Trojans vs. the Rattlers: Mojave comes to town

Tonight's game will be Pahrump's first conference game and the first true test of their new offense against a tough defense.

The Trojans (1-1 overall) are at home for their second home game of the season against Mojave (1-1 overall) at 7 p.m. and are coming off a brutal home loss to Sunrise Mountain last week. Despite the loss, the offense had no problem marching down the field last week.

Against Mojave, Trojans coach Adam Gent recognizes that yardage doesn't mean anything unless his team can put it in the end zone.

"Mojave will be the best team we have faced this year," Gent said. "They have a lot of speed on offense and on defense."

Offensively, Gent will rely on his balanced attack to do its job.

He knows the air-raid style spread offense his team runs is doing what it was designed to do, which was to create mismatches in the defense.

TJ Milk has the arm to be deadly and Mojave will have a hard time with Milk because of his scrambling ability and not knowing if he is going to take off with the ball or pass it downfield. In the two games, Milk has thrown all kinds of balls for long yardage and the Trojans have proven they can run the ball.

Last game Milk was slightly off. The receivers were either not running the routes correctly or he overthrew the ball. There were also at least five dropped passes that hit the receiver square in the hands.

Despite the problems, Gent plans on not making any major changes.

"I believe if our boys take care of the football and we play "our game" we have a great shot to be 1-0 in league," he said.

Gent expects the Rattlers to run the ball.

"They want to run the ball and have been very successful on the ground for many years," the coach said.

He said Mojave will come after the Trojans with a multi-dimensional offense with a spread and wing-T scheme.

"Our first priority is to stop the run and force them to pass on us," Gent said. "They are a good team but so are we. It's going to come down to who executes and has less turnovers. It's going to be a great and fun match-up."

The Rattlers are still strong, despite losing some great talent.

Mojave's running back Ty Flanagan is gone and so is quarterback Zack Arave. Last year Flanagan rushed for 1,266 yards and Arave rushed for 467 yards. This year the Rattlers are still running the ball but are spreading it out among three backs, probably trying to see who will emerge as the go-to back. Elija Smoot has 101 yards in two games and Nick Kline has 88 yards.