Pahrump Valley beats Boulder City 14-6 on Senior Night

It wasn’t an easy night for the Boulder City Eagles as they tried to celebrate their senior night on the newly finished turf field.

Despite their rivals Pahrump Valley High School missing one of their key defensive pieces in junior OLB Iyan Bosket, the Trojans secondary played Friday night as if you’d hardly have noticed the absence.

Spoiling the Eagles fun in a chippy road league game 14-6, the Trojans have proved they are not afraid of being on the road as they improved their road record to 3-1 overall.

“This is their Super Bowl, if you will. And we knew every time we come here, it’s them, they’re going to chirp,” head coach Thom Walker said. “There’s gonna be extra stuff after the plays.”

And boy was there extra stuff.

A scuffle between both sides broke out following a big tackle put on by senior quarterback Kayne Horibe after an interception that would stall the game for nearly 15 minutes before the end of the first half.

The defense under coach Mike Colucci was tough as nails, recording their second straight second-half shutout as the Trojans (6-3, 3-2 3A Southern League) stuffed drive after drive to halt the Eagles from swooping a senior night win.

But it was a late interception on the first play of Boulder City’s late fourth quarter drive by junior WR Ryan Hamlin that set the Trojans up to keep pounding the ball to Austin Alvarez.

“We do have a goal line period every Tuesday at the end of our team period defense and we were backed up against our goal line quite a bit tonight,” Colucci said. “We had a couple big plays between the 20’s that moved them into scoring position, but we brought some man-to-man pressure down there, and I thought our pressure looked good.”

Boding the play calling well, Alvarez led the Trojans on both sides of the ball as the senior finished with 19 carries for 130 yards, with his longest rush on the night coming off a 32-yard rip. Despite not having any touchdowns, the captain was asked in Bosket’s absence to return back to his old position of outside linebacker that he grew up playing as a youth.

“Throughout my career, I’ve had an issue with getting too hyped up in situations like that. But over this past season, I’ve came to realize that football is a game, and you got to have fun playing it,” Alvarez said. “Going back to LB really fired me up more than anything. You know, playing linebacker is something I did my entire youth career and my freshman year of high school.”

The Eagles had trouble capitalizing on their drives as two long sets that lasted well over six minutes were put to rest with a field goal conversion.

After receiving multiple unjustifiable pass interference calls, the Trojans senior WR/S Booey Mclard picked off Eagles freshman Francis Mariani in the endzone for a touch back.

Capitalizing on the chance, the Trojans dialed up a 75-yard pass from Horibe to junior wideout Angel Ware for the Trojans first score of the game. A successful point after attempt by senior Joshua Slusher gave the Trojans the lead with 1:22 to play in the first quarter.

Deciding to go for it on 4th and 6 after a successful tush push from Horibe on the one-yard line was called back for a false start, the Trojans could have taken a field goal but were unable t0 pull ahead further heading into the half after a tipped incomplete pass.

Relying heavily on the defensive backs to keep Eagles freshman QB Francis Mariami with over 1400 yards this season off the scoreboard, the Trojans mixed up a dime set that showed blitz over the middle but would sneakily drop back into under man coverage.

Coming in the second half, the message didn’t waver: pound the rock.

Horibe and Alvarez in the fourth quarter with eight minutes left would find magic on a 74-yard drive capped off by a two-yard QB keeper touchdown to give the Trojans the final score they needed to go up 14-6 following Slusher’s second converted PAT.

Horibe finished the game converting 7 of 18 pass attempts for 195 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.

Credit to the offensive line is massively overdue as they handled a very physical game with poise.

“It felt really good just beating them up front. We were way stronger than them. I believe only problem was that they’re a bit fast, but I think we cleaned that up by near the end,” junior lineman Julio Ackerman said. “And wow our defense, I can’t just let that go. Our defense played amazingly this game.”

The Trojans finish the 2025 regular season with a 6-3 overall record including early season victories over 4A programs Pinecrest Academy Cadence (54-0), Chaparral (56-14) and Cheyenne (58-14).

Heading into the Class 3A Southern League playoffs next week, Walker said no matter the next opponent, the Trojans will be prepared for them at home.

“I mean, if I had to guess, I would think that Democracy Prep up front is way better as they got really fast guys in the secondary, so I’d have to tip that way,” Walker said. “But either one that comes to the house next Thursday we’re going to be dialed up and ready for it.”

The Trojans on Thursday will be hosting The Meadows in the league quarterfinals at home beginning at 7 p.m.

Contact Jacob Powers at jpowers@pvtimes.com. Follow @jaypowers__ on X.