Final score: 128-74

After watching Coleville score on its first nine possessions Saturday, Pahranagat Valley football coach Ken Higbee decided his team's only chance to win was to keep the ball from the Wolves.

The strategy worked, as Pahranagat Valley recovered five of six onside kicks in the third quarter on the way to a 128-74 home victory in the Class 1A state semifinals.

The 128 points broke the national scoring record of 118 for eight-man football, and the Panthers set a national eight-man record with 17 touchdowns.

"The only way we could stop them is if they didn't have the football," Higbee said. "And unfortunately for them, they couldn't stop us."

Pahranagat Valley (11-0) will play Tonopah (8-3) for the Class 1A state title at noon Saturday at Arbor View High School. Coleville finished 9-2.

Brady Whipple and Taylor Poulsen carried the load for the Panthers, who outscored Coleville 44-8 in the third quarter to take a 106-60 lead. They then broke the national scoring record set in 1985 by Northern Valley High School in Almena, Kan.

Whipple rushed for 133 yards and a touchdown and caught six passes for 241 yards and five scores. He also returned two kickoffs for TDs.

Poulsen rushed for 175 yards and five TDs and completed 11 of 17 passes for 317 yards and five scores.

"It was running the football with Brady Whipple and throwing the football to Brady Whipple," Higbee said. "We threw and ran whenever we wanted to on them."

Pahranagat Valley scored 62 first-half points but couldn't stop Coleville's passing game.

Quarterback Jason Peters threw eight first-half TD passes, six of them to sophomore receiver Emmi Sandoval.

"It was pretty amazing to see the score," Higbee said. "To score that many points, that was the furthest from our minds. The thing we wanted to do was keep the football out of (Peters') hands and continue to score points. When he got his hands on the football, Coleville scored."

Higbee said his team continued to onside kick in the third quarter to try to keep the lead.

"In eight-man football it's different than 11-man. A 32-point lead is gone in a heartbeat," Higbee said.

Higbee credited kicker Jason Choi for giving the team a good shot at recovering the onside kicks.

"If they're just going to score at will, you've got to do something different," Higbee said. "At half, we looked at each other and said, 'If they're going to score, we might as well have a 50-50 shot at not giving them the football.' "

Peters completed 32 of 47 passes for 490 yards and 10 TDs. Sandoval caught 13 passes for 208 yards and eight TDs.