High school football games are 48 minutes long.
Lowry High School was seconds away from pulling out its first win of the season on Friday night in Winnemucca against Wooster. The Buckaroos were driving with 48 seconds to play and were inside the Colts 10-yard line with under 10 seconds to play. However, an incomplete pass on fourth down ended Lowry’s chance for their first victory, as Wooster won 9-6.
“I thought our defense did a great job tonight,” said LHS coach Taua Cabatbat. “We just could not establish the run game like we wanted to. Wooster caused us a lot of confusion with their blitz game. We passed the ball fairly well and got some big plays from (Dorsey) Naveran and (Matthew) Souza.”
The Buckaroos dropped to 0-4 in the Northern 3A and 0-5 overall.
After punting on its first possession, Lowry kicked its offense into gear midway through the first quarter. A pass from Brendan Domire to Souza moved the Buckaroos into Colts territory.
Lowry continued to move the ball and appeared to be inside the 20-yard line but a penalty negated a first-down play and moved the Buckaroos back.
On fourth and nine, Domire dropped back and found Souza in the end zone for a 27-yard touchdown and a 6-0 lead after the missed extra point with 21 seconds to play in the first quarter. That touchdown gave the Buckaroos their first lead of the season.
Souza stepped up once again — this time on defense. In the opening minutes of the second quarter, the senior intercepted Jace Papke. However, the Buckaroos could not take advantage of the mistake and punted on the ensuing possession.
Wooster, which struggled for much of the night on offense, got on the scoreboard late in the first half. The Colts took more than four minutes off the clock on a 75-yard drive that ended with a 28-yard pass from Papke to Scott Hill to tie the game at 6-6 after the missed extra point.
Souza continued to shine in the first half, as he ran the ensuing kick back 71 yards to the Wooster 10-yard line. Lowry had first and goal with two minutes left in the second quarter, but could not punch the ball into the end zone on its four plays.
“Those are the opportunities we need to finish,” Cabatbat said. “We have not been able to do that. We need to be able to get points right there. A lot of teams going forward are going to see how we take pressure. We will see teams blitz a lot more against us.”
After forcing Lowry to punt on its first drive of the second half, Wooster put itself in excellent field position with the aid of a questionable pass interference penalty on the Buckaroos. The Lowry defense stiffened from there, forcing a Wooster punt. However, the Buckaroos fumbled the punt, giving the Colts the ball at the 14-yard line.
The Lowry defense stepped up again and stopped the Wooster drive at the 10-yard line on a fourth-down tackle by Naveran.
Naveran was the face of the next Lowry offensive drive with three catches from Domire. Ren Mattson also added a reception on the drive. Lowry moved inside the Wooster 20-yard line, but saw the drive end on downs early in the fourth quarter.
Lowry fumbled on its next two possessions, with the latter being the difference in the contest. The Colts took over at the Buckaroo 21-yard line with 5:01 to play. Wooster held on to the ball for more than four minutes and took a 9-6 lead with 48 seconds to play on a 32-yard field goal by Adrian Samberg.
“We held them in the red zone a lot tonight,” added the coach. “You are asking a lot of your defense when they are put in that position. We are taking the right steps on defense.”
Lowry was not done quite yet and moved into Wooster territory after a late pass interference call. Domire connected with Souza and Preston Snow on the next two plays to put the Buckaroos at the 12 yard line with 21 seconds to go.
Lowry had four opportunities to score from there, but could not convert, with Wooster holding on to win the game.
Lowry is back on the road Friday to play South Tahoe at 7 p.m. The Vikings are 2-2 in the Northern 3A and are coming off a 35-34 loss to Churchill County.
“The kids played hard and we gave ourselves a chance to win the game,” Cabatbat said. “It’s been a long time since I have seen the kids battle like this. It hurts that we are 0-5, but we have games left that we want to compete in. We will go back to the drawing board and get ready for South Tahoe."
