Valley overcomes mistakes, remains undefeated

Bob Cloud

Monday, Oct. 7, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The clock refuses to strike midnight on Valley's Cinderella football season.

The Vikings got 230 yards and two touchdowns from running back LaRontae Johnson and stopped Green Valley on fourth-and-goal with just over a minute to play, remaining unbeaten with a 28-23 win over the Gators Friday night.

Valley -- winless a year ago -- improved to 6-0, 4-0 in the Sunrise Division. The win kept the Vikings atop the league standings, while Green Valley, the two-time defending Sunrise champion, fell to 1-2 in division play, 3-3 overall.

"We had a lot of guys lay their hearts out on the field tonight," Valley coach Greg Murphy said. "You have to hand it to our kids."

In other action involving Southern AAAA teams, Bonanza upset Cheyenne 10-7, Chaparral knocked off Las Vegas 28-6, Western beat Bishop Gorman 18-16, Eldorado ran past Rancho 32-0, Durango defeated Clark 20-14, Cimarron-Memorial had its way with Silverado 45-0, and Fontana, Calif., beat Basic 49-7.

In many ways, the Valley-Green Valley matchup was two games in one. The Vikings dominated the first half -- taking a 28-0 lead at the intermission -- only to see the Gators almost come all the way back in the second half.

Johnson opened the scoring, dashing 70 yards to give Valley a 6-0 lead in the first quarter. On the opening play of the second quarter, Vikings linebacker Quinn Morris picked of a pass from Green Valley quarterback Tyler Truman and raced 25 yards to score. Johnson ran in the two-point conversion for a 14-0 Valley lead.

Johnson put Valley in the end zone again moments later, going 54 yards on a dazzling run for a 21-0 lead. Quarterback Mike Cirkosz hit Paul Robinson on a five-yard scoring pass with 2:03 left in the half to make it 28-0.

"That was a super half of football," said Murphy. "We really came out ready to play, which we didn't do in the second half."

Valley fumbled away the football six times in the second half, and lost seven fumbles in all. The Gators capitalized on a Johnson fumble to score for the first time at 6:37 of the third quarter, on a seven-yard run by Brian Reed, who scored again five minutes later to narrow the gap to 28-14 after three quarters.

Following another Johnson fumble with just over eight minutes to play, Green Valley scored on a 35-yard pass from Truman -- who played in place of injured starter Ian Jones -- to Eric Nicksick, and the Gators trailed just 28-21 with 7:09 remaining.

On the ensuing Valley drive, Darren Thomas fumbled and Green Valley recovered at the Vikings' 42-yard line. The Gators drove to a first-and-goal at the Valley 8. The Vikings defense allowed a short run before two incomplete passes set up a fourth-down try.

Reed tried a sweep. But Thomas atoned for the earlier fumble, hitting the Green Valley runner before a host of Valley tacklers swarmed to bring him down short of paydirt.

"Our defense played well," said Murphy. "It's only fitting that they stepped up and made the final play. They (Green Valley) has some success running that way, and we kind of guessed along with them. We thought that's what they'd do, especially after they showed the formation they did."

The loss left Green Valley coach Larry Thomas to lament his team's slow start.

"You can't spot people 28 points and win," Thomas said. "If you don't get started well it's tough to play catch-up. We played a good second half, but one half doesn't win ball games."

* THE MEADOWS 53, LAUGHLIN 0: The Meadows racked up 504 yards of offense, and Victor Wright rushed for 203 yards and four touchdowns as the Mustangs won easily at Laughlin. Linebackers Morgan Plaster and T.J. Fechser each made nine tackles for The Meadows (4-1), while Tim Northington added eight stops and two sacks. The Mustangs travel to Lincoln County this week.

* BOULDER CITY 13, WHITE PINE 12: Mike Acosta hit a 37-yard field goal with 1:13 to play to lift the Eagles at White Pine. Boulder City rallied from a 12-0 deficit in the second quarter. Nate Letro had a two-yard touchdown run for the Eagles.