When the Battle Mountain High School football team made its first trip to Incline earlier in the fall, the Highlanders blanked the Longhorns, giving Battle Mountain its first loss of the season back in late September.
The Longhorns returned to Incline this past Friday night for the opening round of the NIAA 2A State Championships and were shut out for the first two quarters, as the Highlanders led 7-0 at halftime.
However, the Battle Mountain defense was just as stout, picking up two safeties in the fourth quarter to come from behind and beat Incline 12-7 to advance to the state semifinals.
Incline picked up a couple quick first downs to start the contest, but then the Battle Mountain defense settled in and we were able to force them to punt.
After collecting a first down of their own, the Longhorns fumbled the ball and Incline recovered it on the Longhorn 26-yard line.
Eight plays later, Incline found the end zone from 8 yards out and added the extra point to lead 7-0. That turned out to be the lone points for the home squad on the night.
“We stopped them on our first defensive series, but the short field after the turnover was a big hole to try to overcome,” said BMHS coach Mitch Domagala.
Battle Mountain responded with an 11-play drive that started at their own 20 after a touchback.
The running of Terrance Fetterly and Brice Domagala was battering the Incline defense, but the drive stalled and the Longhorns turned the ball over on downs at the Incline 21-yard line.
From there on out it became a defensive battle as neither team could mount any serious offensive threat for the rest of the first half, as the Highlanders maintained their 7-0 advantage.
It appeared the offenses would struggle again in the second half, as Battle Mountain went three-and-out to start the third quarter.
After a Fetterly punt that moved Incline back to their own 43-yard line, the Longhorns’ defense answered the bell.
“Our second half didn’t start quite the way we hoped,” Domagala said. “After the punt Incline was set in very good field position, but our defense knew if they just kept answering the bell that our offense would get it rolling”.
Incline started to mount a drive as they picked up three first downs to move the ball down to the Battle Mountain 31-yard line.
However, the Longhorns’ defense tightened up as middle linebacker Anthony Molina stuffed a couple run attempts setting up fourth and 12 from the 33-yard line. On fourth down, Domagala was able to sack the quarterback and end the Highlanders drive.
Battle Mountain took over on their own 43-yard line and the offense found its rhythm.
Alternating runs from Fetterly and Domagala kept the Incline defense on their toes and on the eighth play of the drive, Fetterly found the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown.
Domagala followed his offensive lines blocking as they opened a gaping hole for him and added the 2-point conversion to give Battle Mountain the lead at 8-7.
After holding Incline to a quick three-and-out and forcing a punt, Fetterly set up the Longhorns with great field position as he returned the punt to the Incline 25-yard line.
The fired-up Battle Mountain offense was back on the field and after some initial success the drive stalled as the squad turned the ball over on downs at the Incline 11-yard line.
After stuffing the Highlanders on the first two plays, Max Villanueva broke through the line for his defensive tackle position and sacked the Incline quarterback in the end zone for a safety to increase the Longhorn lead to 10-7.
Battle Mountain had a touch of the turnover bug, fumbling as they tried to ice the game, turning the ball over on their next two possessions.
However, the offense had moved the ball down to the Incline 10-yard line and on third down and long for Incline, the Battle Mountain defense rose up again as Aidan Gilbert forced the Incline quarterback to throw the ball away to an empty field and drew an intentional grounding penalty while in the endzone, resulting in another safety. That gave Battle Mountain a 12-7 lead.
Battle Mountain recovered the attempted onside kick and kneeled the final two plays for the win.
Domagala was 9-of-18 passing on the night for 117 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. Fetterly had four catches for 71 yards and rushed for 66 yards on 16 carries and the one touchdown.
Cannyn Bundy had three catches and Jr Vazquez and Anthony Del Rio each had one catch.
Battle Mountain travels to Las Vegas on Saturday to take on The Meadows.
The Meadows is the top seed from the Southern 2A and beat Lincoln County 30-0 this past weekend.
Yerington will host Democracy prep in the other semifinal on Saturday. If both Northern 2A schools win, the state championship will be played in Northern Nevada.
If there is a southern and northern team in the title game, it will be played in southern Nevada.
“Our defense played really well tonight,” added the coach. “They kept answering the bell and kept us in the game. Offensively it was tough going, but the kids battled and got the win.”
