Entering the regular-season finale, the Battle Mountain High School pretty much knew its playoff fate the following week.
The Longhorns were all but locked into the No. 3 seed in the Northern 2A, but an upset loss to West Wendover on Friday night would drop Battle Mountain to the No. 4 seed and a meeting with Yerington.
There would be no upset on senior night at Tim Knight Field, as Battle Mountain ran away with a 41-0 win to finish the regular season at 6-2 and 5-2 in league play.
“It was a good way for us to end the season and send our 14 seniors out on a good note in front of their home crowd,” said BMHS coach Mitch Domagala. “We came in taking nothing for granted. We needed to win this game to stay the No. 3 seed. West Wendover has some nice-sized kids and we had to be ready to play. We had some younger kids step up and turned in a strong performance. They got some good playing time. We had Dalton (Shake) come in and start for us and did a good job.”
The Longhorns will travel to Incline for the opening round of the NIAA 2A State Championships. The Highlanders won the regular-season match-up 21-0.
On Friday night, Battle Mountain was missing some starters but had other player step up.
After forcing West Wendover to punt on its opening possession, Battle Mountain took advantage of three Wolverine penalties on the short 45-yard drive and junior Sean Scherer did the rest, as the 110-pound player broke free for a 23-yard touchdown an 6-0 lead, led than three minutes into the game.
West Wendover put together a sustained drive the next time it had the ball but saw the drive stall out after a fumble at the Battle Mountain 30-yard line. The Longhorn offense went back to work, as Brice Domagala connected with Pablo Piedra for two passes.
Domagala completed the drive with a 2-yard run and then added the 2-point conversion for a 14-0 lead with 8:46 left in the second quarter.
West Wendover turned the ball over on downs on its next drive and two plays after the Longhorns got the ball back, they were back in the end zone after Domagala found Anthony Del Rio over the middle and the senior maneuvered his way through the Wolverine defense for a 57-yard touchdown and a 21-0 lead.
West Wendover continues to struggle on offense with another quick three-and-out and after a long punt return by Sean Bengoa,
Battle Mountain started at the Wolverines’ 8-yard line and on the next play Domagala connected with Piedra to give the Longhorns a 27-0 lead at halftime.
The Longhorns received the opening kickoff to start the second half and wasted little time in driving 76 yards in just over two minutes.
Domagala added his second rushing touchdown of the night, scoring from five yards out.
Battle Mountain added the 2-point conversion to increase the lead to 35-0 and create a running clock with 9:40 left in the third quarter.
The Longhorns closed out the scoring with 2:40 left in the third quarter on a 21-yard pass play from Domagala to Anthony Silva.
“The effort out of the kids is really improving as the year moves on and that is what you want to see,” Domagala said. “We are going to need every bit of that as we go up to Incline. I am hoping we are a better football team this time than we were the last time.”
The NIAA 2A State Championships get underway at various sights on Friday night. Battle Mountain will play Incline at 6 p.m. on Friday in Incline.
Pershing County will travel to Yerington in the other Northern 2A match-up.
“We are totally different team from the first time we played them,” Domagala said. “We did a lot to hurt ourselves in that first meeting. We got to get back to work this week, watch some film and make the necessary adjustments to give us a chance to win. We are going to get up there, battle and see what we can do.”
In the Southern 2A, The Meadows is the No. 1 seed and will host Lincoln County. Needles and Democracy Prep play in the other match-up.
The winner of Battle Mountain/Incline will travel to the highest remaining seed from the South on Nov. 13.
The Needles/Democracy Prep winner will make its way to Northern Nevada on No. 13 to play the highest seed from the Northern 2A.
