Trojans Game Night: Pahrump Valley at Cheyenne

■ Who: Pahrump Valley (1-4) vs. Cheyenne (5-1, 1-0 Sunset).

■ When/where: 7 p.m. today, Oct. 4, Cheyenne H.S., North Las Vegas.

■ Series history: Coronado leads 4-3.

■ Next week: Pahrump Valley will host Del Sol.

■ Outlook: The Trojans open Sunset League play against the only team in the league with a winning record. The Desert Shields are led by Majae Madison, a 5-foot-9, 180-pound junior coming off of a 32-carry, 230-yard performance in a 28-7 win over Valley. Senior Jason Black is averaging 8 yards per carry and shares the team lead with Madison with 6 TDs rushing. Black has 462 yards for the season, including an 80-yard run. Although they have scored almost twice as many touchdowns rushing as passing, Cheyenne can throw the ball with Devonte Armstrong, who has completed 33 of 70 passes for 670 yards and 8 touchdowns. By far his favorite target is senior Rayvion Brown, with 21 of the team’s 34 receptions for 530 yards — a 25.2-yard average — and seven scores. The teams have played one common opponent; each lost to Boulder City, with the Desert Shields falling 12-7 on Aug. 29.

Pahrump Valley counters with a deep stable of running backs bolstered by the return of junior Tony Margiotta, who was leading the Trojans with 181 yards when he went down against Virgin Valley with a knee injury. Junior Andrew Avena (32 carries, 200 yards, 2 TDs) and senior Kenny Delker (30 carries, 198 yards, 5 TDs) lead the Trojans on the ground, although if Margiotta is 100 percent expect him to do most of the work.

Depth again will be an obstacle for the Trojans, who started the year with 23 players dressing for varsity games and have struggled to get back to that number. A lot will have to go right for Pahrump Valley to start league play on a winning note.

■ Did you know?: While the Desert Shields own a slight edge in the series that dates only to 2012, the Trojans have won the past two meetings by a combined score of 72-27.

■ Coach Clayton says: “Cheyenne always has athletic ability. They always bring some athletes. We love to run at them becsuse of that. They don’t have anything more than what they’ve had in the past. They have a good quarterback, two or three good, solid athletes. We can’t outrun them, we can’t out-athlete them, so we’ll just run at them. We’ve just got to take it right at them.”