Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter
As the third quarter ended last Friday night with Fernley trailing Truckee by three points, Fernley coach Anfernee Sloan suddenly found himself hearkening back to a magical afternoon in 2012.
On that day, Sloan was a junior wide receiver and defensive back, and Truckee was the three-time defending state champions with a 41-game winning streak. With about a minute and a half left in the game, quarterback Skylar Williams kept the ball on the option and scored from about 15 yards out for the only points in an improbable 7-0 win that ended Truckee’s winning streak.
Friday night, the two-time defending state champion Wolverines brought a 26-game winning streak to Fernley, and as the teams changed ends of the field to start the fourth quarter with Truckee holding a 10-7 lead, Sloan took a literal walk down memory lane.
“I got onto the headset and I started walking down that way, I don’t know if you noticed, but I said ‘Ward, this is awesome,” Sloan said. “I said ‘This is bringing me back to so many memories because we’ve been in this situation before.’ And he’s like, ‘yep.’ It’s crazy how the game kind of takes you back to those moments that you’ve been in.”
On that October night, Sloan was lined up on the opposite side of the field from where Williams pulled the ball after the defense collapsed on running back Paul Bustamante and found nothing but open grass on the north end of Truckee’s field. Moments later, Beau Hogan intercepted a Truckee pass at the Fernley 2-yard line with about 30 seconds left.
“I just remember, he gets up and he’s crying with the football,” Sloan said. “I remember grabbing his helmet and going, ‘We still got 30 seconds, and we’re on the 2-yard line and they got all three timeouts.’ And I just remember (Truckee coach Bob) Shaeffer called all three timeouts, we ended up getting a first down and the second that thing hit zero it got shut off.”
But on this night, Fernley’s dreams of repeating history went unfulfilled.
With the chance to take the lead early in the fourth quarter, the Vaqueros were instead called for a penalty and instead missed a potential game-tying field goal.
Truckee then put the game away with an 80-yard drive that ended with a 9-yard touchdown run by Jackson Wicks, earning their 27th straight win, 17-7.
For the Vaqueros, it was the wrong kind of history repeating itself – the third time this season they have lost after having possession of the ball in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead.
“We gotta execute, that’s what it comes down to,” Sloan said. “We had the recipe to go and do it, and I firmly believe if we don’t have that penalty, we probably knock it in.”
The Vaqueros trailed 10-0 at the half, but after forcing Truckee to go three-and-out to start the third quarter, the Vaqueros marched 61 yards in 10 plays to pull within 10-7 on a 2-yard run by Bryce Stephens.
After another stop on defense, the Vaqueros got the ball back late in the third quarter and marched to the Truckee 13 with 8 minutes left in the game. But a holding penalty moved the ball back to the 23, and on fourth down a 36-yard field goal attempt was partially blocked and fluttered harmlessly into the back of the end zone.
“You gotta execute in the clutch moments, that’s really where it comes down,” Sloan said. “As you could tell, that right there is a great example of that.”
Sloan said each team’s last drive shows why Truckee is where they are, and why Fernley is still trying to get there.
“We’re still trying to get there, and we’re there. We just got to keep going and keep believing,” he said. “I can tell you what, again, don’t let the record fool you. I know it’s 1-4, but when you look at the course of the games we’ve played this year, those are some tough games.”
The Vaqueros were coming off a 61-34 loss to Elko the previous week, a game where Fernley had the ball trailing 40-34 with a chance to drive for the go ahead touchdown and instead saw Elko block a punt for a touchdown, then convert two late Fernley turnovers into touchdowns that made a close game look like a rout.
“I was very pleased with how we played tonight and I think that right there might open some eyes for next week, I think for everybody in this league,” Sloan said. “I think last week might have been a little bit of a fluke because, again, when we do what we have to do and we play football the right way, that’s what you get right there. You get a good football game, a good grinder.”
As the Vaqueros prepare to take on South Tahoe this week Sloan said they can’t afford to get discouraged by their 1-4 record, because they’ve shown they’re good enough to play with the best team in the league, and just need to take that next step to turn close losses into wins.
“We’re right there, you gotta see it, and I know you do,” Sloan said. “This is a good football team, a really good football team. I think we’ve still got the makings of being able to make a little bit of a run.”
South Tahoe comes into Friday’s game with a 2-3 record, 0-2 in the Northern 3A, with losses 16-3 to Fallon and 48-8 to Elko. But Sloan said the Vikings have shown they are an improved team after going 1-8 last season.
“You don’t have to discredit them, their record is already better than it was last year, so obviously they must be doing something different over there,” he said. “We’re going to treat them like they’re Truckee, we’re going to go into this thing with the right mindset, right attitude, we’re going to prepare the way we always prepare and that’s to go to battle and come out victorious.
“Keep stacking the bricks, that’s our motto this year, and I promise you we’re going to get to where we want to be,” Sloan added.
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