The Battle Mountain High School football team accomplished one goal this past Friday night but are looking for bigger and better things later this week.
The Longhorns secured a home playoff game in November after a 42-10 win over Yerington on Homecoming night in Battle Mountain. With a postseason berth clinched, the Longhorns will look to win a league title for the first time in nine years when they travel to Lovelock on Friday night.
“I thought it was one of our best performances of the year and it was against a good, quality team,” said BMHS coach Mitch Domagala. “The kids played hard and it was a good turnaround from the week before when we were flat.”
The Mustangs have won the last two state championships, including a season ago, in Winnemucca when the Longhorns led in the fourth quarter.
Yerington did its best to keep the ball away from Battle Mountain at the start, allowing the Longhorns just two possessions in the first quarter.
Battle Mountain punted on its first possession but got the offense going after that. The Longhorns drove 56 yards on its next drive and grabbed a 6-0 lead with 3:37 left to play in the first quarter on a 3-yard run by Cody Ostler.
Yerington’s offense continued to sputter and after a three-and-out, Battle Mountain grabbed a 12-0 lead on the first play of the second quarter on a 21-yard run by Ostler.
After another punt by the Lions early in the second quarter, the Longhorns needed just one play — a 46-yard pass from DJ Martinez to Aldo Castellanos to make the score 20-0 after the 2-point conversion with 10:07 left in the first half.
Battle Mountain scored three minutes later to increase the gap to 28-0, after a third touchdown run by Ostler, this time from 10-yards out.
The Longhorns looked poised to add to its lead late in the second half but saw a drive stall out and end with a missed field goal.
Yerington took advantage and put up its first points of the night with a 41-yard field goal, as the first half drew to a close.
Battle Mountain missed another field goal to start the third quarter and saw another drive end on downs, before scoring twice more late in the third quarter.
An interception by Castellanos at the Yerington 11-yard line led to a 10-yard pass from Martinez to Ostler for a 35-3 lead. With 32 seconds left in the third quarter, Martinez and Castellanos connected for a second time, on a 10-yard touchdown pass for a 42-3 lead and running clock.
“Our defense really stepped up and played well tonight,” Domagala said. “Cody ran the ball well. The offensive line did a great job of opening up some holes and DJ was able to make some good throws.”
The game was played with a running clock until 18 seconds to play, when Yerington scored its lone touchdown of the night.
Battle Mountain has won seven games in a row and improved to 6-0 in the Northern 2A. Friday’s 7 p.m. game at Pershing County will decide the No.1 seed for the Northern 2A for the postseason and the ability to host two playoff games. The second seed will host one game but have to travel to play the top seed from the Southern 2A in the second round of the postseason.
“We are going to let the chips fall and see what happens,” Domagala said. “You look forward to weeks like this. It’s a conference championship at stake. We get to play for a championship and hopefully this is just the first time we get to play them.”
