By Robert Perea
The week following a football loss is rarely enjoyable, but after Fernley’s defeat to Elko on Aug. 22, head coach Anfernee Sloan ensured that last week was tougher than usual.
The Vaqueros responded with a dominant performance, beating Sparks 47-12 on Saturday afternoon. Fernley piled up 414 yards of total offense, compared to 185 for Sparks, and scored on six of their nine offensive possessions and once on special teams.
Keeshawn Love ran for 210 yards on 10 carries, Bryce Stephens had 68 yards on his two carries and Riley McCullar returned a punt 86 yards for a touchdown.
“They played way better this week,” Sloan said. “We made it a priority this last week to really coach hard. It was a hard week. Not just for the players, but tough in practice. They got coached hard and had hard practices and we fixed some things, and it showed.”
Even so, it wasn’t a completely satisfied coach that addressed the team in their postgame huddle. Sloan was frustrated by moments of sloppiness, especially several penalties, a couple of turnovers and a handful of undisciplined mistakes.
“It’s not what we pride ourselves on,” he said. “We’ve just got to fix that, and we’ll be fine.”
Stephens opened the scoring, taking an option keeper 49 yards for a touchdown on the Vaqueros’ second offensive play of the game.
The Vaqueros then forced a 3-and-out by Sparks. Quarterback Eli Flores punted out of a shotgun formation. His kick sailed over the head of punt returner Riley McCullar, who chased the ball back to his own 14-yard line. As he picked it up, the nearest Sparks player was at the Fernley 35-yard line and was being manhandled by Alex Juliot. McCullar started to his left, then saw open field to his right and wasn’t touched until a Sparks player tackled him from behind in the end zone.
McCullar added another touchdown on an 8-yard run with 32.2 seconds left in the first quarter and Fernley was up 20-0. Love ran 54 yards for a touchdown for Fernley’s next score, making it 26-0 with 6:47 left in the second quarter.
Sparks got its first score with the help of a couple of Fernley penalties, defensive pass interference and roughing the passer, that accounted for 30 of the 50 yards on the drive, which Sparks finished with a touchdown on a trick play, a 21 yard pass on by running back Danny Taylor to Dylon Oliver after a lateral from quarterback Eli Flores.
Love added a 19-yard touchdown run that made it 33-6 at the half. In the second half, McCullar scored his third touchdown, on a 24-yard pass from Stephens, and Love added a 5-yard touchdown run.
Senior Joey Machado put his name in the school’s record book when he tackled a Sparks kick returner in the third quarter. It was the 289th tackle of his career, breaking the record of 288 that had been held since 1986 by Robbie Kelso.
But the penalties, two turnovers on fumbled snaps and a missed field goal were gnawing at Sloan as he greeted well-wishers on the field after the game. He said the Vaqueros have to eliminate those mistakes while maintaining the things they fixed going into this week.
“It’s just now, can we be repetitive about it? Can we keep the focus?” Sloan said.
They’ll find out Friday, when the Vaqueros travel to face South Tahoe at 7 p.m. The Vikings are 3-1, after beating Dayton 33-0 last Friday.
“They’re a lot better than what people give them credit for,” Sloan said. “We’ve just got to be willing to play fast, play hard and do what we’re supposed to do.”
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