MCDERMITT — It had been 21 days since the McDermitt High School football team saw a different colored uniform.
The Bulldogs were scheduled to play at Owyhee on Sept. 23, but that game was canceled because the Braves did not have enough players to field a team.
McDermitt was back on the field this past Saturday to celebrate Homecoming and hosted Wells. The Leopards, one of the top teams in the Eastern 1A, left McDermitt with a 64-0 win.
With the aid of two Wells penalties, McDermitt moved the ball near midfield on its opening possession. However, the Bulldogs could not score and punted the ball away.
After both teams turned the ball over on consecutive plays, Wells scored 36 points in an eight-minute stretch in the first quarter. The Leopards scored one play later, after intercepting a pass, when Jared Martinez connected with Enrique Aguilar from 46 yards out.
McDermitt held the ball for less than a minute before punting back to Wells. It took the Leopards 73 seconds to make the score 14-0, when Martinez scored on a 5-yard run. Before the score, Wells had two other touchdowns called back on penalties.
The Leopards scored the final 22 points in a three-minute stretch on just three offensive plays. After getting the ball back after a punt, Martinez connected with Aguilar for an 18-yard touchdown pass and one play after a third McDermitt punt, Riley Stewart found Brett Rodriguez for a 15-yard pass to make the score 28-0.
Wells closed out the first-quarter scoring on a 37-yard punt return by Aguilar to give the Leopards a 36-0 lead.
“Wells is a strong team,” said MHS coach Richard Egan. “We had a couple plays that just missed in the first quarter that hurt us. “We could have gained some momentum if we make those plays happen and keep the ball. We just got deflated after that.”
The remaining three quarters were played with a running clock under the NIAA 35-point mercy rule.
Wells increased the margin to 42-0 four minutes into the second quarter on a 2-yard run by Corbin Madison. McDermitt had its best drive of the half after the score and moved into Wells territory on a runs by Duane Horse and Diego Navarro. However, the drive ended as time expired in the first half.
Wells’ Quinton Jackson returned the second-half kickoff 68 yards for a touchdown and Jackson added a rushing touchdown with 4:09 left in the third quarter.
The final score of the day came on a fumble recovery in the end zone late in the fourth quarter.
McDermitt took the field with eight players and was without Jagger Hinkey, who hurt his knee earlier in the week in practice.
“The kids never quit and the good thing was we go out of the game pretty much injury free,” Egan said. “We are hoping to get Jagger back, but I don’t know if that will happen this week or not.”
McDermitt has a tough assignment this Friday with a road trip to league-leading Eureka. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
