The moment Lovelock has been waiting for all summer is finally here. The Pershing County Mustangs host their first home game of the season this Friday night. JV opens against White Pine’s Bobcats on Joe Yanni Field at 4:30 p.m. The Varsity plays at 7 p.m.vCoached by Nick Lopez, White Pine comes to Lovelock with a record of 2-1, overall, and 2-0 in the 2A Northern League.
The boys from Ely, NV., count Pershing County among their fiercest competitors. Ely brings seven returning seniors. Pershing brings six — Ricky Reitz, Sebastien Donaldson, Caleb Nolf, JC Astle, Chris Keathley and Chris Fly Knoph.
They’re backed up by ten juniors – Jessy Gonzalez, Raul Rincon, Colton Wanner, Haydon Burrows, Nikita Pavlov, Logan Oberman, Daniel Reitz, Jordan Gentry, Efrem Razov, Zeke Jackson and two sophomores- Mariano Gomez and Dmitri Zveniatckovskii.
On Aug. 23 White Pine lost its season-opener against Layton Christian Academy (25-14). But they bounced back on Sept. 6 to blank Coral Academy of Science (53-0). White Pine hosted both games.
On Sept. 13 the Bobcats shut down West Wendover on the road (35-0).
Meanwhile, Pershing County's regular season started on Aug. 30 with a 22-0 win against West Wendover’s Dust Devils. The Mustangs traveled to Grass Valley, Calif., and suffered a 56-0 non-league loss against Bear River on Sept. 6. They’ll bound onto Joe Yanni Field ranked 1-1, overall, and 1-0 in the 2A Northern.
Pershing JV opens action
The JV boys are ready for their Friday night home crowd. According to Coach Dan Murphy they’re getting better every week.
“We have only 14 kids on the team this year so there’s not much opportunity to catch your breath once the game gets going,” he adds.
The freshmen players include Wyatt Diaz, Wyatt Myers, Nikolas Jimenez, Blake Burrows, Noel Zaldivar, Seth Provstgard and Tristian Gallagher. Sophomores are Jose Jimenez, Devin Moura, Ashton Nolf, Esteban Vidrio, Brayden Wagner and Daniel Razov. Victor Flores is a junior.
The players and coaches hope for bleachers packed with red and black.
“We’re excited to see how we’ve progressed after having two weeks off,” said Coach Mike Brooks. “White Pine is off to a strong start this season, so we’re anxious to see how we match up.”
