Melissa Arseniuk

Basic and Eldorado clashed Friday at Basic High School, but in the end, Basic enjoyed at 15-point win over the Sundevils, with a final score of 28-13.

By Andy Samuelson (contact)

Sat, Sep 6, 2008 (midnight)

Perhaps Basic High’s players were just tired of listening to Dan Cahill’s angry screams from the sidelines.

Or maybe they actually took to heart the defensive coordinator’s fiery diatribes.

Either way, the Wolves defended their early D-deficiency by shutting out Eldorado in the second half to pick up a 28-13 victory Friday night at BHS.

“Yeah it's always nice to quiet him down a little bit because he always gets upset like that when we make stupid mistakes,” said defensive back Anthany Lessier, who made his mark on offense Friday by rushing for a pair of touchdowns in the first half.

“But at the same time, his attitude really fires us up,” continued a smiling Lessier.

The Wolves' change in spirit certainly showed as soon as they came out of the tunnel after halftime.

Basic, which gave up the game’s first touchdown to Eldorado in just five plays, didn’t allow the Sundevils a first down until two minutes remained in the third.

“We came out a little tentative and weren’t attacking. We got a few things tightened up at halftime and they were aggressive,” said Basic coach Jeff Cahill, whose squad improved to 2-0 with a road game at Chaparral next week before division play begins.

“We did a great job in the second half," he said.

The Wolves escaped Eldorado’s best scoring shot in the second stanza as well. Sundevil quarterback JaQuorrey Williams heaved a pass to the back of the end zone just over the head of senior wideout Charles White, stalling out a Sundevil scoring opportunity at the Basic 23-yard line.

A similar play went for six in the game’s first minutes when White skied over a pair of Basic defenders to haul in a 26-yard touchdown on fourth down.

That play got the elder Cahill’s blood boiling.

But a pass interference penalty that led to Eldorado’s second score — a 5-yard run by Williams to put the Sundevils in front 13-7 — really got under the skin of the former Boulder City High School skipper.

“He’s a fiery guy, but actually a lot more mellow than when I was a kid,” Cahill said of his father. “He doesn’t accept anything less than a 100 percent. And when he doesn’t get that, he’s gonna let them know about it.”

Well “it" certainly translated into a 100-percent effort in the second 24 minutes — even on the offensive side of the ball.

Basic put the game out of reach with back-to-back, third-quarter scoring drives.

The first touchdown came when quarterback Robby Faiman faked a handoff up the middle and scampered for a 5-yard score down the left sideline. The drive took 10 plays, went 75 yards and ate up four minutes of clock.

The second score came five minutes later when 225-pound fullback Martell Walker burst up the middle from a yard out.

“Even in practice we haven’t been starting very good. We always finish good in both practice and games, but we’ve been slow at the start,” said Faiman, who rushed for 106 yards on 10 carries before sitting out the final minutes because of cramps.

“Hopefully it won’t take him (Dan Cahill) pumping us up each time," Faiman said, "but every now and then we like it."

Andy Samuelson is a sports writer/editor for the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at andy.samuelson@lasvegassun.com or 702-948-7837.