BATTLE MOUNTAIN - The Battle Mountain High School varsity football team rebounded from its loss with an impressive 54-0 victory at West Wendover on Friday night.
The Longhorns (2-1 Northern 2A, 2-2 overall) scored 27 points in the second quarter to blow the game open. The start of the game was delayed about 45 minutes due to rain, but the teams were eventually able to get on to the field.
"It's a whole lot of fun when you are on this side of the outcome," said BMHS head coach Tim Knight. "We have been on both sides of it this year. West Wendover played tough for about a quarter, then we were able to put up the big second quarter and run away with it."
Battle Mountain did not score until late into the first quarter, which eventually opened the flood gates in the second. Daniel Itza threw four touchdown passes in the second period on just six attempts, leading to a 34-0 lead at halftime.
"We just exploded in the second quarter," Knight said. "It seemed every pass we threw was for a touchdown."
After halftime, the Longhorns went back to their running game that was so powerful over the past few years. Battle Mountain had its best rushing game of the season with 315 yards on 28 carries. Ryan Salazar led the way with 165 yards on 14 carries, with David DeAndreis adding 73 on five carries. Both players had long runs of 59 yards. Hank Filippini joined the act with 54 yards, and Itza and Andy Jordan ran for 13 and 10 yards, respectively.
Itza had a strong night passing as well, throwing for 255 yards and four touchdowns, going 10-of-13.
The Longhorn receivers shared the wealth, with Filippini and DeAndreis catching two balls apiece for 79 and 74 yards, respectively. Kyle Bryant caught three balls for 64 yards and Chris Johnson, Joey Cook and Salazar each had one reception.
Battle Mountain added a touchdown in the third quarter and closed out the night with two more scores in the final 12 minutes, as part of the fourth quarter was played with a running clock.
"We went back to our running game with the T-Bone to run the clock and we were still getting big plays," added the coach. "We would run the ball up the middle and were getting runs of 40 and 50 yards."
Filippini and Salazar each had two touchdowns, with Jordan, Bryant, Cook and DeAndreis each scoring one.
Battle Mountain returns home Friday to host North Tahoe at 7 p.m.
"This gives us some momentum but there are things we still need to work on," Knight said. "We are looking down the road to see what we can do against Yerington. They just like to pound the ball at you. We haven't seen any film of them yet but we will get some on them soon."
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