Mistakes cost Wildcats as McQueen advances

RENO -- It had been three years since Las Vegas High School had to fight back tears at the end of a football season.

"We started off slow this year, but we came together, just like a family," quarterback Marvin Campbell said Saturday, trying to keep his emotions in check after a 34-20 loss to McQueen in the Class 4A state semifinals. "I'm so proud of this team. We just came up a little short."

The Wildcats, winners of the last two Class 4A state championships, had not ended a season with a loss since faling to Palo Verde 21-7 in the 2004 state title game.

"This team this year wasn't nearly as talented or as big as our last two teams," Wildcats coach Chris Faircloth said. "This team had to struggle all season."

The state semifinal game was no different. The Wildcats (9-5), who had been in the past four state title games and five of six, botched one punt with a bad snap, had another punt blocked and were intercepted twice as their 12-game winning streak in the postseason came to an end.

"McQueen played better than we did today," said Faircloth, 16-2 in the postseason since taking over the Wildcats program in 2004. "They played a clean game without many mistakes. We just made too many mistakes."

Las Vegas actually opened the scoring with a 31-yard touchdown pass from Campbell to Wesley Grass on the first play of the second quarter.

But McQueen (13-1) needed less than five minutes to score three quick touchdowns late in the second quarter to take a 21-7 halftime lead. The Lancers' scoring flurry started with a 16-play, 61-yard drive that the Wildcats appeared to stop on four occasions.

The drive, which ended in a 6-yard touchdown pass from Spencer Downie to Tyler York on a fake field-goal attempt, was aided by a pass interference penalty on the Wildcats, a dropped interception at the goal line by Las Vegas' Jonathan Tagle and two more plays that the Wildcats stuffed but failed to complete the tackle.

A bad snap on a Las Vegas punt and an interception by McQueen's Fono Asi set up the Lancers' second and third touchdowns of the second quarter.

The 21-point explosion, Faircloth said, was too much to overcome.

"Football is a momentum game," Faircloth said. "That was the difference in the game right there."

An interception by Sam Achempong on McQueen's first drive of the second half gave the Wildcats some momentum. Campbell then found Michael Alexander for a 32-yard touchdown strike to cut McQueen's lead to 21-14.

McQueen, though, blocked a Jonathan Dugan punt at the Las Vegas 6-yard line to set up a 22-yard field goal by Anthony Martinez to make the score 24-14 lead with 4:24 left in the third quarter.

The Wildcats, who outgained McQueen 348 yards to 258, pulled to within 24-20 on a 3-yard touchdown run by Emery Schexnayder with 45 seconds left in the quarter.

The Wildcats' offense, though, dried up in the fourth quarter.

"We had a very young team this year," said Faircloth, whose 2004 Wildcats remain the only Southern Nevada team to win a state semifinal game in Reno in seven tries. "We didn't get to where we wanted to be, but I am very proud of what they accomplished."