Pirate Youth Football Plays In League Championships

All four teams in the Moapa Valley Youth Football league made it to their championship games earlier this month. Here is a summary of how each team did in their final games.

The Moapa Valley Youth Football league’s 6th grade team won it all at its championship final earlier this month. All four Pirate teams made it to their final championship game. Three of the four Pirate Youth teams won the championship.

Fifth Grade Team
Under the direction of Coach Randy Neilson, the 5th grade Pirates played Canyon View of Cedar City on a cold Thursday night in Hurricane, Utah.

Both teams were 6-1 going into the playoffs. Moapa was the #2 seed in the league with the team’s only loss coming from Canyon View earlier in the season.

Even so, the Pirates beat Canyon View and won the championship, 12-6. The team was led by QB/Safety Colt Neilson, WR/OLB Grayson Totten, FB/MLB Tyler Cornelius, and OL/DT Gideon Leavitt.

The Pirates finished with a 8-1 season record.

Sixth Grade Team
Coached by Dennis Whitmore, the sixth grade team stomped Dixie, 36-0, to cap off their undefeated season of 9 wins and 0 losses.

The Pirates were set on the winning track by Rowan Miller who ran the opening kick-off back for a touchdown.
RB Crew Palmer had a pick six in the championship game and was also the kicker.
DB Bryson Dalley also grabbed an interception in the game and ran it back 50 yards.
Noah Whitmore added an interception and 3 touchdowns.

The defensive team played really well for a shutout and the offensive line played hard led by Bronson Walker.

Seventh Grade Team
The 7th graders, led by Coach Shane Hickman, fell just short of their second league championship by losing a heartbreaker of a game to a good Parowan team, 20-26.

The Pirates were behind throughout the duration of the game until a late 4th quarter surge, led by QB Ashton Hickman and RBs Chad Leavitt and Jet Levy.

Chad Leavitt scored the go-ahead touchdown, with just 33 seconds remaining, to tie the game, 20-20. The extra point run, also by Chad, put the Pirates up by 1 point at 21-20.

But on the ensuing kickoff and quick drive, the Rams ran a reverse play and rumbled about 60 yards to score the game winning touchdown just as time expired.

The 7th grade Pirates finished their season with 7 wins and 2 losses (both losses came from Parowan).
During the season the Pirates were led by QB/OLB Ashton Hickman, RB/OLB Chad Leavitt, FB/DE Jett Levy, OL/MLB Toby Wood, TE/DE Gavin Foret and OL/DL Felix Ramirez.

Eighth Grade Team
Coached by Tavish Millett, the 8th grade Pirates came from behind with a 0-12 halftime deficit to win the championship, 14-12.

Team leaders included RB/OLB Briggs Hickman, QB/OLB Kamden Drosos, QB/FB/DB Drew Dixon, and OL/DL Jayden Staley.