WINNEMUCCA - One late summer night in Winnemucca may have made up for many years of disappointment for the Lowry High School football team.
From a last-second loss in the 1990 state championship, to not so close defeats in the last 20 years, the Buckaroos erased all of their demons against Truckee on Friday night at Jerry Tobin Field.
The tone was set quickly, as Lowry used a five-minute drive on its opening possession to score and the rout was on in the Buckaroos' 48-0 victory.
It was the first victory for the Buckaroos over the Wolverines since a 20-12 victory in 1984. It was just the second loss for the Truckee since 2009. The Wolverines have won the last four Division I-A state championships. "We challenged the kids at the beginning of the week and they stepped up in a big way," said LHS head coach Tim Billingsley. "I don't think anyone excepted that outcome tonight. We know what Truckee's program is all about. They lost quite a few guys from last year, but you still have to respect them. We were not going to take them for granted and I think we just wore them down."
Lowry used a smash-mouth style of football on the initial drive of the night, running the ball nine times on the 79-yard drive, with quarterback Calvin Connors scoring on a 5-yard run with 7:50 left in the first quarter.
The first sign it was Lowry's night was on the extra point. A bad snap on the kick bounced in the hands of Connors, who found a wide open Robert Stepper for the 2-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.
"That was a big statement right off the bat," Billingsley said. "We were getting five and six yards every time we carried the ball. The game could not have started much better for us. We have been on the opposite end of those drives to them before."
It was just the opposite for Truckee, as its first play of the night was a disaster with the ball being snapped over the head of quarterback Louden Smith for a loss of 18 yards. That all but killed the drive as the Wolverines were forced to punt.
With the ball at midfield, it took just over three minutes for the Buckaroos to increase the advantage. Aided by a face mask penalty on Truckee, Lowry continued to pound the ball on the ground against the Wolverine defense, which lost all 11 starters from a year ago.
Beau Billingsley finished off the drive with a 5-yard run to put the Buckaroos up 15-0.
After a disastrous beginning to the night, Truckee produced one of its best drives of the night behind the arm of Smith. The senior drove the Wolverines inside the Buckaroos' 20-yard line with a chance to cut the margin in half. However, the momentum changed for good when Connors intercepted Smith at the goal line and returned the interception to the Truckee 15-yard line.
On the next play, senior running back Brandon Okuma scampered through the Truckee defense for a 21-0 lead with 10:53 left in the second quarter.
"We have a lot of kids that have played a lot of football," said the coach.
Their football IQ is very high. We have a team that has matured quite a bit."
It went from bad to worse for Truckee, who fumbled on its next possession, giving Lowry the ball in excellent field position. However, the Buckaroos made one of their few mistakes on the night handing the ball back over to the Wolverines at the 2-yard line on a fumble.
Truckee's offense stalled out on the next two drives, leading to 14 more points for Lowry in the final five minutes of the first half. The Buckaroos made the score 28-0 on a 45-yard run by Okuma and two minutes later were back on the scoreboard.
Connors used a long punt return to position Lowry at the Truckee 28-yard line and Connors closed out the drive with a 9-yard run for a 35-0 lead at halftime.
A stalled drive by the Buckaroos and a missed 49-yard field goal from the Wolverines began the first nine minutes of the third quarter.
After using a punishing run game for most of the night, Lowry went to the air for one of the few times, with Connors connecting on a 45-yard pass play to Billingsley to kick-start an 80-yard drive. Two plays later, Connors scored his third touchdown of the night on a
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21-yard run for a 41-0 lead. Lowry threw just five passes on the night with Connors completing four of them for 85 yards.
The Buckaroos ran for more than 350 yards on the ground, with Billingsley and Okuma running for more than 140 apiece.
"Our running backs ran the ball well tonight," added the coach. "When Calvin, Brandon and Beau get going, they are hard to stop. They got great blocking from our line and receivers. You don't see many teams push Truckee around like we did tonight."
It didn't get much better for Truckee, as Lowry scored 90 seconds later as Connors scooped up a Wolverine fumble for a 15-yard touchdown and a 48-0 lead. The game was played with a running clock for the final 11 minutes.
"Our defense was flying all over the place," added Billingsley. "We didn't give up much to Truckee tonight. The ball was bouncing well for us."
Lowry hits the road for the first time this year with a trip to Reno on Friday to play Wooster at 7 p.m. The Colts lost 61-12 to Churchill County this past weekend.
"This was a big win for us but we can't get complacent," Billingsley said. "We knew coming in - we knew we were going to have a special team this year and proved that tonight. Our most important game now is Wooster. As a coaching staff, we could not be more happy."
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