The Battle Mountain High School football team added to its frequent driving miles last Friday with a trip to a Wendell, Idaho. The first week of the season saw the Longhorns make their way south to Las Vegas.
The Trojans provided little resistance to the Longhorns, as Battle Mountain cruised to a 65-7 victory.
“The kids came out and played hard again this week,” said BMHS coach Mitch Domagala. “We were able to rotate some kids to different positions and saw some real good things from them.”
After recovering an on-side kick to start the game, Battle Mountain fumbled to plays later. That turned out to be one of the few highlights for the Trojans. Battle Mountain forced Wendell to punt on its first possession and the rout was on from there.
The Longhorns scored on their next three drives in the first quarter to take a 22-0 lead. Battle Mountain drove 85 yards on six plays on its first scoring drive. Arturo Serrano finished off the drive with a 3-yard run, but missed the following extra point.
Wendell picked up its initial first down on their next possession but was then stopped by the Battle Mountain defense and forced to punt.
The Longhorns countered with a four-play drive (three runs) that ended with a 37-yard TD pass from Bryan Chavira to Reese Artz. Serrano ran in the 2-point conversion to give Battle Mountain a 15-0 lead.
Continuing a trend that lasted most of the first half, Wendell was held to three-and-out by the Battle Mountain defense the next time they touched the ball.
Gabe Naveran ended the next Longhorns’ drive with a 2-yard touchdown run and Artz caught the 2-point conversion pass to make the score 22-0 after the first quarter.
The mismatch continued into the second quarter, as the Longhorns added three more touchdowns. Two of those touchdowns came on runs by Serrano. The senior finished with 110 yards on just 12 carries. He scored three touchdowns on a quarter of his runs on the night. A 14-yard catch by Bobby Kester from Chavira brought the halftime score to 44-7.
Chavira was 8-of-15 on the night for 128 yards. He had three touchdowns and one interception.
Wendell used a 10-play drive at the end of the half for its only points.
The second half was played with a running clock under the mercy rule in Idaho.
Battle Mountain scored two touchdowns on its three second-half possessions.
Artz had a 9-yard catch, while Naveran contributed a 4 yard run. Naveran also scored a touchdown on defense, returning an interception 68 yards.
Wendell was 7-of -8 passing for 50 yards with one interception and one touchdown.
Battle Mountain picked up 270 yards on the ground on 31 carries for an average of 8.7 yards a rush. Junior Diego Saenz added 69 yards, Naveran had 45, Chavira 43 and Payton Ayers had three yards on three carries.
Kester and Artz each 57 yards receiving and Serrano caught two passes for 14 yards,
Notable performances pointed out by the coach were Shilo Burkhart on the defensive line and Larry Caudell on the offensive line.
“This group is working hard and really starting to come together,” Domagala said. “We’ve got a big three game stretch coming up so we need to be ready.”
Battle Mountain is scheduled to host Silver Stage on Friday at 7 p.m. in the league-opener for the Longhorns.
