Usually the final home game of the season is set to celebrate the seniors that are playing their final contest in front of friends and family. However, there are no seniors on the McDermitt High School football roster this fall.
The Bulldogs took to their home field on Saturday with three freshmen in the starting lineup. Carlin played the unwelcome guest on the day and left with a 60-8 victory.
“That was a pretty darn good Carlin team we played today,” said MHS head coach Richard Egan. “They were big and controlled the line of scrimmage. They got good skilled guys.”
About the only thing that went wrong for the Railroaders was a fumble on their opening possession. Carlin shook off the mistake and scored four touchdowns in the opening quarter and led 30-0.
Carlin blocked a punt on McDermitt’s initial possession of the day and one play later scored on a 29-yard run by Jimmy Payne and the Railroaders led 8-0 with 8:42 left in the first quarter.
Aided by a personal foul, McDermitt drive to near midfield the next time it had the ball, but the Bulldogs gave the ball back on a fumble. Three plays later, Carlin was back on the board on a 7-yard pass from Javis Leach to Xavier Armendariz for a 14-0 advantage.
The Bulldogs turned the ball over on its next possession on an interception and two plays later, Leach and Armendariz connected again, this time on a 31-yard pass.
Less than two minutes later, Carlin took advantage of another interception and Jimmy Payne threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Christian Sexton to give the Railroaders a 30-0 lead with 1:20 left in the first quarter.
After forcing a McDermitt punt early in the second quarter, Carlin pushed the lead to 38-0 on a 3-yard run by Armendariz.
The Railroaders had the opportunity to add to the margin, but freshmen Ben Draunidalo ended a drive with an interception. He nearly had a second pick of the quarterback at the end of the half, but it was called back due to a penalty on McDermitt.
“We hurt ourselves with some mistakes,” Egan said. “You cannot turn the ball over against a team like Carlin. I was happy with how we played defensively in the second quarter.”
Two turnovers by McDermitt in the fourth quarter led to 14 points for Carlin. After an interception, Payne scored on an 11-yard run. Less than a minute later, the Bulldogs fumbled and Eddie Gomez scooped up the loose ball and returned the fumble 37 yards for the touchdown and a 52-0 lead.
McDermitt prevented the shutout with a 74-yard drive that resulted in a 7 -yard touchdown pass from Duane Horse to Diego Navarro.
“We came out and played better in the second half,” said the coach. “I thought we came out and played with class.”
Despite leading by a large margin and with a running clock, Carlin continued to pass the ball and scored a late touchdown on a 50-yard throw by Payne.
McDermitt closes out its season on Thursday against Independence in Elko at 1 p.m.
“We have one game to build off and gain momentum for next year,” Egan said. “This is a young team with freshmen and sophomores.”
