WINNEMUCCA - After spending two weeks of heat acclimation and hitting each other, the Lowry High School football team had the opportunity to see someone different for the first time this season.
The Buckaroos, who went 10-2 last year and reached the state semifinals against Moapa Valley, hosted Reno and Elko high schools in a controlled scrimmage.
After enjoying its best season since 1992, Lowry began its 2013 campaign, in search of its first state title in school history. Humboldt County High School won championships in 1959 and 1965.
Sticking to a vanilla playbook on offense, the Buckaroos moved the ball against Reno and Elko, having more success against the rival Indians.
During the scrimmage, teams began from their opponents' 40-yard line, with a set number of plays. If the drive ended on downs the ball was brought back to the 40-yard line.
The squads also did goal line situations and worked on special teams as well.
"We came out flat against Reno and didn't look that good," said LHS head coach Tim Billingsley. "I thought we looked a lot better against Elko and we did a better job of running our stuff. We kept it fairly vanilla on offense and defense. We are going to see Elko later on this year and they will be gunning for us when we go there."
The Buckaroos scored twice on Reno, the first coming on a pass play from Calvin Connors to Robert Stepper. The second touchdown came on a designed run by Connors during the goal line sequence.
Lowry's offensive success continued against Elko with a couple of more scores from both the first and second teams, while the Buckaroo defense kept the Indians out of the end zone.
Lowry opens its season Thursday night at home against Battle Mountain, with the JV kicking off at 5 p.m. and the varsity to follow at 7:30 p.m.
The Buckaroos open their slate of nine Division I-A games on Friday, Sept. 6, at 7 p.m. against Truckee at home . The Wolverines are the four-time defending Division I-A state champions and have lost one game in the last four years.
However, Truckee graduated all 11 of its starters on defense.
There will ne no junior varsity game that weekend as the Lowry freshmen play Truckee at 4:30 p.m.to open its 2013 campaign.[[In-content Ad]]
