Down 22 points with 12 minutes to go: no problem if you are the Lowry High School football team. That's what faced the Buckaroos as they traveled to Spring Creek last Friday.
The Spartans dominated the first three quarter and led 22-0 entering the fourth quarter, when the Buckaroos completed one of the largest comebacks in school history to win 26-22 and clinch a spot in the Division I-A State Championships.
"It was one helluva of comeback," said LHS coach Tim Billingsley. "Between penalties and turnovers we could not get anything going in the first three quarters. When we needed to, we got the job done."
Lowry (6-2 Division I-A North, 7-2 overall) took the opening possession inside the Spring Creek 40-yard line, but the drive ended on downs. Spring Creek had the same scenario play out on its initial drive of the night
After seeing drives stall out, each club traded turnovers, with the Buckaroos committing two miscues in the first half. After the second turnover, Braxton Williams had two long runs for the Spartans and Dillon Draper closed out the drive with a 3-yard run and an 8-0 lead after the 2-point conversion. The drive was kept alive after Lowry was called for a roughing the kicker penalty.
Lowry appeared poised to get on the scoreboard, driving inside the Spring Creek 20-yard line, but another fumbled ended the drive.
The Spartans took advantage of the mistake and drove down the field and scored on a pass play from Draper to Williams and they led 15-0 at halftime.
Spring Creek increased its lead to 22-0 five minutes into the second half on a touchdown throw from Draper to Mike Smith.
The miscues continued to pile up for the Buckaroos, who threw an interception on the next drive, giving the ball back to the Spartans. Spring Creek could not convert, giving the ball back to Lowry. From there, it was all Buckaroos.
With 10 minutes to play, Christian Gray put Lowry on the board with a rushing touchdown to cut the margin to 22-7.
Lowry forced Spring Creek to punt on its next possession and the Buckaroos drove back down the field and were back on the board on a 3-yard run by Donovan Brumm to make the score 22-14 with 7:31 to play.
The Spartans were forced to punt again and Sterling Dennis provided Lowry with a 20-yard return to put the Buckaroos at midfield.
Lowry kept its momentum going with three first downs to put the ball inside the 10-yard line. Beau Billingsley capped off the drive with a rushing touchdown to cut the margin to to 22-20. Lowry went for two points and one official ruled the 2-point conversion good while a second said no good. The Buckaroos were not awarded the two points.
"You look at the film and we were in by two yards," Billingsley said. "One official had his hands up and other said no."
With time quickly running out and less than three minutes to play, Lowry attempted an on-side kick and recovered the ball at the Spring Creek 47-yard line.
The Buckaroos drove the ball back down the field and Gray scored on an 8-yard run with 50 seconds to play to give the Buckaroos a 26-22 lead.
"Christian had a pretty good fourth quarter," said the coach. "He had a big throw to Kyle (Tarr) that got everything going for us. He made some good decisions."
Lowry ended the game with an interception of Draper and ran the clock out to secure the win.
Gray had 119 yards on the ground with two touchdowns. He was 4-of-6 passing for 86 yards. Forty seven of those yards was the pass to Tarr. Billingsley carried the ball 28 times for 158 yards and Brumm and Thomas Schwartz added 75 and 42 yards, respectively. The Buckaroos rushed for 394 yards on the night.
Lowry closed out the regular season Thursday night in Fallon against Churchill County. Results were not available at press time. The Buckaroos will be familiar with the trip and will be back in Fallon on Friday, Nov. 7, to play the Greenwave in the first round of the NIAA State Championships. A time for kickoff has not been set. Elko will host Fernley in the other North match-up.
"We are going to see them two weeks in a row," Billingsley said. "We are not going to show too much until we play them in the playoffs."[[In-content Ad]]
