Palo Verde makes it stand to win Sunset title

Nick Christensen

Monday, Nov. 22, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

With 4:25 to play in Friday's Sunset Region Championship, the Cheyenne football team found itself in the same position it was the week before -- down a touchdown and near midfield.

Down 7-0 at Bishop Gorman in the Sunset semifinals, Cheyenne drove the ball from the Gaels' 47, scoring the tying touchdown with 55 seconds to play and winning the game in double overtime.

And again last Friday, the Desert Shields drove down the field, Torrie Coleman and Quinton Carter carrying the load for Cheyenne. Nine plays and 63 yards later, the line of scrimmage was the Panthers' 10, first down with 1:43 to play.

First and goal. Coleman got up to the 5, and the Desert Shields called a time out.

Second and goal. Carter tried the keeper and got a yard.

Third and goal. Carter seemingly had a clear path to the end zone -- and dropped the football, securing the 27-20 championship win for Palo Verde.

"Nothing can describe it," said Palo Verde's Gary Boubon, the defensive back who scooped up the fumble with 35 seconds remaining. "It feels like the world's on your shoulders -- it feels great."

Boubon, a senior and the Panthers' backup quarterback, was instrumental offensively against Cheyenne three weeks ago, passing the go-ahead touchdown in the final game of both team's regular season. Both teams came into that game undefeated, but Palo Verde (12-0) is now the only team in Nevada without a loss this year.

Palo Verde coach Darwin Rost credited defensive coordinator Charles Jarvis' work for his team's goal-line stand.

"A lot of that is these kids believing in the system," Rost said. "They keep believing in the system, and we ran our option."

Despite the goal line fumble, Cheyenne clearly dominated the second half. After recovering a fumble by the Panthers' Kevin Vinik at the Palo Verde 45 yard line, Coleman and Carter needed just four plays to score. After missing the extra point, the Desert Shields were down 21-20.

Palo Verde had just 67 yards of its 350 yards of total offense in the third quarter, finally breaking through for the go-ahead touchdown with 4:25 to play.

"They had our number in the third quarter," Rost said. "They were going to stop the pitch, they did a great job with that. We've been watching Utah. They've had a great year, so we put in Utah ... that last drive we had, we went right to that."

Palo Verde will host McQueen (11-1) Saturday at 1 p.m. It's Palo Verde's third consecutive state semifinal -- the Panthers lost last year 41-7 to Las Vegas and were shut out two years ago at McQueen 45-0.

"We had a letdown, no question," Valley coach Jim Massey said. "They were the better team that night. Offensively, they just dominated up front, and didn't give us a lot of time to throw the football."

Las Vegas coasted after a 28-0 first quarter advantage as the Wildcats advanced to their third state semifinal in four years.

"Our kids got after them pretty good at the start," Vegas coach Chris Faircloth said. "We were anticipating we could carry some momentum and it never stopped going the way it was going."

Massey credited the Wildcats coaching staff for knowing what the Vikings were planning.

"We'd been well scouted," Massey said. "We tried to do a couple of things differently, trying to run up the middle and stuff, but those guys, whew. They come out and play like that ... I haven't seen up north, but I'm not sure Wooster would be able to beat them."

Massey actually meant Reed, who the Wildcats will face in Sparks on Saturday.

McQueen (11-1), which had given up just 65 points all year, will play at Palo Verde on Saturday. That game will be the first time McQueen has played a state semifinal game in Southern Nevada, having hosted Eldorado in 2000, Foothill in 2001 and Palo Verde in 2002.