Battle Mountain holds on to top spot with win over Coral Academy

The Battle Mountain defense brings down a Coral Academy running back in the Longhorns' 39-7 win on Thursday night in Battle Mountain.

The Battle Mountain defense brings down a Coral Academy running back in the Longhorns' 39-7 win on Thursday night in Battle Mountain.

It was a take of two halves for the Battle Mountain High School football team as they hosted Coral Academy of Reno on Thursday in a contest between the top two teams in the Northern 2A.

The Longhorns entered leading the league at 4-0 and the Falcons were second at 4-1.

Battle Mountain took advantage of a number of miscues by Coral in the first half to lead 32-0 and eventually winning 39-7, for its fifth game in a row to move to 5-2 overall.

After the defense forced a 3-and-out on the initial drive of the night, Battle Mountain drove 70 yards in three minutes behind the legs of quarterback Jake Perrone. 

Perrone capped off the drive with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Liam Bundrock for an 8-0 lead after the 2-point conversion by Aiden Payzant.

Battle Mountain's Ari Kyllonen follows through on a field goal.

The Longhorns got the ball right back, as the Falcons could not recover a short kickoff, giving the ball right back. Two plays later, Battle Mountain scored on 28-yard pass from Perrone to Bundrock. Ari Kyllonen added the  extra point for a 15-0 lead with two touchdowns in 50 seconds.

Following a Coral punt, Battle Mountain was right back in scoring position after a 58-yard run by Perrone, but the drive ended with an interception. 

That was the lone miscue of the first half by the Longhorns.

The miscue did not hurt, as Battle Mountain’s defense stepped up moments later, as Javier Gonzalez stripped the ball out of the Coral running back and scampered 50 yards for a touchdown and a 22-0 lead.

The turnover bug hit the Falcons once again with bad snap over the quarterback head deep in their own territory. 

Battle Mountain's Liam Bundrock races for the end zone after making a catch,.

Battle Mountain recovered and turned into three points on a 23-yard field goal by Kyllonen.

The special teams woes for the Falcons continued on the ensuing kick, as the Longhorns recovered another short kickoff. That led to a 15-yard touchdown pass from Perrone to Chase Lutz in the back corner of the end zone for a 32-0 lead at halftime.

As good as the first half was for Battle Mountain it was the opposite in the final 24 minutes. 

The Longhorns went 3-and-out in their first two drives in the third quarter and with just over a minute left in the third quarter, the Falcons got on the board with a 77-yard touchdown pass to make the score 32-7. 

Battle Mountain turned the ball over moments later with an interception and Coral drove deep into Longhorn territory for a possible second score. 

However, the defense stepped up, as Perrone intercepted a pass in the end zone.  

The Longhorns threw another interception in the fourth quarter but with 2:22 left in the game, Angel Guadarrama broke free for a 57-yard touchdown run to cap off the scoring.

Battle Mountain leads the Northern 2A at 5-0, followed by Incline and West Wendover at 4-1.

 Incline beat Pershing County and has the tiebreaker over the Mustangs. Coral Academy is fourth at 4-2, followed by Yerington (2-3) and West Wendover (2-4).

The top four teams advance to the NIAA 2A State Championships that start on Nov. 3. 

The No. 1 seed will host the No. 4 seed and the No. 2 seed hosts the No. 3 seed.

The top spot will be up for grabs once again this week, as Battle Mountain travels to Lovelock on Friday to play Pershing County at 7 p.m.  

The Longhorns close out the regular season against West Wendover and Pershing County travels to Coral.