Northwest has fine showing in opening round

Adam Candee

Monday, Nov. 11, 2002 | 10:14 a.m.

4A Sunrise Region Las Vegas 62, Silverado 6

Basic 27, Eldorado 12

Desert Pines 29, Green Valley 12

Foothill 21, Chaparral 20 (OT)

4A Sunset Region Centennial 28, Clark 14

Palo Verde 39, Durango 0

Cheyenne 27, Western 0

Cim.-Memorial 50, Bishop Gorman 6

3A Playoffs Moapa Valley 22, Boulder City 20

2A Playoffs Faith Lutheran 48, Tonopah 7

No shocking results came out of last weekend's prep region football playoffs, but the games certainly provided plenty of water cooler talk for today.

Sparing you the hyperbole and moving right into the issues of the weekend and of the week ahead, leading up to Friday's region semifinals:

A combined score of 144-20? In the four second halves, just six total points allowed? And the winners combined for well more than 1,000 total rushing yards. Highly impressive.

Southwest top seed Bishop Gorman carried a five-game winning streak into the playoffs before being crushed by the Spartans, and second seed Durango -- winner of four consecutive games -- may have been one of the area's most dangerous teams in this postseason before Palo Verde's misdirection running attack baffled the Blazers.

Centennial remained unbeaten by downing Clark, as running back Melvin Matlock continued his emergence as the breakout offensive player of the year, while Cheyenne is the team no one wants to play right now after a whipping of Western.

The Cowboys earned the Northeast's four seed with a win in the final week, while the Falcons won the Sunrise Region and lost only to Centennial this season. So how did Foothill nearly find itself eliminated? Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes.

The Falcons twice stalled inside the Chaparral 5-yard line on turnovers, and even after tying the game in overtime, Foothill needed two extra-point tries (thanks to a Cowboys penalty on the first attempt) to finally seal a game most expected would be over in the first half.

For all the excitement over the offensive power of QB Josh Daneshforooz and WR Nate Wederquist, it is the Foothill defense that wins games. Allowing 20 points to a fourth seed is disturbing, especially with offensive juggernaut Desert Pines on the slate Friday.

As mentioned, Foothill struggled, but it was not alone as Basic scuffled against Eldorado and Desert Pines won a bit below its usual standard.

Credit again goes to young QB A.J. Montano and RB Gary Hurt for gutting the Wolves to a win over Eldorado. Turning the ball over five times again, however, would be a poor idea this week against a Las Vegas team that capitalizes so well on mistakes.

Desert Pines cannot be buried for beating Green Valley by 17 points, especially because the perplexing Gators were capable of hanging with most teams in town. A 29-12 win, though, over a team that usually faded in the second half is not comforting.

The wind that seemed to blow harder in the Northeast part of town than anywhere else Friday may have contributed to the Jaguars' struggles.

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