Big plays on offense, defense and special teams added up to a big win for the Fernley High
School football team last Friday at South Tahoe.
The Vaqueros had touchdown runs of 65, 77, 39 and 81 yards, a touchdown pass of 67 yards, an
84-yard punt return that set up a score and two field goals of 43 and 50 yards while dominating
the game from their first offensive play.
“We told them that’s what happens when you take it to the and you practice the right way,” coach
Anfernee Sloan said. “It’s a sign of a healthy program, a healthy culture, kids that are bought in,
that want to and accomplish a common goal.”
Fernley ran just 26 plays offensively but gained 416 yards. Led by 241 yards on eight carries by
Keeshawn Love, the Vaqueros ran for 336 yards on 22 carries. Bryce Stephens completed two of
four passes for 80 yards.
Sout Tahoe running back Conner Hennessee accounted for 155 of his team’s 252 total yards.
Riley McCullar took an option pitch 65 yards for a touchdown on Fernley’s first offensive play
of the game, and on Fernley’s next possession, Noah Spencer drilled a 43-yard field goal for a 9-
0 lead.
On the first play of South Tahoe’s next drive, Hennessee took a handoff 71 yards before he was
chased down by Joey Machado at Fernley’s 9-yard line, but that’s when things started going
south for the Vikings. The Vaqueros’ defense kept the Vikings out of the end zone, then they
blocked a field goal attempt.
On the next play, Love burst quickly through a hole and scored from 77 yards to make it 16-0
and South Tahoe never threatened again until the Vaqueros pulled their starters late in the third
quarter.
Meanwhile, McCullar’s 84-yard punt return set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Stephens that
made it 23-0. On Fernley’s next possession, McCullar took a short pass from Stephens and
turned it into a 67-yard touchdown that made it 30-0 with 1:06 left in the second quarter.
A quick three-and-out and a short punt by the Vikings gave the Vaqueros the ball back at the
South Tahoe 29-yard line, and after a false-start penalty moved the ball back, Spencer drilled a
50-yard field goal to make it 33-0 at the half.
Love added a 39-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and an 81-yarder early in the fourth,
sandwiched between a blocked punt that Nathan Pritchard recovered in the end zone for a
touchdown.
“That’s a big-time thing to be able to watch those guys execute the way they did tonight,” Sloan
said. “Now my questions is, can we go and do it again?”
The win was the second consecutive for the Vaqueros, who are now 4-1 overall and 2-1 in the
Northern 3A. But to stretch that win streak to three, they will have to beat Spring Creek, which
has beaten them six consecutive times since 2020, including in the playoffs each of the last two
seasons.
“They definitely have had our number, but we’re not going to look at it that way,” Sloan said.
“We’re going to look at the film, we’re going to digest it and we’re going to find what it is that
we need to do to beat them.”
This time, the Vaqueros get the Spartans at home after going to Spring Creek three times in the
last two years. It’s also Homecoming for the Vaqueros.
“We haven’t lost Homecoming in four or five years, so who else could a better team be?” Sloan
said. “We’re going to go and do it.”
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