Alamo’s football team could lose first game in 98 games

Pahranagat Valley football has received national recognition with the program, winning 98 straight football games. Now that is a feat right there, but this can all come to an end this year, maybe even this week. The question is always who will be the team to do it and will the streak end this year?

I say the best chance of it happening will come from within the Class 1A Southern league. The two teams that could do it are Tonopah and Beatty. I can see people snickering as I write this but you have to look at football in high school and college in cycles. The best chance for the Hornets and the Muckers to beat the Panthers is when the cycle is at its peak and that’s when the team has its best players playing as seniors. For both Beatty and Tonopah, that is now.

They both will go up against Pahranagat Valley this year with the best teams they have had in years. Both teams are undefeated at 5-0 and are led by seniors that have lost to the Panthers three years in a row. This could be the year that they can beat them. That would be something else, for Muckers athletic director Steve Stringer can’t remember when his team beat Alamo. The same with the head football coach, Duffy Otteson, and he played for the Muckers.

I know, every year Tonopah thinks they can do it. Well this year Duffy Otteson has one of the best teams in a long time, with his brother, senior quarterback Tanner Otteson, having one of his best years ever.

“I think this is the year we will beat them,” said Stringer, who is also the assistant coach for Tonopah.

If the Muckers were to beat the Panthers, they would stop them at 98 games without a loss.

The Muckers play Pahranagat Valley in Alamo at 7 p.m., this Friday, when Tanner Otteson is firing on all cylinders. This quarterback has thrown for 687-yards passing in five games, and he has personally rushed for 597 yards. The team as a whole has rushed for 2,023 yards in five games. That’s impressive.

Tonopah’s linemen are at their peak this year, said Stringer.

“Our average lineman weighs 250 pounds, and it’s the best I have seen in a while and they are athletic,” Stringer said. “It would be nice to beat them at their homecoming.”

The Panthers have rushed for half of that and have 1,839 total offensive yards to date in five games.

Pahranagat Valley didn’t score as many points against Spring Mountain this year and could be in a building year with their defense allowing 303 yards during that game. It’s hard to tell with them. This year they have senior Tabor Maxwell driving their offense and he is good, throwing for 776 yards this year.

Beatty has a sophomore QB this year but he has a lot of experience with this group, led by seniors like Jhonpaul Adajar, big Robby Revert, Michael Olson and Jacob Oseguera. All these guys can play ball and Hornets coach Leo Verzilli and his squad have squashed all comers running a simple power I. And that’s the beauty of eight-man football. It’s football at its best. Beatty just gives the ball to the running backs.

Why pass when you have over 200 yards per game, sometimes 400 yards rushing per game. Beatty and Tonopah both play smash mouth ball, and run right at you.

Most of these teams have awesome running games and that’s what they thrive on.

The Panthers win every year because of their discipline and precision, but what if this team was distracted. They don’t seem to be, but there is a distraction.

According to the Lincoln County Register, the most decorated football coach ever at Pahranagat Valley, winning 98 games straight, is being investigated by the Lincoln County DA’s office and isn’t even allowed to coach from the sideline. He coaches from the press box.

The charges were not put in the paper. Just think of the pressure for this football team to perform while their coach is being investigated. Wow. What a movie that will make.

So Tonopah has the first crack at the Panthers this weekend and then Beatty will take a swipe at them on their last game of the season on Oct. 27.

Luckily for Pahranagat Valley, both of these games are home games. Can the Panthers weather the storm?

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com