After spending two weeks of beating up on each other, the Lowry High School football team found someone else to hit this past Saturday at Jerry Tobin Field
The Buckaroos, who went 10-2 last year and reached the state semifinals against Faith Lutheran, hosted Reno and Elko high schools in a controlled scrimmage.
After enjoying its first back-to-back 10-win seasons in school history, Lowry began its 2014 campaign with a new look on offense, in search of its first state title in school history. Humboldt County High School won championships in 1959 and 1965.
The Buckaroos scrimmaged Reno first, going through a number of scenarios on offense, defense and special teams.
Lowry intercepted Reno on the second play of the scrimmage and held the Huskies out of the end zone on 10 plays, where the drive began at the Buckaroo 40-yard line. Reno first offense did score once in a goal line situation on a 2-yard run on fourth down,
Lowry struggled on its first drive against Reno, turning the ball over twice on fumbles in the 10 plays and seeing another drive end on downs. Like the Huskies, the Buckaroos' first-team offense found the end zone on a 5-yard pass play from Christian Gray to Beau Billingsley.
The second offenses for Reno and Lowry each scored one time, where Garrett Naveran found Omar Guerrero for a long touchdown pass.
In the final drive of the scrimmage, Lowry held Reno out of the end zone and the Buckaroos methodically drove 40 yards and scored on a touchdown pass from Gray to Naveran.
When Lowry took to the field against league rival Elko, the defenses stepped up. The Buckaroos knocked the Indians out of the playoffs last November, after Elko had beaten Lowry in the regular season.
Sterling Dennis picked off a pass on the second play the Buckaroo first defense kept the Indians off the board. Elko first offense scored once in the goal line situation on a 10-yard run.
Lowry's first offense also had a turnover at the 1-yard line as part of its 10 plays from the 40. The Buckaroos scored a touchdown in the goal line situation as well and added another score with their second offense.
"For the most part I thought we looked good at times," said LHS coach Tim Billingsley. "We lost a lot of skilled guys from last year and it was a chance for the new guys to get in there. With it being a scrimmage, we weren't going to show Elko much."
Lowry opens its season Thursday night on the road in Reno against North Valleys, with the freshmen kicking off at 4:30 p.m. and the varsity to follow at 7 p.m. There is no JV contest.
The Buckaroos open their slate of Division I-A games on Friday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. at Fernley.
Contact Tony Erquiaga at t.erquiaga@winnemuccapublishing.net.[[In-content Ad]]
