Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

high school football:

Moapa Valley rallies to force overtime, beats Desert Pines for state championship

Moapa Valley Defeats Desert Pines State Football

L.E. Baskow

Moapa Valley players celebrate their win over Desert Pines in overtime for the Division I-A state high school football championship on Saturday, November 22, 2014. .

Moapa Valley Defeats Desert Pines

Moapa Valley players reach out to touch their winning trophy following the Division I-A state high school football championship game on Saturday, November 22, 2014. . Launch slideshow »
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They were dejected and shocked.

When Moapa Valley High football players retreated to the locker room today at halftime of the Division I-A state championship game, they trailed Desert Pines by 20 points and had few reasons for optimism.

They were undefeated and entered averaging 39.8 points per game, but they were held scoreless in an ugly first-half performance.

Coach Brent Lewis was harsh in pointing out their flaws. He also told them something memorable would happen in the second half.

Lewis was right.

Moapa Valley overcame a three-touchdown deficit in the fourth quarter, shocking Desert Pines with one improbable play after the next to force overtime.

The overtime lasted just two plays. Moapa Valley scored on the first play of its possession and Desert Pines fumbled on its first play, giving Moapa Valley a thrilling 42-36 victory for the state championship.

“I was doing lots of screaming and challenging their manhood,” Lewis said. “I said, ‘Who are you guys? I don’t know who you guys are in this room. This isn’t the team I had seen all year.’ We let those guys dictate everything the first half and couldn’t seem to recover.

“I told them, ‘If you have heart, you will show up in the second half.’ I literally told them this is a game that they will talk about forever.”

Senior quarterback Zach Hymas passed for nearly 400 yards and three touchdowns, hooking up with R.J. Hubert for a 10-yard scoring strike on the first play of overtime to give Moapa Valley its only lead of the day.

On the next play, the Desert Pines quarterback and running back had a miscommunication on the handoff that led to a fumble. Bo Redd recovered the ball to end the game and send the Moapa Valley players, coaches and most of the supporters who traveled 70 miles into Las Vegas from Overton onto the field for a celebration of a lifetime.

It is the 16th state championship in Moapa Valley history dating to the 1940s. And, as Lewis predicted, it's a championship that won’t soon be forgotten.

“We were in a zone in the whole second half,” Hymas said. “... We are state champions. We came back. This was the greatest win in Moapa Valley history.”

Desert Pines sophomore running back Isaiah Morris was a one-man show for most of the game, breaking loose for three impressive touchdown runs and giving the Jaguars a commanding lead entering the fourth quarter. He had a 65-yard touchdown run with 1:57 to play in the third quarter and added a 21-yard touchdown less than a minute later after a turnover for a 36-14 Desert Pines lead.

Moapa Valley was faced with a daunting task entering the final 12 minutes. Not only did it need to score three touchdowns to even the score, it also would need at least one 2-point conversion.

Hymas quickly went to work to engineer the comeback, finding Hubert and senior Cole Mulcock repeatedly to extend the game. Both players finished with more than 100 receiving yards. If Moapa Valley needed five yards for a first down, they got six. Over and over again.

“We are all about team. We go first quarter all the way to the fourth and finish the game as a team,” Mulcock said. “We never lost faith. We always kept our head in it. We had faith we weren’t going to lose the game. We went all out in the second half.”

Click to enlarge photo

Moapa Valley head coach Brent Lewis celebrates his team's win over Desert Pines with the trophy after being doused with ice water at the Division I-A state championship game Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014.

The biggest play came on a fourth down with about three minutes remaining. Needing 17 yards for a first down, Hymas heaved up a long pass to Kaleb Bodily, who despite tight coverage made an acrobatic catch and raced untouched for a 51-yard touchdown.

The ball could have been intercepted or knocked down. Instead it was Bodily’s third touchdown of the half. Hymas hooked up with Mulcock for the 2-point conversion to force overtime.

“They had us on the ropes, man,” Lewis said.

After scoring no points in the first half, Moapa Valley put up a 42 spot in the second half and overtime. More important, it held Desert Pines scoreless in the fourth quarter. One Desert Pines first down might have drained enough clock to end the game.

“I knew our defense was extremely tired in the second half,” Desert Pines coach Tico Rodriguez said. “That was the difference. They got the momentum and we couldn’t stop them.”

This won’t be the last you hear of Desert Pines. Morris, who finished with four total touchdowns, is just a sophomore and will likely be the Division I-A’s best skill-position player the next two seasons. Quarterback Marckell Grayson is also a sophomore, while juniors Trevor Nofoa, Anthony Smith and Sam Poutasi are legitimate Division I recruits.

They’ll likely be back in the same game next year.

“They played their hearts out,” Rodriguez said. “Sometimes when you do everything right and you play hard, you still fall short. There is growth with that. We are a young team. I will thank my seniors, and Monday we will get back to work.”

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21

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