Basic players hoist the trophy and celebrate their dominant win versus Green Valley High School during the Henderson Bowl game on Friday, Oct. 14, 2016. L.E. Baskow
Friday, Oct. 14, 2016 | 11:49 p.m.
Prep Sports Now
Rivalry game pile-up
Las Vegas Sun sports editors Ray Brewer and Case Keefer peek back at last week's rivalry games while beginning to wrap their heads around this week's packed schedule of them.
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Much of the Basic High football team’s success has come from its dynamic passing attack.
But Friday night in arguably the most important game of the Wolves’ season, it was the defense that shined.
Jacob Fulton had a 21-yard interception return for a touchdown to start the scoring against visiting Green Valley in the annual Henderson Bowl, and the Wolves accounted for six turnovers in a 35-7 victory.
Green Valley quarterback Kalyja Waialae was injured in the first half to force the Gators to alter their game plan to feature more rushing plays. In the second half when Basic pulled away, those rushes resulted in lost fumbles on consecutive possessions — consecutive plays, actually.
“I know their quarterback went out and that was really tough for them,” Basic coach Jeff Cahill said. “Even before that I thought our defense was playing really well.”
While the Basic offense wasn’t as crisp as past games in its 6-1 start to the season, quarterback Aaron McAllister still passed for more than 200 yards and three touchdowns. On the first play of second half, McAllister connected with DeShawn Eagles for a 79-yard touchdown. Eagles made an acrobatic catch over a defender and raced untouched to the endzone.
“Every game against Green Valley is always intense,“ Eagles said. “Even though certain things weren’t working (offensively), we still tried to make a play out of it. We didn’t give up on the plays. It’s all execution.”
McAllister also connected with Frank Harris and Dorian McAllister, his cousin, for touchdowns. Harris added a short touchdown run.
“The kids were so emotional coming out at the beginning that we weren’t executing like we normally do,” Cahill said.
Now comes the difficult part: turning the page to next week. The Wolves play at Foothill in the Battle for Boulder Highway, then close the season by hosting Liberty in what should be for the Southeast League championship.
“We know it is going to be tough at Foothill. We have to go there,” Cahill said.
Green Valley falls to 3-4 overall and 0-3 in the Southeast League.
Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21
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