*Editor’s note. Due to an injury McDermitt played with just seven players. When Carlin had the ball on offense, the Railroaders played with eight players. When McDermitt had the ball it was seven against seven.
CARLIN — The McDermitt High School football team made its final road trip of the season last Friday in Carlin. The Bulldogs are out of the playoff hunt, but the Railroaders still have an important contest this weekend with Wells to determine the final playoff berth in the Eastern 1A.
With the Bulldogs down to seven players because of a knee injury to Jagger Hinkey, there was no break in the action for any of the players. The Railroaders scored the first 38 points of the contest and won 56-19.
“For what we had to deal with, the outcome was pretty good,” said MHS coach Richard Egan. “The boys played tough, but that was a tough situation tonight.”
After forcing McDermitt to punt on its first possession, it took Carlin just two plays score, as Eddie Gomez ran in from 16 yards out for a 6-0 lead after the missed conversion.
The Bulldogs punted twice more in the first half without a first down and the Railroaders scored after both punts. Carlin extended the lead to 14-0 on a 23-yard pass from Jimmy Payne to Gomez. The Railroaders led 22-0 with 2:17 left in the first quarter after a 1-yard run by Sam Masson. Gomez set up the short score with a 65-yard punt return.
Bruno Rincon gave McDermitt some life with a pair of first-down runs late in the first quarter and early in the second. However, the drive stalled out on downs.
Carlin struck for two more scores in a three-minute stretch of the second quarter. The first touchdown was a 16-yard pass from Payne to Stanfill. The Railroaders made the score 38-0 with 5:32 left in the first half on a 39-yard run by Gomez.
McDermitt found the end zone a minute later when Duane Horse connected with Diego Navarro on a 46-yard pass to cut the deficit to 38-7. Carlin was driving again late in the first half, but fumbled at the McDermitt 5-yard line.
The Railroaders took the opening possession of the second half and drove 62 yards in just over three minutes. They scored on a 26-yard run by Gomez. Following a Bulldog turnover, the Railroaders scored two plays later on a 50-yard run by Josh Urie to increase the advantage to 50-7.
McDermitt picked up a break early in the fourth quarter after Carlin fumbled a punt. The Bulldogs capitalized on the mistake and scored a few plays later on a 10-yard pass from Horse to Navarro.
McDermitt was back in the end zone on its next drive, with Navarro scoring on a 3-yard run to make the score 50-19. The Railroaders answered back with 2:09 left to play on a 3-yard run by Masson to close out the scoring.
“We did some good things,” Egan said. “We got our passing game to work a little bit. We didn’t have a lot of options with just seven guys. Hopefully, we can get back to eight guys this week and finish out the season on a good note.”
McDermitt (1-3 Eastern 1A) closes out the season at home against Independence on Saturday at 1 p.m.
