The Lowry High School football team continues to find tough sledding through a difficult schedule in the Northern 3A in the first two weeks of the season.
The Buckaroos closed out a two-game homestand this past Friday night with a 44-0 loss to Fernley. The Vaqueros built a 30-0 advantage at halftime, dropping the Buckaroos to 0-3 on the season and 0-2 in the Northern 3A.
“We are putting so much emphasis on these young kids and trying to get them to excel,” said LHS coach Taua Cabatbat. “We are asking a lot of them right now. We are doing good things, we just shoot ourselves in the foot and stop momentum on good drives.”
After forcing Lowry to punt on its first drive, Fernley took six minutes off the clock and drove 49 yards to notch the first points of the night. The Vaqueros did not throw a pass on the first drive and took a 7-0 lead after a 5-yard touchdown run Willy Pritchard.
Fernley went right back on offense, after recovering an on-side kick seconds later, but the drive ended with a fumble. Lowry looked to stop the momentum for a bit, but handed the ball back to Fernley moments later with a fumble.
The Vaqueros capitalized with a 32-yard field goal by Cooper Henderson with :22 left in the first quarter.
Lowry’s offense sputtered once again with a 3-and-out and Fernley needed to drive just 25 yards after a short punt. The Vaqueros took less than two minutes to add to their lead on an 11-yard run by Henderson to make the score 17-0.
The Buckaroos looked poised to put their first points of the night midway through the second quarter when Brendan Domire connected with Victor Rosas for a long pass play. Lowry reached the Fernley 20-yard line, only to see the drive end with a quarterback sack.
“We have to start fine-tuning our offense going into these next couple of games,” Cabatbat said. “I feel confident with what we potentially have moving forward.”
The quick-strike Fernley offense took less than two minutes to drive 69 yards, when Zach Burns found Henderson for a 19-yard touchdown pass and 23-0 lead after the missed extra point.
The Buckaroos were pinned inside their 5-yard line after a perfectly placed kick by the Vaqueros. Lowry looked to get out of bad field position, but a long run by Domire was called back on a penalty. The Buckaroos eventually had to punt, putting the Vaqueros in excellent field position.
Fernley scored two plays later on a 48-yard pass from Burns to Zac Terra and the Vaqueros took a 30-0 advantage into halftime.
Fernley created a running clock less than three minutes into the second half, closing out a 50-yard drive on a 31-yard pass by Burns to Aaron Proctor.
The Buckaroos had positive drives going in the second half, but saw them halted by penalties. The Vaqueros closed out the scoring with 3:08 left in the fourth quarter on a 17-yard pass from Henderson to Proctor.
Lowry will look for its first win of the year when it travels to Truckee on Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff. The Wolverines are 2-1 on the season and are coming off a loss to Churchill County.
“We have been on the bad end of the schedule with all these tough teams,” Cabatbat said. “With Truckee, we are playing three of the best teams in the league in the first three games. If we can get some wins in the middle of the season, we can still look to get in the playoffs. We are 0-3 but we are not quitting at all. We are going to get back on the field and get back to work.”
