for us. We’re trying to get them back where they were. Every rep in practice helps.”
Virgin Valley still has some work left to do.
“We have to clean some things up if we want to keep playing,” Woods said. “We’ve got to be more consistent in things like blocking and running the ball.”
