LAS VEGAS - What was intially thought to be an offensive shootout turned into a defensive battle as the Lowry High School football team traveled to Las Vegas on Saturday to face Faith Lutheran in the Division I-A state semifinals.
Both teams came in scoring over 400 points on the season, but the two schools combined for just two touchdowns. Faith Lutheran used three field goals by Trent Dolby to beat Lowry 16-8 and advance to its first state championship game.
Once again, southern Nevada was unkind to the Buckaroos, who have now lost four consecutive state semifinal games to Division I-A South opponents. The previous three losses were against Moapa Valley. Lowry finished the year at 10-2, tying the school record for wins in a season.
"Southern Nevada hasn't been very kind to us in the past few years," said LHS head coach Tim Billingsley. "We had a tough time getting into a flow on offense. Faith Lutheran is a good team. We just didn't get many breaks. We had a couple of good drives but just hurt ourselves with penalties and turnovers."
The Buckaroos used runs by Brandon Okuma and Calvin Connors to move the ball near midfield, only to see the drive bog down. The Crusaders earned the first break in the contest, as the Buckaroos attempted a fake punt but were unsuccessful.
Faith Lutheran took over at the Lowry 38-yard line and quickly went for the score, as quarterback Jake Deaville went deep for a touchdown throw, but it was knocked down.
The Buckaroo defense held its ground, holding the Crusaders to a 27-yard field goal to make the score 3-0 with 4:13 left in the first quarter.
Lowry went three-and-out on its next possession and did not see the ball again until there were 10 minutes left in the first half.
Faith Lutheran did its best to keep the ball away from Lowry, going on a six-minute drive at the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second. The Crusaders used a short passing game by Deaville mixed with a few runs to extend their lead to 6-0 on a 26-yard field goal after the Buckaroo defense held once again.
Lowry put together its best drive of the day with a six-minute, 74-yard drive in the second quarter. Okuma and Connors had runs that put the ball at the Faith Lutheran 45-yard line. The drive appeared to stall out, but the Buckaroos picked up a first down when the Crusaders were called for an illegal substitution penalty on fourth and four.
The Buckaroos continued to move the ball and tied the game at 6-6 on a 13-yard run by Connors, who dove for the corner of the end zone, hitting the pylon for the touchdown.
Faith Lutheran was called for an offside penalty on the extra point, leading to a trick play by the Buckaroos. Lowry went into a swinging gate formation and took the lead at 8-6, when Connors found Okuma on a short pass.
"We did some good things on the drive," Billingsley said. "We were looking to build off of that. Faith Lutheran did a good job of keeping the ball away from us. The one way to keep us from scoring is not having our offense on the field."
With four minutes left in the first half, Faith Lutheran drove 50 yards to retake the advantage, picking up a break along the way after recovering a fumble on the drive.
The Crusaders closed out the drive with a 3-yard run by Keenan Smith to lead 13-8 with 1:59 left in the first half. Faith Lutheran did not trail again.
Faith Lutheran controlled the clock once again, using a five-minute drive at the start of the third quarter.
The Crusaders converted a third-and-eight play and also made good on a fourth-down play by just inches. For the third time on the day, the Lowry defense held Faith Lutheran to a field goal as Dolby booted a 24-yard kick to make the score 16-8 with 6:49 left in the third quarter. That turned out to be the final points of the game.
Lowry hurt itself the first time it touched the ball, as a 20-yard run by Beau Billingsley was called back on a holding penalty. The drive eventually stalled out, forcing the Buckaroos to punt. For the second time in the game, Lowry faked the punt and Okuma picked up the first down. However, the play was called back on a chop block penalty and the Buckaroos had to punt again.
On the next play from scrimmage, Faith Lutheran's Fabian Lagudi broke off a run of 36 yards to put the ball at the Lowry 33-yard line. Once again, the Buckaroos held their ground with Connors intercepting a Deaville pass to end the Crusaders scoring threat.
Lowry drove to midfield after taking possession of the ball, but once again had to punt after the drive stalled out. The Buckaroos had just 74 yards of offense in the second half. Lowry ran for 201 yards on the day, with 140 of those from Connors. The Buckaroos threw for just 31 yards.
With six minutes left to play, Faith Lutheran punted on a fourth-and-one play and the Crusaders pinned the Buckaroos at the 2-yard line. Lowry didn't take any chances, running the ball three times to give itself some breathing room to punt.
After the teams traded fumbles, Faith Lutheran looked to put the game out of reach. On third-and-15, Deaville picked up a first down with a 22-yard run to keep the drive going. Dolby came out to attempt a 27-yard field goal, but the short attempt came up short with two minutes to play.
"Our defense played great all day," Billingsley said. "They were put into some tough spots all day. We held them to three field goals and Faith Lutheran missed another one. The defense kept us in it all day."
The Buckaroos used their two-minute offense to move the ball to the Crusaders 44-yard line. On a third-and-six play from the 44-yard line, backup quarterback Garrett Naveran came in with 27 seconds to play and his deep pass to Connors was intercepted by Vinny DeGeorge to end the game.
"We still had our chances at the end," Billingsley said. "I am proud of the kids and proud of the coaching staff. They had a great year. They have nothing to be ashamed of. They have won 10 games for two years in a row and no other group has done that. I wish we could have gotten a win for our seniors. It's a tough way for them to go out."[[In-content Ad]]
