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Virgin Valley’s Nolan Tanner, right, blocks a field goal attempt by Dylan Mortensen during a game between Virgin Valley High School and Moapa Valley High School in Overton on Friday, Oct. 14, 2011. The Moapa Pirates shut out the Bulldogs 18-0.
Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011 | 5:46 p.m.
Prep Sports Now
Working through the playoff brackets
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Las Vegas Sun sports reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer go over the high school football postseason picture and reflect on how it got to this point. The episode also contains a lengthy segment debating who is the Southeast Division MVP — Niko Kapeli, Kyle Keplinger, Aaron Love or Chris Marshall.
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A Dylan Mortensen extra point in overtime saved Moapa Valley from a shocking first round playoff upset to rival Virgin Valley Saturday afternoon.
Mortensen booted the extra point through the uprights moments after his brother, Conner Mortensen, broke through in the end zone. Moapa Valley escaped with a 13-12 victory at home.
“Dylan has struggled and been a little inconsistent this year,” Moapa Valley coach Brent Lewis said. “And I always told him that we’d get in a close game and it would be up to him. That’s what happened.”
With three minutes remaining in the game, it looked like neither Mortensen would have a chance to lead the Pirates to a win. Virgin Valley was up 6-0 and had held Moapa Valley to three first downs all game.
But the Pirates finally adjusted to the Bulldogs loading the box and quarterback Dakota Watters threw a long touchdown pass to Brandon Johnson. The Pirates bobbled the snap on the extra point to keep the game tied at 6.
“It was one of those games we didn’t deserve to win and we pulled it out somehow,” Lewis said. “We were dead to rights. They had us. I feel bad for them because they dominated the football game.”
Virgin Valley, which held a 250 to 99 yardage advantage in the game, came out with a veer option offense for the first time this year to throw off Moapa Valley. Quarterback Humberto Urias scored on Virgin Valley’s first drive with a 14-yard rush.
But the Bulldogs couldn’t end regulation with a score despite advancing the ball to the six-inch line after blocking a Pirates field goal. Moapa Valley returned the favor by blocking Virgin Valley’s 21-yard field goal attempt as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
Urias scored on the second play of overtime, but Moapa Valley stuffed the two-point conversion attempt. The stop set up the Mortensen brothers’ heroics.
Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or case.keefer@lasvegassun.com. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
Wow. did not expect it to be that close at all
Props to Virgin Valley, man they played hard. Their defense stopped everything Moapa tried to do. And it was a great coaching job by Virgin to use a brand new offense the whole game. Moapa was very fortunate to send the game into overtime let alone win. I think Virgin had 2 fumbles in the last 3 minutes. Wow what a crazy game!!
Tuasdad, thats what happens in TRUE rivalry games, especially small town ones. Records don't matter.
And Moapa has bragging rights for another year again. A small part of me died inside knowing how dominant the Bulldogs were all game only to still lose on a last minute run. That's ok, there's always next year. @Tuasdad that's how Virgin Valley and Moapa games are. The scariest part is both of our schools are in down years. They aren't nearly as big or talented as years past. I've heard some rumors that Moapa is trying to schedule a game against Gorman.
Uh, Moapa would never try to schedule a game against Gorman, and Gorman would never try to schedule Moapa, I sure hope you were joking...
Moapa's going to have to play a lot better next week in order to beat Lowry. Lowry will be looking for revenge for last years game
Id love to make that drive and experience that rivalry live next season
Like I said, a rumor I heard from some of the players. It may have just been talk on their bus ride together down in the Sollenberger classic.
If you're looking to go see the rivalry game, it'll be @Virgin Valley. The two best runners from Virgin Valley and from Moapa (Dee Bowler and Conner Mortenson respectively) should be seniors and looking to really make a name for themselves.
Absurd Quantities...Your logic is absurd.
1)Moapa is not in a "down year". The Pirates are 9-2 with the two losses coming against Desert Hills, UT (just advanced to the UT 3A semis) and Legacy. The Pirates lost the Legacy game 33-30 and had their chances.
2)Moapa is not scheduling Bishop Gorman. Who was your source for that rumor?
As for the game, I sure hope it serves as a wake up call for the Pirates and their coaches. You can't just stroll on the field and think you're going to win. Have to give props to Hafen. He had a game plan and prepared leading to this game. He totally overachieves for the talent he has to work with.
Blueandgold, I didn't mean that negatively, sorry if it came across like that. You've seen past Moapa/Virgin Valley teams and their size/speed compared to the ones this year. As for the rumor, it's just something I heard from one of the players, nothing to get worked over.
Agreed, Lowry will definitely be a tough game. Will that be played down south or up north?
Outside of Cooper(WR/S) and Weiss(QB/LB) from last years team there isn't much size difference. As far as speed goes I don't really see much difference. They lost Lewis(WR/CB), who was fast, but they still have speed at the skill positions.
Lowry will travel to Overton this weekend. They beat Spring Creek 34-14 in the first round. Their running back Billingsley is a stud. He was last year too but was pretty ineffective against the Pirates. Against Spring Creek, Lowry gave up a WHOPPING 483 rushing yards. That's right...483! And Spring Creek threw for 2 touchdowns as well. Not quite sure how you lose when you have stats like that. Maybe Lowry rested a lot of their starters. not sure.
http://saxo.highschoolsports.net/article...
I don't think he's talking about the size and speed from last year. If you go back a few years to when Moapa and Virgin played each other for state twice in a row you only need to glance at the linemen from both teams to see there's a big difference in the size from back then. It's good to see Moapa pull it out but they need to get it together for next week!