The last time the Battle Mountain High School football team took on Pershing County, the game featured a little bit of everything.
The Mustangs built a 22-0 advantage in the fourth quarter, only to see the Longhorns complete the improbable comeback and win 42-36 in triple overtime to secure home field advantage for the first round of the playoffs.
The two rivals got back together this past Friday night in Battle Mountain with the hopes of putting on the same kind of show. It turned out to be a defensive struggle. Eventually, Pershing County left with a 22-8 win and a trip to the Division III state semifinals.
“Honestly, we just stayed focused for four quarters,” said PCHS coach Dave McLean. “Our defense had an outstanding game. We got stuck in a hole early on our end of the field. When things were tough for us, our defense bailed us out. Our coverage and pass rush was outstanding.”
After trading punts, the first time they both touched the ball, Battle Mountain had the first golden opportunity to score midway through the first quarter. An interference penalty on the Mustangs put the Longhorns in excellent field position, but the drive ended on downs.
“Despite the weather, we had a good week of practice,” said BMHS head coach Mitch Domagala. “We had our chances, but could not convert. We had the ball four times inside the 20-yard line. We hurt ourselves with mistakes. I thought we played well. We played with two freshmen on defense in the first half. It was a typical Battle Mountain and Lovelock game.”
Pershing County began an 81-yard drive that would take up the last two and a half minutes of the opening quarter and the first two of the second. Angel Ramirez kept the drive going, converting a third down on a run.
Later in the drive, Ramirez connected with Marcus Nester for a first down on a fourth-and-five play. Two plays later, the senior quarter back hit William Gattrell in the end zone for a 27-yard touchdown run and an 8-0 lead with 9:43 left in the first half.
After failing to convert a pass on a fake punt, Battle Mountain got the ball back with just six minutes left in the half. A 33-yard pass from Bryan Chavira to Kort Beaver put the Longhorns inside the Mustangs’ 20-yard line. A couple of plays later, Chavira took the ball himself and scored from 15 yards out to tie the game at 8-8, with 5:20 to play in the half.
Battle Mountain could not take advantage of Brenden Petersen’s interception of Ramirez, and gave the ball right back to Pershing County.
On the first play of the drive, Ramirez ran the ball down to the 10-yard line, and the Mustangs finished off the drive with a 5-yard pass from Ramirez to Nester with 33 seconds left in the half to give the Mustangs a 14-8 lead.
The second half resembled much of the first, as both teams had trouble moving the ball. In its second possession of the second half, the Longhorns appeared to tie and have a chance to take the lead. A 43-yard pass from Chavira to Beaver put Battle Mountain at the 15-yard line. Just a couple of plays later, Chavira scampered into the end zone from 10 yards out, but it was called back on a penalty. The drive eventually stalled out on downs, and Battle Mountain continued to rail 14-8.
The Longhorns forced another punt by Pershing County in the early stages of the fourth quarter and drove back down the field when they got the ball back.
Chavira appeared to throw the game-tying touchdown once again, but a chop block nullified the touchdown once again. The drive ended with an interception. Pershing County went to the ground game from there and used the legs of Ty Arnett to march down the field in a drive that lasted six minutes.
“We gave back two touchdowns on penalties,” Domagala said. “You just can’t do that to yourself. That is the difference right there. t was a good game. That long run by them at the end was the back breaker.”
Arnett did most of the damage on the drive, but it was Ramirez with a 1-yard run for the touchdown that sealed the victory. Ramirez was 5-of-6 passing for 97 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Arnett led the ground attack with 104 yards on 16 carries.
“We wanted to pound it out, and take time off the clock,” McLean said. “We rode Ty for much of the second half. He has some good speed for a big guy. He broke that big run on the last drive, and that gave us the win. He grinded it out on both sides of the ball, and that is what I like about him as a player. Jared (Brinkerhoff) did a lot of blocking so Ty could run.”
Chavira was 10-of-25 passing for Battle Mountain for 141 yards, and two interceptions. Beaver caught two passes for 76 yards, and Petersen and Calvin Goddard each caught two balls for 25 and 21 yards, respectively. The Longhorns rushed for just 29 yards on 19 carries.
“It was a good year for us,” Domagala said. “We say goodbye to some good seniors, but we got a good group of kids coming up.”
Pershing County now travels to Panaca on Saturday to play Lincoln County at 1 p.m. Yerington hosts Needles, Calif., in the other semifinal.
“We showed a lot of heart coming back,” McLean said. “We had the tough loss to Battle Mountain the first time, and then the loss to Yerington. We just kept playing the game we practiced. We are going to go down to Lincoln and see what we can do.”
