3A STATE: Truckee wears down Moapa Valley, captures crown

Moapa Valley coach Brent Lewis thought his team had the break it needed.

After Mitch Nelson of Truckee (Calif.) mishandled the second-half kickoff and Moapa Valley’s Jovan Romero recovered at the Truckee 28, it looked like the Pirates had a shot at erasing the Wolverines’ 13-7 lead.

But the big plays that turned the game from there belonged to Truckee.

Moapa Valley’s scoring drive stalled at the 8, and Truckee’s Tony Rodriguez blocked Dylan Mortensen’s 25-yard field-goal attempt, and it was all Wolverines from there as they downed the Pirates 27-7 on Saturday for the Class 3A state football title at Arbor View High School.

“We had the ball and just didn’t capitalize right there,” Lewis said. “I thought that was key.”

Truckee (12-0) defeated Moapa Valley (7-5) in the title game for the second consecutive season, and extended its winning streak to 24 games.

The Pirates had just 3 yards on two rushing attempts in their opening drive of the second half. For the game, Moapa Valley managed just 26 rushing yards.

“The tough part about it is they wouldn’t let us run the football,” Lewis said. “You’ve got them backed up right there, and you’ve got to be able to run the football and they just wouldn’t let us.”

Moapa Valley recovered another Truckee fumble with 8:13 left in the third quarter, but again was unable to put points on the board.

“We forced the two turnovers early and we just couldn’t quite get in sync with our (quarterback) and our receivers,” Lewis said. “I thought we had what we wanted, but you’ve got to hand it to Truckee. They’re tough because they give you so many looks to throw against.”

Rodriguez came up with another big play, intercepting a Kelan Weiss pass at the Truckee 39 and returning it 50 yards to set up a 4-yard touchdown run by Morgan Nevin with 1:50 to go in the third quarter.

Nevin took over from there, rushing for 86 yards in the fourth quarter, including a 45-yard TD run, to help seal the win.

“After last year going 12-0 and this year 12-0 we made history in our town,” Nevin said. “This is what we always wanted, what we always worked for. We finished strong like we always wanted to.”

Nevin finished with 142 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries. He also caught three passes for 77 yards, and recorded two sacks.

The Wolverines sacked Weiss seven times and had three interceptions.

“They drop eight guys into coverage and still put pressure on with three guys rushing,” Lewis said. “Gosh, how do you prepare for that?”

Weiss completed 14 of 30 passes for 153 yards, including a 4-yard scoring pass to Hayden Cooper in the second quarter.

“We didn’t capitalize at key times and they wore us down mentally,” Lewis said. “They finished. That’s what they do. You’ve got to be good to beat Truckee, so we’ve got to get better.”