WINNEMUCCA - A week ago, its junior varsity counterparts were hit with the injury bug. Unfortunately, for the Lowry High School freshmen football team the injury bug struck them on Thursday night in a 34-14 loss to South Tahoe.
The Buckaroos (1-2 overall) had two players taken to the hospital in Darrin Nelson and Jackson Brown. Nelson, who suffered possible concussion symptoms after a hit in the first half was back at the field late in the game. LHS head coach Brent Riemersma said both players were doing OK but there return to action is not known yet.
"I thought we went out there and played OK," Riemersma said. "The effort was there. We just got ravished by injuries. Jackson and Darrin are our top two running backs. You lose both of them and it hurts your running game."
South Tahoe took nearly seven minutes off the clock in the initial drive of the game and capped a 51-yard drive with a 20-yard pass from Tommy Cefalu to Jake Miller on fourth down to give the Vikings an 8-0 lead after the made 2-point conversion.
The advantage was short-lived as the Buckaroos struck pay dirt on an 86-yard kickoff return on the next play by Nelson. Jed Teichert added the 2-point conversion to tie the game at 8-8 with 6:26 left in the first quarter.
The Vikings added to their lead three minutes later as Jacob Bernal capped off a 43-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. One play earlier, Bernal scampered 34 yards before stepping out of bounds at the 1-yard line.
Lowry threw an interception on its next possession and South Tahoe took advantage of the miscue and drove 42 yards, finishing with a 10-yard run by Bernal to push the margin to 20-8 with 38 seconds left in the first quarter.
"You have to give some credit to South Tahoe," Riemersma said. "It was the best team they have put on the field since I have been year. They are much improved."
It was the Buckaroos' turn to make the Vikings pay for a mistake and following an interception. Lowry drove 40 yards with Teichert connecting with Christian Collazo for a 5-yard pass to cut the deficit to 20-14 at halftime.
With the injuries Brady Lange was moved to quarterback and Teichert moved over to running back. However, that lasted just a couple of series when Lange got hurt and Teichert moved back to quarterback.
After a scoreless third quarter, South Tahoe took control of the game with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, beginning with a 45-yard run by Noah Swan. Five minutes later, Bernal added his third touchdown of the night on a 7-yard run for the final points of the night.
"I thought we made some good adjustments at halftime," added the coach. "We held them scoreless in the third quarter and then we get that second injury on one of their touchdown runs. It was a long break and we were with Jackson on the field for a long time. You could hear a pin drop in the stadium. After that we could not recover."
Lowry returns to action on Thursday when it travels to Battle Mountain to play the Longhorn JV at 5 p.m.
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