Pahrump Valley football season over

Trojans football head coach Thom Walker promised his team their first playoff year before the season started, and this year he nearly got Pahrump Valley in the state playoffs.

Last week the team traveled to Las Vegas to play their regional semifinals game against the No. 1 team in the league, the Sports Leadership and Management Bulls, who eliminated the Trojans from the postseason.

This was a huge improvement from last season as the Trojans didn’t place high enough in the league to advance to the playoffs. This year the team got to mature as players, including key junior players, quarterback Kayne Horibe (8), wide receiver Austin Alvarez (33) and Benjamin De Santiago (22).

“It was a great season,” Walker said. “I’m proud of these boys.”

The coach will watch eight seniors graduate this school year, which will be big shoes to fill, said Walker.

SLAMed

Leading up to the big game, the Trojans were the No. 4 team in their league after surpassing Mater Academy East Las Vegas in the standings.

The Trojans defeated the Knights earlier in the season and played against them in the first round of the regional playoffs. As the Trojans dominated the first three quarters with a lead of 20 points, MAELV came back to life in the fourth quarter to nearly catch up to the Trojans.

But the time ran out for MAELV and the Trojans won 48-40, for a shot at the semifinals and the state playoffs.

Last week, during their game against SLAM, the Trojans were taking their time scoring.

“We didn’t start the game we wanted to tonight,” Walker said. “We started real slow.”

The Trojans received the ball for the first play, where they were forced to punt on their fourth play. When the Bulls received it, they got right to work to drive the ball down the field and into the end zone for the first touchdown and five minutes on the clock.

Pahrump Valley, on a fourth down to play it near their 38-yard line, Horibe saw Randal Murray (10) who ran long and threw the ball his way. A SLAM defender stuck with Murray and perfectly placed his hand in between Murray’s to block the catch.

And SLAM turned the ball over near the 38-yard line.

Shortly after, with 11 seconds to go in the first quarter, the Bulls scored their second touchdown from a direct pass after a fake run.

The Pahrump team was down 14-0.

In the second quarter, the Trojans made it down to the 33-yard line, where Horibe threw straight to Ethan Hutchinson (5) for their first touchdown of the night. And when the Bulls received the ball, they were hit with a holding call that pushed them back down to their 23-yard line.

But all that advantage for the Trojans went to waste as in the next play Alaijah Young (2) ran the ball through the Trojans’ defensive line and across the field to the Trojans’ 20-yard line. In three passes the Bulls scored their third touchdown with seven minutes left in the first half.

With less than two minutes left in the game, the Bulls scored one more touchdown for a 28-7 lead and Trojans needed to score.

After moving fast and picking up yards, Horibe threw an interception at the 50-yard line in a pass intended for Murray. The Bulls would slowly work their way down the field, but ran the clock down until halftime when SLAM received the ball.

Within two game minutes, the Bulls ran the ball into the end zone for a 35-7 lead.

But the Trojans began to pick up some steam as in a quick pass to Alvarez, he was able to run it in for a touchdown for six more points, as SLAM blocked the kick.

Toward the end of game in the fourth quarter, within a minute SLAM scored a touchdown to further separate from the Trojans 42-13.

The two teams would end up matching each other’s points in the fourth quarter and each racked up roughly 20 points in the final quarter. One memorable play that many didn’t get to see during the season was a two-pass play from the Trojans.

Horibe passed it into Alvarez’s hands and as Lucas Gavenda (21), a sophomore, ran to the end zone, Alvarez threw it to Gavenda to score a touchdown pass. In the end the Trojans didn’t score enough to recover SLAM’s lead and the game ended 56-33.

Contact Jimmy Romo at jromo@pvtimes.com. Follow @JimmyRomo.News on Instagram.