VVHS Victorious Vs. Elko

By BOB SNELL

The Progress

After two consecutive weeks of lengthy bus rides to play games on the road, the Virgin Valley High School football team won’t mind just one more trip this season: this time to the State Championship game.

The Bulldogs traveled to northeastern Nevada on Saturday where they dispatched #1 northern seed, Elko, 23-16, in a 3A state semifinal contest at Elko High School.

The win secures a berth for Virgin Valley in Thursday night’s 3A state championship game against rival Moapa Valley at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. It will be the final of four state title games held that day inside the Las Vegas Raiders’ billion-dollar facility.

“I think it’s cool that that these kids get to play at Allegiant Stadium,” VVHS head coach Matt Woods said. “It’s going to be fun for the kids. It makes for a short week for us to prepare, but it’s worth it just to play at Allegiant.”

The Bulldogs are also healthier at this point than they have been since week one of the season back in August. Virgin Valley had four two-way starters go down early in the season with injuries. But now, all four are back and making key contributions.

“It’s nice getting all our injured starters back. That’s been big for us,” Woods said. “When we had all the injuries, we could have just thrown in the towel. But these kids wouldn’t quit. They just kept battling. Now, we’re playing for a state championship.”

Elko grabbed an early 8-0 lead on Saturday by scoring on its first possession. The Bulldogs responded by driving to the Elko one-yard line but were held out of the end zone.
But the Indians were unable to move the ball and gave up a safety.

Virgin Valley took the lead when quarterback Gavin Brown tossed a four-yard touchdown pass to Jimmy Kelly. Edgar Perez added the point-after-touchdown putting VVHS up 9-8.

The Bulldogs had a chance to add more points before halftime but turned the ball over inside the Elko 15-yard line.

Brown, who completed 12-of-20 passes for 185 yards, scored on a five-yard run in the third quarter to boost the Virgin Valley advantage to 16-8.
The Indians came right back with a scoring drive and two-point conversion to pull even at 16-all after three quarters of play.

The Bulldogs scored the winning touchdown with eight minutes to go on a 35-yard pass from Brown to Ashten Roman.

Virgin Valley held Elko on its next possession and took over with four minutes remaining. The Bulldogs were able to run out the clock, taking a knee at the Indians’ one-yard line on the final play of the game.
“Elko was the most physical team we’ve played this year,” Woods said. “I thought our defense played really well. We knew we had to be physical up front to be successful. Other than those two scoring drives, we were able to hold them.”

Kellen Dugan led Virgin Valley in rushing picking up 107 yards on 12 carries. Eathan Workman, playing his first game since being injured in week four, added 51 yards on eight carries. Workman had six tackles and five sacks on defense. Martin Jordan also had a strong game defensively with eight tackles.

“We’re going to heal up this week coming off that physical game at Elko,” Woods said. “I think both us and Moapa pretty much know each other. It’s going to be fun playing them at Allegiant.”