WINNEMUCCA - When the Lowry High School varsity football team made its first road trip of the season to Wooster on Friday, Sept.13, it took them a while to get off the bus, trailing by nine points at halftime before coming back to win by 16.
The Buckaroos hit the road for the second time this year, traveling to Dayton last Friday with a much different outcome. Lowry scored 13 points before the Dust Devils ran a play on offense en route to a 46-13 victory.
"We made sure we were going to be ready this time," said LHS head coach Tim Billingsley. "We went in knowing it was going to be a tough game. Dayton runs the ball well. We finally got a kickoff return and it is always nice to have a two-touchdown lead before the other team runs a play."
Brandon Okuma got the Buckaroos rolling with his 98-yard kickoff return to start the game and Lowry was back in business as Dayton fumbled the ensuing kickoff.
Beau Billingsley made the Dust Devils pay for the mistake, scoring on a 1-yard run to put the Buckaroos up 13-0 with five minutes elapsed in the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, Dayton took advantage of a Lowry fumble and needed to drive just 35 yards to cut the deficit to six points at 13-7. Austin Fletcher did most of the damage on the possession, eventually scoring on a 13-yard run for the Dust Devils. That was as close as Dayton got, with Lowry reeling off the next 26 points.
Lowry (4-0 Division I-A North, 5-0 overall) answered back on its next possession, needing just six plays to drive 54 yards. Following a 20-yard run by quarterback Calvin Connors, Billingsley notched his second touchdown of the night on a 4-yard run.
For the second week in a row, the Buckaroos' defense scored a touchdown as Connors intercepted Dayton quarterback Davis Winebarger and raced 58 yards for the score to make the score 26-6 with three minutes left in the first half.
After forcing Dayton to go three-and-out on the ensuing drive, Lowry still had time left on the clock to put one more touchdown on the board.
Aided by an 18-yard punt return by Okuma, the Buckaroos ran just six plays on the 35-yard drive, with Okuma capping off the possession with a 2-yard run to extend the margin to 32-6 at halftime.
One of the few ways to keep Lowry off the scoreboard is to keep its high-powered offense on the field and Dayton did just that in the third quarter. The Dust Devils held the ball for the first 10 minutes of the quarter but had nothing to show for it after the drive stalled out on downs near the Buckaroo 10-yard line.
"Dayton was not a bad team and they were running the ball on us," Billingsley said. "We hardly touched the ball in the third quarter. The best way to slow us down is not letting our offense on the field. I am surprised they started throwing the ball."
Early in the fourth quarter, Okuma scored his third touchdown of the night on a 5-yard run to increase the lead to 39-6. The Dust Devils countered on their next possession with Winebarger connecting on a 47-yard pass play to Dallon Mendoza.
Lowry capped off the scoring late in the fourth quarter on a 1-yard run.
The Buckaroos rushed for 243 yards on the night with 86 yards coming from Okuma and 78 more from Billingsley. Connors had 58 yards on the ground on just four carries and Elijah Frei and Thomas Schwartz ran for 14 and seven yards, respectively.
Connors was 11-of-17 passing for 128 yards, while Garret Naveran and Gray passed for 35 and 34 yards, respectively.
Josh Shaver had 68 yards receiving on three catches, Billingsley had three receptions for 48 yards and Okuma and Robert Stepper each caught two balls for 44 and 37 yards, respectively.
Lowry faces its biggest test of the year tonight in Elko with kickoff set for 7 p.m. The Indians enter the contest at 3-1 in league play and 3-1 overall. Elko is coming off a 48-20 loss to Churchill County last week.
"We are looking forward to a great game in Elko," Billingsley said. "We have been telling the kids how big of a rivalry game this is. Elko is going to have something to prove after that loss to Fallon and they will be ready to go."
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