Nevada prep football: Arbor View overcomes weather delay to beat Green Valley

No matter what third-ranked Arbor View faced Friday night — multiple delays, pouring rain, Green Valley’s defense — nothing stopped the Aggies in a 42-17 home victory.

The start of the game was pushed back roughly an hour by a lightning delay, and then was paused again in the third quarter as Green Valley senior defensive back Sam Byington suffered a neck injury and left the field in an ambulance.

Arbor View (6-2, 3-0 5A Mountain League) head coach Sam Norris praised the Aggies for weathering an emotional, start-and-stop contest. He praised the team’s consistency and ability to deal with an unorthodox night that took them out of their routines.

“You mix all that stuff together, and it’s just a matter of being able to handle emotions,” Norris said. “I think our kids, for the most part, handled it pretty well.”

Utah-bound Arbor View quarterback Thaddeus Thatcher finished 14-for-21 passing, with 152 yards and two touchdowns. He added 74 yards on the ground, 56 of which came on an impressive touchdown run in the second quarter. Senior receiver Jayden Williams caught six passes for 54 yards and a TD.

Michael Lewis led the attack for No. 8 Green Valley (3-4, 1-2), going 16 of 28 for 202 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Senior receiver Evan Williams finished with seven catches for 115 yards and a touchdown.

Green Valley scored first on a 21-yard field goal by Raedon Michaels late in the first quarter.

After that, Arbor View took control. The Aggies answered on their next possession, with a 1-yard Zac Fares touchdown run to give Arbor View a 7-3 lead. Roughly two minutes later, Thatcher parted the Gator defense, sprinting 56 yards for a TD.

Arbor View made it a 21-3 game just over a minute before halftime when Teddy Johnson leaped to intercept a pass in traffic, then scampered 92 yards for a pick-six.

Early in the third quarter, the game was delayed for 40 minutes after Byington suffered a neck injury while dipping his head on a tackle. Gators head coach Bill Powell said that Byington had movement in all of his extremities and was conscious throughout.

“It was more precautionary,” Powell said. “He had some neck pain, and you always want to err on the side of caution with that.”

Later in the third quarter, the Aggies went up 28-3 on Kamareion Bell’s 8-yard scoring run. Green Valley cut the deficit to 28-10 on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Lewis to Evan Williams.

Thatcher scored again early in the fourth quarter, finding Fares on a 7-yard TD pass to make it 35-10. Green Valley responded with a 1-yard QB keeper from Lewis. Thatcher then notched his third touchdown of the game with an 18-yard pass to Jayden Williams.