Friday, Nov. 5, 2004 | 10:11 a.m.
Nick Christensen covers high school athletics for the Sun. Reach him at (702) 259-4085 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Granted that Nevada is a big state, I've passively been following a trend in football this year -- teams that go on long road trips don't do too well.
Specifically, I'm thinking about roadtrips to Elko County, where 1A Carlin, 2A West Wendover, 3A Spring Creek, and 4A Elko are a combined 14-1 at home.
Elko High, for example, is the 4A football equivalent of the Denver Nuggets. But where the Nuggets have the advantage in altitude, Elko's is fatigue. The bulk of the 4A schools in the Northern Region are 290 miles away in Reno -- one, Churchill County, is about 40 miles closer, and three, Carson, Douglas and South Tahoe, are another 40 or so more distant. Smaller sports sometimes don't even bother bringing their junior varsity teams out to Elko -- the bus trip would practically require a full 24 hours to complete with the extra games.
Elko's one home loss in football came against fifth-ranked Reed, and from what we hear,that was a fairly ugly game with a score of 13-9. The Indians went 1-4 on the road.
The 4A teams that came to Elko from Reno averaged 11.7 points per game. One team, Spanish Springs, not only lost the game but lost its playoff hopes despite possibly being the third-best team in the North.
A similar phenomenon occurred with Spring Creek. The 3A North regular season runner-up held four home opponents to a combined 32 points, but that included 22 they gave up to Pahrump Valley, which made a weekend of the 450-mile trip. On the road, Spring Creek on average allowed 24 points per game, not including the Elko contest.
To credit Carlin, the Railroaders are 8-0 and have six shutouts this year. They did give up 28 points at Pahranagat Valley, the most anyone scored on the them this year, but that was after a 317-mile journey to Alamo.
West Wendover's one loss came at a small town called Filer, in Idaho near Twin Falls. Filer is 170 miles from West Wendover, a town on the Utah border that is to Salt Lake City what Primm is to Los Angeles. While officially all of Nevada is in the Pacific Time Zone, West Wendover unofficially observes Mountain time.
The Meadows, a small private school in Summerlin, trekked up to West Wendover in early October, and were sent on the 360-mile return trip with a 24-6 loss.
The Meadows will make a return trip to the Mountain Time Zone portion of Nevada on Saturday for the first round of the playoffs, pretty much just so they can again suffer the long bus ride home. Needles will play host to Lincoln County, which makes the 276-mile trip in its bid for an upset.
The logic checks out in moving West Wendover to the 2A South. It's actually not too bad of an idea, with other 2A North teams actually being further from West Wendover than Needles and Las Vegas. But the home field advantage, at least in the playoffs, is excessive. A colleague suggested that maybe Needles and Lincoln County could play here in Las Vegas this weekend, and West Wendover and The Meadows could meet halfway at Lincoln County's vacant field. Not a bad idea. It's hard for a football team to get its sea legs when it's been riding across the desert for eight hours.
The rest of the news for Elko County is a mixed bag. Spring Creek hosts Dayton (308 miles away) and Carlin hosts Eureka, a virtual neighbor from only 91 miles down Diamond Valley. The Indians will travel back to Reno to face Sierra League champion Hug.
As for next week, if Needles survives, the Mustangs have to travel to either Lovelock, 582 miles away, or Yerington, 481 miles afar.
Maybe the Elko schools can take a page from Needles and the Lake Tahoe teams, and look at other states. With Boise and Salt Lake City both being closer to Elko than Reno, those states might make more sense for everybody.
Spread around town
There has to be an upset hiding around here somewhere. The problem is, what if an upset isn't an upset?
Take these 3-2 games. Eldorado is not a typical 3 seed. Silverado isn't a typical 2 seed. Same for Shadow Ridge-Bonanza. Everything else really figures to be cut-and-dried.
So, go for the 3A upset this week, with Virgin Valley roaring back to begin to set the stage for a Moapa Valley -- Virgin Valley 3A title game at Sam Boyd Stadium in two weeks. The 3A games start at 1 p.m. Saturday, with Bishop Gorman hosting Cimarron at 7 p.m. that evening at Valley High School. All other games are at 7 p.m. tonight.
The call: Palo Verde 48, Western 7.
The call: Shadow Ridge 35, Bonanza 14.
The call: Cheyenne 34, Sierra Vista 10.
The call: Bishop Gorman 38, Cimarron-Memorial 28.
The call: Las Vegas 29, Green Valley 13.
The call: Eldorado 24, Silverado 18.
The call: Valley 44, Coronado 25.
The call: Foothill 28, Desert Pines 24.
The call: Virgin Valley 34, Boulder City 27.
The call: Moapa Valley 45, Pahrump Valley 22.
Last week: 11-5 (.687)
Regular season: 102-28 (.784)
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