Several times this season, the Fernley High School football team has posted big numbers in the stat sheet that didn’t get reflected on the scoreboard. Last Friday night, with the season on the line, the Vaqueros finally put the two together.
Turning yards into points when it mattered most, Fernley punched its playoff ticket and ended Dayton’s season with a gritty 27-16 winner-take-all victory.
Both teams came into the game in the same situation, win and make the playoffs, or lose and the season was over. This time, in a game with no safety net, the Vaqueros didn’t fall.
Jayden Esparza ran for 220 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries, Jayse Jones also ran for a score, Elijah Devold added another 92 yards on the ground on his nine carries.
But it was Isaid Solis who made the play of the game, and considering the stakes, maybe of the season. With the Vaqueros leading 13-8 and Dayton facing second-and-12 from its own 23-yard line with about a minute and a half left in the first half, quarterback Abel Russell threw a short, seemingly safe pass to Silas Lokey near the sideline. As Lokey caught the ball and started to run, Solis stripped the ball from Lokey’s hands and took it 25 yards the other way for a strip-6 touchdown that put the Vaqueros up 20-8 at the half.
The Vaqueros extended the margin to 27-8 on a touchdown run by Jones with 9:20 left in the fourth quarter.
But very little has come easy for the Vaqueros this season, and Dayton’s Duke Evans made sure it didn’t Friday night either. Evans returned the kickoff following Jones’ touchdown 75 yards for his own score.
The Vaqueros recovered Dayton’s onside kick but fumbled the ball back to the DustDevils two plays later. Dayton drove the ball to the Fernley 22-yard line, but a touchdown run from there by Duke Evans was called back because of a holding penalty. Three plays later, another Dayton touchdown, a 29-yard pass from Russell to Diego Enriquez, was called back by another holding penalty.
On third and long, Kole Miller sacked Russell, and because Russell’s helmet came off on the play, he had to sit out the next play. This time Miller sacked Mike Reitman, and the Vaqueros took possession of the ball and were able to run out the clock.
While the Vaqueros ran only 39 offensive plays in the game, they averaged 8.6 yards per rush and Devold completed his only pass attempt for 34 yards, to Keaunue Tolliver.
Sloan said that ability to control the ball for long stretches and limit the opponent’s time of possession is the formula that makes the Vaqueros a scary underdog in the playoffs.
The Vaqueros are the No. 6 seed in the playoffs, and will play at Spring Creek at 7 p.m. Friday, a place they’ve lost five consecutive times, including 42-7 earlier this season.
But after that game coach Anfernee Sloan said the Vaqueros struggled with handling adversity and didn’t play with enough intensity.
“It’s hard to beat a team twice in the same season,” he said. ““I guarantee it’s going to be a different kind of game this time.”
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