The last time the Battle Mountain High School football team faced a three-time defending state champions, it pulled off an upset.
The Longhorns found themselves in the same situation this past Friday night, with a road trip to Yerington to begin the NIAA 2A State Championships. The Lions won the regular season meeting, but the Longhorns were looking to reverse the outcome from earlier in the season.
It turned out not to be the upset Battle Mountain was looking for, as Yerington scored the first 23 points of the night, en route to a 45-20 victory.
“We came out and played a lot better than we did the first time,” said BMHS coach Mitch Domagala. “Yerington is a good team. We came out and wanted to slow them down as much as we could. “We had a bunch of young kids in the game. For what we were down to with numbers and in juries, we did a pretty good job.”
Yerington jumped out to an 8-0 lead after a quarter of play and increased to 16-0, two minutes into the second quarter on a 20-yard run by Michael Monahan.
Late in the first half, Monahan added a 19-yard rushing touchdown to give the Lions a 23-0 lead at halftime.
“He is a tough kid,” Domagala said. “He really on broke one big play on us.”
Both teams traded punts at the end of the second half. Battle Mountain had the ball one last time, but ran the clock out.
After being shut out in the first 24 minutes, Battle Mountain took the opening kickoff down the field in the third quarter and were on the scoreboard after a touchdown run by Arturo Serrano. Yerington led 23-6 at that point after the missed 2-point conversion. Serrano had 24 yards on eight carries in his final high school game.
Yerington picked up a safety midway through the third quarter and moments later, Monahan was back in the end zone on a 32-yard run to give the Lions a 32-6 advantage.
The Longhorns were forced to punt on their next possession and the Lions were back on the scoreboard minutes later. This time, Austin Schelgelmich scampered in from 10 yards out to make the score 39-6.
Battle Mountain fought its way back for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, as Bryan Chavira found Mason Fuller for a 28-yard touchdown pass. Chavira was 12-of-23 on the night for 196 yards and two touchdowns.
“That was one of the best games I have seen Bryan play,” Domagala said. “He threw the ball well and was reading what the defense was giving him.”
Minutes after Battle Mountain scored, Yerington answered back with a 20-yard run by Cade Draper to increase the margin to 45-14. The Longhorns closed out the scoring with a 53-yards touchdown pass from Chavira to Miles Piramide. Piramide had two catches for 64 yards.
Gabe Naveran, Serrano and Fuller each had three receptions and combined for 123 yards. Bobby Kester had one catch for nine yards.
Yerington will move on to play Lincoln County Saturday in Panaca at 1 p.m. Pershing County hosts Needles, Calif., on Saturday at 1 p.m.
The 2A state championships is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 19, at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. However, if both northern teams win the game will be played in northern Nevada.
