Four schools secure home edge in playoffs

Spencer Patterson

Monday, Oct. 18, 1999 | 9:08 a.m.

The prep football playoffs won't begin until Nov. 5, but already four local schools have started making plans to have their home fields ready for postseason action.

On Friday night, Eldorado and Durango secured the No. 2 seeds in their respective divisions, joining Las Vegas High and Cimarron-Memorial with home-field advantage in the zone tournament's first round.

Neither the Sundevils nor Trailblazers had a particularly easy time of it on Friday night, however, as both were put to the test before emerging with hard-fought wins.

Eldorado's week eight matchup with Silverado proved to be one of the season's most entertaining contests, as the teams went into overtime before the Sundevils pulled out a wild 29-28 victory.

With his club trailing by one in the extra session, Eldorado coach Ken Trujillo elected to try a two-point conversion rather than settle for a potential game-trying kick. The gutsy strategy paid off, as Sundevils tailback Steven Jackson rumbled into the end zone to give the hosts the critical win.

"I put it all on the line, and talking to the kids, they all felt strong about it," a jubilant Trujillo said afterwards. "I said, 'If we don't make it, we don't make it.' "

Added Silverado coach Jon DeNardin, whose club will now play at Durango in the first round: "It was an emotionally packed game, and coach Trujillo made a real gut-check decision. We met Saturday morning and the kids were in pretty good spirits. We made a lot of good plays in that game, and we'll try to build off that."

Although Durango's 36-21 win over Palo Verde did not feature such last-second heroics, the Trailblazers needed a significant comeback after spotting the Panthers leads of 14-0 and 21-12. The visitors scored the game's final 24 points to claim the Sunset Division's second seed.

Sunrise champion Las Vegas remained undefeated with a lopsided 65-13 in over Rancho in the rivals' annual "Bone Game," while Sunset champion Cimarron also stayed perfect with a 50-0 rout of Bishop Gorman.

With one week of the regular season remaining, Las Vegas, Eldorado, Silverado, Cimarron and Durango have clinched playoff berths, leaving three spots up for grabs.

Valley and Rancho remain in contention for the Sunrise's final spot, with the Vikings making the postseason with a win over Las Vegas or a Rancho loss to Chaparral. The Rams will get in if they win Friday and Valley loses.

In the Sunset, things are more complicated, with Western, Gorman and Clark competing for a pair of playoff berths. The Warriors and Gaels can get in with wins, while losses by those teams combined with a Clark win over Cheyenne would force a three-way tie.

Should all three teams finish in a deadlock, a series of tiebreakers would come into play. Ironically, the fate of the three playoff hopefuls could be decided by the winner of this Friday's Bonanza at Mojave game, because the teams' record against the division's sixth-place finisher could be a factor.

"I'm going to tell my kids that the playoffs start Friday night," Western coach Rich Stevens said. "Hopefully, we're peaking at the right time."

Clark coach Jim Massey, meanwhile, understands that his team's destiny doesn't rest entirely in its own hands.

"We're going to tell the kids we gave up controlling our fate when we lost to Durango," Massey said. "But we're going after our first winning season since 1993, and that's very important to us."