Unbeaten Mojave passes new signpost

Another week, another historic victory for Mojave's football program.

A week after clinching the first playoff berth in school history, the Rattlers beat Cimarron-Memorial for the first time, defeating the host Spartans 40-28 on Friday.

"This is a big, big victory for the Mojave Rattlers right now," said senior Reggie Powers, who rushed for 176 yards and three touchdowns on only six carries. "We'd talked about it, and talked about it, but we'd never done it. But 2007, this is ours right now."

The fifth-ranked Rattlers improved to 8-0, 5-0 in the Northwest Division. Not bad for a team that won only 12 games in coach Tyrone Armstrong's first four years, with nine of those coming in the last two seasons.

"Every victory is a big one," Armstrong said. "For this program, we told them, 'Come out here and play the game between the white stripes. Don't worry about the history. Let other people write the history.' That's all we ask them to do, and that's what they do."

Mojave's defense was less than stellar, yielding 417 rushing yards, but the game turned on a single defensive stop at the end of the first half.

Eighth-ranked Cimarron (6-2, 4-1) had the ball inside the Mojave 1-yard line with 11 seconds to go. The Mojave defensive line surged, stopping Joe Zikakis on a quarterback sneak, and time expired before the Spartans could run another offensive play, holding their halftime lead to 21-13.

"That was the biggest play of my life right there," Powers said.

Mojave then scored two touchdowns to take the lead before Cimarron ran an offensive play in the second half.

DeAndre Taylor's 84-yard kickoff return and 2-point conversion run tied the score at 21. He bobbled the squib kick, finally scooping it up at the 16 and sprinting through the Cimarron defense for the TD.

"I thought he was going to lose it, because he was right there at the goal line fumbling around with the ball," said Taylor's brother, Powers. "But he picked up some kind of motivation, some steam, and he just went off. He didn't need blockers."

The Spartans fumbled the ensuing kickoff, leading to a four-play, 30-yard drive capped by Powers' 22-yard touchdown run.

After a 60-yard TD run by Cimarron's Stephen Nixon again tied the game, Powers ran 54 yards for a score to open the ensuing drive to put the Rattlers up for good.

Mojave's final touchdown came after the Rattlers were going to kneel and run out the clock. Cimarron called timeout, and an illegal procedure penalty pushed the ball back to the 4-yard line, so the Rattlers chose to run a play, and Powers sprinted 96 yards for a touchdown.

Mojave ran only 24 plays compared with Cimarron's 74, but the Rattlers had four scoring drives of two plays or fewer.

Cimarron was hurt by four turnovers. Nixon rushed for 238 yards and three TDs.

Mojave is tied with Palo Verde for first in the Northwest. The Rattlers play Cheyenne next week, then close the season against the Panthers.

"Everybody's doubting us still," Powers said. "They ain't going to show no respect until we really do something. But we really did do something, so I guess we're going to get some respect now."

Contact Prep Sports Editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-4587.