After an unexpected week off with South Tahoe game canceled, the Lowry High School football team was back on the field this past Friday night and came away with a 47-20 win over Sparks in Winnemucca.
The Buckaroos scored the first 20 points of the game to improve to 4-0.
“At the end of the day we got the win and that is what we want,” said LHS coach Taua Cabatbat. “We lost ourselves for a time tonight, lost some focus. The guys were feeling themselves a little bit too much. This is got to be about the team and the future. Hopefully the kids understand our goal is to make in to the playoffs and make a deep run. We have some dogs coming up in our league and they don’t play.”
Lowry scored less than three minutes into the contest after the Buckaroos forced the Railroaders to punt on the initial possession of the game.
It took Lowry just two plays to take a 7-0 lead, as Bryce Kuykendall finished off a 31-yard drive with an 11-yard run.
The Buckaroos got the ball right back on the first play of the Railroaders’ next drive on a Lance Brinegar interception.
Lowry appeared to score again but had a touchdown called back on a penalty. The drive eventually stalled out at the Sparks 2-yard line.
Stuck deep in its own territory, Sparks was forced to punt again, giving Lowry excellent fields position.
Two players later, Kuykendall was back in the end zone on a 10-yard run and a 14-0 lead with 1:36 left in the first quarter.
“Bryce did a good job of steeping up and running the ball,” Cabatbat said. “We have to give some credit to our offensive line. They have been doing some work. We feel we can put a number of kids back there and that line will give them some room to run.”
The Railroaders’ offense continued to struggle with a punt to start the second quarter.
The Buckaroos used another short field to their advantage, with the drive starting on a pass from Jordan Bills to Anthony Guzman.
Bills, the senior quarterback, did the rest, scoring on a 23-yard run for a 20-0 advantage.
Sparks finally broke through on offense midway through the second quarter and cut the deficit to 20-6 after a 16-yard pass from Maximillian Hendrix to Mekhi Brown.
Lowry had its struggles on offense for much of the second quarter, before getting a late gift from Sparks.
The Railroaders turned the ball over deep in their own territory with less than two minutes left in the half.
The Buckaroos took advantage of the miscue and Bills connected with Brinegar on a 29-yard pass for a 26-6 lead at halftime.
Lowry was set to get the ball back to start the third quarter, but Sparks recovered an onside kick. After a personal foul penalty on Lowry kept the drive going, the Railroaders were back in the board on a 16-yard pass from Hendrix to Orande Todd to make the score 26-14 after the 2-point conversion.
After the penalties and miscues, Lowry rallied back for two touchdowns in the third quarter on the legs of Kuykendall. The junior scored on a 34 and 75-yard run to give the Buckaroos a 40-14 lead.
Sparks scored early in the fourth quarter on a 6-yard pass from Hendrix to Todd but got closer than 40-20, as Guzman scored moments later on an 8-yard run for Lowry.
Lowry starts Northern 3A East play on Friday in Elko. The Indians are coming off a 48-8 win over Hug.
“It gets real now,” added the coach. “We got to have a good week of practice and get ready to play a really good team.”
