Vandals Open Season Tonight at Smith Valley

Time to get after it. The season opens for Eureka County High football team tonight. The team is on the road to Smith Valley for a non-league game with the Bulldogs.

Looking to improve on last year’s 5-5 record, and make the playoffs again, coach Frank Minoletti says the boys are coming along well after a couple of weeks of practice.

The team held a scrimmage jamboree last week with Carlin and Independence, a boys correctional facility located in Elko. “We hung right there with both those teams,” he said. “We have three or four new freshmen players starting for us and for their first live action in high school, they did pretty well.”

Much of the offense for Eureka this year will center around senior quarterback C.W. Landry (5-11, 175). He was the MVP of the east conference of the 1A Northern league last season with a quarterback rating of about 94 percent. Unofficially, he was also the leading rusher on the team.

Eureka played Smith Valley last year in Eureka winning the game 70-40, as they scored 36 points in the second quarter, then held off a 26-point Bulldog rally in the fourth quarter.

The win was the first against Smith Valley after three straight losses which had been preceded by three straight wins, but Smith Valley still has the lead in the overall record since 2004 at 5-6.

Next week, the team faces another non-league opponent from the west side, the Coleville Wolves in Eureka at 7 p.m. Eureka lost last year in Coleville, 44-20, getting shutout in the second half.

The Wolves and the Vandals have played each other every year since at least 2004, except 2009. They played twice in 2010, with Coleville winning both times, including 66-8 in the first round of the playoffs that year. The Wolves lead the overall series at present 8-5.