The Pahrump Valley High School football team came up short in last week’s battle with the Mojave Rattlers 44-34.
The game was a close one for at the half the Trojans led the Rattlers 18-16.
The loss was a heartbreaker for the team to do so well offensively, 337 total yards to the Rattlers’ 322.
“It was a hard loss,” said senior Trojans quarterback Dylan Coffman. “We just couldn’t get our two-point conversions in.”
The Trojans failed to convert three two-point conversion plays during the game.
Coffman added, “There was also a crazy play … where I threw the ball to Casey (Flennory) and he almost caught it and he fell with the ball, landing on his back. The other side picked it up and ran it back for a TD.”
Trojans senior defensive back Cory Bergan agreed with Coffman on the bizarre play and the craziness of the game.
“We played hard and on our offense clicked more than any other game,” he said. “We are improving as the weeks go on. There was some plays that decided the game. The Flennory play was a big play. In this came we fought hard and came back. We just couldn’t make a first down when we needed to in the final seconds of the game. It was a heartbreaker and it’s behind us.”
In the first half, the Trojans (4-5 overall, 2-3 Sunset League) scored three touchdowns. Junior running back Nico Velazquez scored the first touchdown in the first quarter on 6-yard run. The next TD was scored by Dylan Coffman on a one-yard run in the second quarter to make it 12-8.
Mojave then took the lead on a 4-yard TD run with 5:45 left in the second.
Junior running back Casey Flennory then scored on a 12-yard TD run to take the game into halftime.
The Trojans scored two more times in the second half, one in the third quarter and one in the fourth quarter. Both touchdowns were by Velazquez. In the third, Velazquez had a 58-yard TD run and then a 7-yard TD run at the end of the fourth.
Pahrump had 58 carries for 329 yards rushing while Mojave had 24 carries for 241 yards rushing and 81 yards passing.
The Trojans go into the regional playoffs as the fourth-seed team and take on the first seed Sunrise League team, Virgin Valley (6-3, 2-1) on the road. See Friday’s pregame edition for more on the Virgin Valley team.
Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com