Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

kickoff 2015:

Tyshun McClinton runs Desert Oasis past Durango

high school football media day 2015

Christopher DeVargas

Desert Oasis High School football players Branden Peterson, Ryan Knipp, and Austin Cooper before the 2015 Season.

Prep Sports Now

Kickoff time

Las Vegas Sun sports reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer spend some extra time on the three biggest games of the week — Arbor View at Desert Pines, Chandler (Arizona) at Bishop Gorman and Liberty at Saint Louis (Hawaii) — before getting to their full picks. They also discuss the hypothetical first pick of a high school football fantasy draft.

Brad Talich comes from Wyoming, where the highest compliment a coach can pay a player is saying he “cowboy-ed up”.

The first-year Desert Oasis coach usually breaks out the phrase sparingly, but used it multiple times Friday night to describe the performance of senior running back Tyshun McClinton. The Diamondbacks started the season 1-0 by defeating the Durango Trailblazers 28-12 behind more than 150 rushing yards and two touchdowns from McClinton.

“He was a beast,” Talich said.

Junior quarterback Brannon Flowers also helped the offense post a decent showing, but Desert Oasis really shined on defense. Durango’s first score came when it blocked a punt in Desert Oasis’ red zone.

The other wasn’t much the defense’s fault either, according to Talich, who said he sent an all-out blitz coinciding with Durango calling a screen pass.

“I just made a bad call,” Talich said.

Despite the couple miscues, Desert Oasis was never in trouble. The Diamondbacks jumped out to a 20-0 lead early, and never allowed the Trailblazers to come within a touchdown.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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