Eagles using bye week to prep for Moapa

By Brent Hinckley

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008 | midnight

Boulder City High's football team has its bye week at the right time.

"I'm not a fan of bye weeks. I like to play on Friday nights," Boulder City coach Alex Kazel said. "But for us as a team this is a good time to get back to fundamentals and work some things out."

The week off gives the Eagles (3-1) extra time to prepare for its 3A Southern League opener at defending 3A state champion Moapa Valley (2-1) on Oct. 3

"We're on our way up, but we still have a long way to go. We need to clean up our play," Kazel said. "We have so much to get better at and the time to do it."

Senior Tyler Ercolani said keeping focused is the biggest challenge during the bye week.

"We have to practice like we don't have a bye, so we don't get sloppy," Ercolani said. "We have to keep getting better if we're going to beat Moapa Valley."

Boulder City goes into the bye week on a three-game win streak, including a 35-7 victory against Silver Valley (Yermo, Calif.) Sept. 19.

The Eagles scored 22 points in the third quarter to spark their victory.

They posted season highs in points (35) and offensive yards (387).

"It was good for the kids, and we did a lot of that on the ground, because it was so windy," Kazel said. "It wasn't just one guy having a great game, it was spread out by several guys having good games."

Junior quarterback Ryan Washburn made his first career start. He led all three third quarter scoring drives and scored two of the touchdowns on runs of 7 and 24 yards. He finished with 52 rushing yards and 100 passing yards.

"It was an awesome experience. Once the game got going, everyone settled down and we played well," Washburn said.

Silver Valley struck first, scoring on a 4-yard run in the first quarter to take a 7-0 lead.

The Eagles answered when senior running back Jeremy Smith scored on an 11-yard run in the second quarter, but the extra point failed.

Silver Valley held the lead through the first half and went into the locker room up 7-6.

However, the Eagles came out and scored three touchdowns in the third quarter.

Senior running back Spencer Sasarita scored on a 2-yard run and Boulder City took a 12-7 lead. Sasarita finished as the Eagles leading rusher with 15 carries for 107 yards, while Smith had 56.

Washburn scored his two touchdowns and Boulder City led 28-7 going into the final quarter. Senior running back Steven Kaposta scored on a 15 yard run for the final score.

It was the first time this season, the defense failed to score, but Kazel said holding Silver Valley to seven points was just as good.

The defense allows only 16.8 points per game, the second fewest in the league.

"They're going a great job. They're going after it on every snap," Kazel said. "They way they are playing is really helping the offense catch up."

Brent Hinckley can be reached at 948-2074 or [email protected].