By Vern Hee

In Division IV girls volleyball, the Tonopah Muckers continue to run away with the league title. The Muckers have rolled over all opponents they came in contact with.

Their latest victim was Indian Springs last Friday night at home.

Judi Boni, head Tonopah coach, said the first set was rough and the girls had to settle down a bit. The Muckers improve to 19-4 overall and 5-0 in league play.

“We had too many service errors in the first set, 13 for the match. Indian Springs served hard and we had passing errors too. That is definitely something that will be addressed in practice this week.”

Boni said she had to speak to the girls on the court about the mistakes. These mistakes have to be worked out before the region playoffs which begin Nov. 2 and 3 in Las Vegas at Sunrise Mountain.

“With the score tied at 24, I told the girls they had to dig down and show what they could do. They did that and made good passes and smart sets by the setters and played as a team. As the game went on there was a lot of long rallies so the stats show 48 digs and it shows we are improving our passing. Greber had a good blocking night with 6. I think Vanpoucke, Gray and Friel intimidated the Indian Springs hitters a bit. My two setters, Friel and Salsbury put up 99 sets to keep our offense strong. I think they are getting better at running a strong hitting offense,” said Boni.

Boni and her team are a shoo-in for the playoffs. The test will be beating Pahranagat Valley next week, a team the Muckers dispatched in a tournament in Pahrump in September but as Boni knows, a lot can happen to a team from September to October. Boni will play the Panthers knowing that Ginger Whipple, the head coach of the Panthers, has 32 years of coaching experience and always has her teams well prepared.

Muckers Football also had a win last Friday night at home against Indian Springs. The Muckers beat the Thunderbirds 45-26 and improve to 2-2 in league play.

The Muckers offense posted 310 yards. They were behind at the half 23-26. The Mucker offense had 22 unanswered points in the second half to win the game.

Duffy Otteson, head Mucker coach, said his team reached down and pulled out the win.

“I was proud of our team after going down by 14 points and keeping their composure and fight back for the win. Our Seniors really played well on senior night. I have coached these kids since they were freshmen and it has been a pleasure coaching them for their entire high school career,” said Otteson.

Tonopah’s Defense had 5 interceptions and the offense posted 310 yards.

TONOPAH STATS:

Passing: Seth Littlefield 5-14-125 yards – 2TD’s-1int. only his second INT of the season., Jim Winters 0-3.Ru Littlefield 13-105 2 TD’s , Carmon 7-23, Spencer Littlefield 5-21, Withers 2-15, Misner 14, Ayers 1-7.Re Littlefield 3-59, Otero 2-66. Defense:Ayers 10 tackles 5 solo , Otero 9 tackles 4 solo, Gromis 8 tackles 3 solo, 2 sacks , Misner 4 tackles 3 solo , Spencer Littlefield 4 tackles 2 INT’s , Hunt 4 tackles 2 solo , Carman 2 tackles 2 solo, 2 INT’s , Seth 4 tackles solo 1 INT , Withers 1 solo tackles. Scoring:Seth Littlefield 14 points 2 rush, 1 2 point conv. , Spencer Littlefield 9 points 1 rec., 1 kick, 1 2 point conv. , Otero 8 points 1 rec. 1 2 point conv. , Carman 8 points 1 INT for TD, 2 Rec. 2 point Conv. , Misner 6 points Kick Off return for TD Tonopah Total Offense: 310 yards

The Beatty Hornets in girls volleyball also came up with a win last Friday.

The team is 2-3 in league and sitting in fifth place with three more games to play. They traveled to Sandy Valley to beat them 3-0.

To make the playoffs the Hornets need to beat Adelson and stay in fifth place. Steve Sullivan, head Hornets coach believes his team can do it. “We need to be in the top six to go to the playoffs. I think we can do that. My team just needs to play their game and to set the tone. We have a bad habit of looking to see how good the opponent is going to be and then playing to that level. We need to set the level of play from the very start,” said Sullivan.

The Hornets should beat Adelson School, They play Adelson two in a row and then they travel to Pahranagat Valley to play the Panthers at home. The last three games for the Hornets should be tough.

Beatty football finally won their first game of the season against Sandy Valley 24-12. Beatty improves to 1-4 overall and 1-3 in league play with the two best teams left to play. The Hornets take on the second place Spring Mountain Golden Eagles this week and the Pahranagat Valley Panthers next week.

Beatty had a 30-yard touchdown reception by Chris Dunlap and a 40-yard touchdown reception by Levy Reed, and a 5-yard touchdown run by Louis Flores. Three two-point conversions gave the Hornets 24 points.

“We had two defensive interceptions and two fumble recoveries by the defense that helped us win the game,” said Verzilli.

Verzilli said Louis Flores gets some extra kudos for playing defensive end last week. “Flores had a great game and shored up the outside last week. He did something extra last week and manned up,” said Verzilli.

Verzilli believes Jake Zamora was 8 for 15 in completions and had 135 yards rushing on offense.

Verzilli said the team was on the same playing field as Sandy Valley. “It was finally good to win one,” said Verzilli.

The Hornets next game will be at Beatty at 4 p.m. against Spring Mountain.

Verzilli said that Spring Mountain has a big team and is a scrappy bunch that has piled on a bunch of wins.

Spring Mountain is 4-1 and one game out from the Pahranagat Valley Panthers who are 4-0.

“They have a couple of big receivers and they throw the ball all over the place. Spring Mountain runs a Spread offense, ” said Verzilli.

The Hornet defense will be working on a plan to stop the Spring Mountain boys. He feels last week’s defensive play by his team was a great improvement over the weeks before. He said he wants to put pressure on the Spring Mountain quarterback by sending a linebacker.

“Maybe we can stick a guy back in the backfield and surprise them with that but they are going to do what they are going to do and hopefully our kids can keep up with that,” said Verzilli.

Volleyball Scores Division IV

Tonopah 3, Indian Springs 0 — At Tonopah, Deanna VanPoucke tallied 13 kills, nine digs, and six assists, and Alli Friel had 14 assists, 10 digs and five kills to lift the Muckers to a sweep over Indian Springs, 26-24, 25-19, 25-14.

Sydney Maughan added eight digs and five kills, and Sarah Greber registered 10 digs, six blocks and four kills for Tonopah. Beatty 3, Sandy Valley 0 – At Sandy Valley, the Hornets were 25-21, 25-23, 25-10 winners over the Sidewinders. Pahranagat Valley 3, Adelson School 0 — At Adelson School, the Panthers rolled to a 25-10, 25-9, 25-17 sweep of the Lions.