The month-long road trip for the Battle Mountain High School football team continued on Friday night with a jaunt to Idaho.
The Longhorns, facing their stiffest test of the season, held a slim-one point lead in the first half, but could not hold on in the end, losing 28-8 to American Falls.
“The kids played hard the whole game,” said BMHS head coach Mitch Domagala. “We had our chances to win the game, that’s for sure. I thought our kids played hard, defensively we had just those two breakdowns, so we gotta fix that.”
American Falls opened the scoring in the second quarter to lead 7-0, but Battle Mountain marched down the field on its next possession. Behind the running of Arturo Serrano and Kort Beaver, the Longhorns claimed an 8-7 advantage after Beaver scored on a short run.
The lead was short-lived, as the Beavers struck back after its drive was kept alive on penalty by the Longhorns on fourth-and-two. Moments later, American Falls broke loose for a 56-yard run and three plays later the Beavers scored to go in front 15-8 at halftime.
American Falls scored on the initial drive of the third quarter to lead 22-8 and Battle Mountain could not come back from the deficit.
“Defensively we gave up two big plays, a 56-yard run in the second quarter to set up their second score of the first half, and a 50-yard pass to set up their first touchdown of the second half,” Domagala said. “The rest of the half was a defensive game.”
American Falls scored a late touchdown pass after Battle Mountain went for it on fourth down and inside its own 20-yard line as time was winding down.
The coach praised the play of Truxton Price, Cesar Tovar and Eddie Rosas on defense.
“This was a good game for us,” added the coach. “It was the first really fast paced, hard hitting game we’ve had all year, and we’re only going to get better from it.”
Serrano and Beaver led the rushing attack with 59 and 53 yards, respectively. Beaver also had a catch, as did Jaren Price.
The four-game road trip for Battle Mountain ends on Friday with a trip to Panaca to face Lincoln County at 7 p.m.
