The Pahrump Valley Trojans lost their first conference game against Sports Leadership and Management on their home turf on Friday.
It’s the first time quarterback Kayne Horibe (8) faced off against the Bulls’ Alaijah Young this season. Last season when the quarterbacks faced off, the Bulls won 33-6. This season SLAM’s victory gap was once again over 25 points.
Wide receiver Randal Murray (10) has been critical this season for the Trojans. Murray stuck to his drill and timing just in time to make a catch from Horibe, then used his 6-foot 2-inch advantage to push through the defensive players all the way to the end zone.
But it wasn’t enough to catch up to the Bulls.
5 against 1
A huge contributor to the win for the Bulls was Damien Nevil, who had nearly 20 carries during the game.
SLAM’s primary method of scoring was through carries as Young only attempted 11 passes in a high-scoring game. Nevil only received the ball twice for 24 yards, his four touchdowns came primarily from his carries where he nearly rushed 100 yards and the Trojans were unable to stop him.
Nevil switched off with sophomore Bulls running back Greg Waters-Cortez in the second half. Waters-Cortez was another unstoppable player for the Trojans where in one play it took five Trojans to stop the running back.
Waters-Cortez would gain 77 rushing-yards during the game.
The Trojans applied pressure at moments to the Bulls. In the fourth quarter on a fourth down play, SLAM only needed to make a two-yard play and were near the 25-yard line. The Trojans’ defensive line knew the Bulls would try to go through the middle and the line held off against SLAM’s runner where they were able to turn it over for the Trojans’ last possession of the game.
At the half
By halftime SLAM was beating the Trojans 29-7 but when the Trojans came out they had a game plan.
After Horibe ran the ball down to the 34-yard line the quarterback made a long pass to Hutchinson on the right side of the field where the ball bounced off the defender’s hand and into Hutchinson’s hands for a first down. Then to close out the play, the ball was carried by Murray, who scored the second touchdown.
On a first and 10 play, Horibe was sacked for a loss of 10 yards. On the second down, Alvarez was open and Horibe passed it to nearly make up for the 10-yard loss. The Bulls picked up an off-sides penalty, which set the Trojans up with four yards to go. Horibe’s offensive line held off the Bulls and he threw the ball down the left side of the field where it fell right into SLAM’s Dylan Tondreau’s hands.
Tondreau ran it for 55yards for a pick-6.
This was not the last interception for the Trojans. On a slow third down Horibe threw it low and into SLAM’s hands again. Horibe would miss several catches due to either making passes that were too high or low to his players.
Contact Jimmy Romo at jromo@pvtimes.com. Follow @JimmyRomo.News on Instagram.