Nevada high school football: Sloan Canyon tops Foothill

Sloan Canyon seniors Gavin and Christian Rhodes are as competitive as twin brothers can be.

On Friday night, they found a way to share the family bragging rights.

Gavin Rhodes picked off three passes and Christian Rhodes hauled in three touchdown passes as the Pirates rolled to a 35-14 home win over Foothill.

“We’re twins. We love to compete in everything,” Gavin Rhodes said. “But at the end of the day, we both appreciate each other and we both work as hard, as much as we can. It’s just amazing to have a brother out here, because you know each side is going to make a play.”

Christian Rhodes finished with seven catches for 70 yards, catching TD passes of 10, 5 and 24 yards from junior Cade Hoshino.

Hoshino spread the ball around to six receivers, completing 20 of 32 passes for 321 yards and five TDs.

“Our offense, every practice we compete against them as much as we can,” Gavin Rhodes said. “We try and give them the best look we can and they try to give us the best look. I believe we have the best offense in (Class) 4A. We’ve got throwing, run game; we’ve got everything working for us. So, I believe if we we keep pushing hard in practice and staying humble it’s good to go.”

Sloan Canyon is in its third season of playing football and its first at the Class 4A level after competing as an independent last season. But if Friday night is any indication, the Pirates look ready to compete at the 4A level after handling a solid Class 5A opponent in Foothill.

“It’s our first really big win,” Gavin Rhodes said. “We had a lot of doubters. But we knew once we can get going we’ll get going and we’re not going to let go.”

The Pirates (2-0) set the tone early, stopping Foothill in the red zone on its first drive after giving up 52 yards on the first play from scrimmage. From there Sloan Canyon marched 87 yards on 11 plays, capped by Hoshino’s 10-yard TD strike to Christian Rhodes.

“I’m proud of the boys,” Sloan Canyon coach Nate Oishi said. “We gave them a challenge tonight with a nonleague game against a higher division school. They came out hot. They just took it one play at a time. They never let their emotions get too high. It was just one play at a time, keep the main thing the main thing and good things happen.”

On Sloan Canyon’s next possession, Hoshino hit Brandon Quaglio on the left sideline near the 30-yard line. Quaglio quickly juked the defender and raced to to the end zone for a 39-yard catch-and-run TD that made it 13-7 with 22 seconds to go in the first quarter.

After Gavin Rhodes’ first interception, Hoshino and Quaglio hooked up on the game’s biggest play. On first-and-15 from their own 5-yard line, Quaglio made a leaping catch of Hoshino’s pass over a Foothill defender. Quaglio somehow kept his feet and raced down the left sideline for a 95-yard scoring play to push the lead to 19-7.

Quaglio finished with seven catches for 213 yards and two TDs.

“I’m proud of our quarterback, Cade, I’m proud of Brandon, I’m proud of Christian, I’m proud of all the receivers,” Oishi said. “At the end of the day, they’ve got to be the ones to make plays.

“All these guys on our offense, they’re throwing year round together. So, they earned this moment, for sure.”

Braxton Bonnett had eight catches for 120 yards and two touchdowns to lead Foothill (1-2).

“The divisions are on like size of schools,” Gavin Rhodes said. “But if you want it, you can get it.”