For just the second time this fall, the Battle Mountain High School football team was able to run out on the turf at Tim Knight Field.
The Longhorns had two home games during the season, as Silver Stage and Incline forfeited their games. Battle Mountain celebrated senior night in style, defeating White Pine 51-12 on Friday night to improve to 4-2 in the Northern 2A and 6-3 overall.
“We played three pretty good quarters,” said BMHS coach Mitch Domagala. “We went to sleep in the second quarter, when we had a chance to put the game out of reach early. White Pine made a couple plays in the second quarter and were ready to play after that.”
Battle Mountain took advantage of a White Pine fumble on the opening kickoff and quickly turned it into eight points.
Instead of letting the ball bounce out of bounds for a penalty, the Bobcats picked up the ball and back tracked toward the goal line where the fumble occurred.
One play later, Arturo Serrano scored on a 5-yard run and Payton Ayers added the 2-point conversion for an 8-0 lead with 20 seconds elapsed in the game.
White Pine picked up its initial first down on its next drive, but was forced to punt. It took the Longhorns just over two minutes to drive 61 yards to add to the lead. After three runs that put them in White Pine territory, Bryan Chavira connected with Miles Piramide on a 22-yard pass. That pushed the advantage to 16-0 after the 2-point conversion to Mason Fuller.
Piramide intercepted a pass for the second turnover of the opening quarter and the Longhorns quickly turned the Bobcat miscue into points. Ayers scampered for 31 yards on the first play of the drive and Chavira did the rest, scoring on a 25-yard run to put the Longhorns up 23-0 with 2:45 left in the first quarter.
Battle Mountain was poised to extend the margin in the early minutes of the second quarter, but Chavira was intercepted near the red zone. White Pine used the mistake to counter with a 67-yard touchdown pass that cut the deficit to 23-6.
The Longhorns offense had trouble finding their way in the final minutes of the first half, with one drive ending on downs and another on a punt.
“That turnover shifted the momentum around,” Domagala said. “We struggled the rest of the half.
Battle Mountain returned to the team of the opening 12 minutes of the game to start the second half. The Longhorns took the opening possession of the second half 60 yards in just under 90 seconds and scored on an 8-yard pass from Chavira to Fuller to increase the lead to 31-6.
“We came out of halftime and the kids responded,” Domagala said “We have been looking for that all year. We did some good things in the second half and that was nice to see.”
The Battle Mountain defense had one hiccup in the second half, when White Pine answered with a 56-yard touchdown pass to cut the margin to 31-12 with 7:30 left in the third quarter. That turned out to be the final points for the Bobcats.
Battle Mountain was forced to punt after getting the ball back after the White Pine score, but the Longhorns found the end zone near the end of the quarter. With the aid of a pass interference penalty keeping the drive alive, Chavira ran for a 19-yard touchdown to give the Longhorns a 37-12 lead.
Battle Mountain continued to pull away in the fourth quarter with a 35-yard pass from Chavira to Bobby Kester and a 44-yard run by Ayers to close out the scoring. The final four minutes were played with a running clock. Ayers had 113 yards on the ground on 10 carries.
Chavira was 3-of-8 passing for 65 yards. All three passes were for touchdowns to Fuller, Piramide and Kester. Chavira led the rushing attack with 168 yards on 15 carries.
Battle Mountain moves on to the first round of the Northern 2A playoffs on Friday. The Longhorns travel to Yerington to take on the three-time defending state champion. White Pine visits Pershing County in the other northern semifinal.
In the Southern 2A, Lake Mead travels to Lincoln County on Friday and Needles, Calif., hosts The Meadows.
“It’s on to Yerington,” Domagala said. “The last time we played the three-time defending champ, it worked out pretty well for us. We know it will be a big challenge to go in there and win. They are a great team. We are going to go in there with nothing to lose and see what happens.”
