Vandals Playoff Chances take Hit after Pair of Losses

The Eureka Vandals, on the road for two games last weekend, lost to the Owyhee Braves and fell into fourth place in the 1A East as the result of a 48-28 loss last Saturday.

The Vandals had lost the first league meeting with Owyhee 49-45 Jan. 11.

It puts Eureka behind Wells and Owyhee in the standings with three games remaining in the regular season.

Only four teams will qualify for the Region II tournament with the South League Feb. 20-22 in Las Vegas.

Coach Fred Minoletti said Chace Green scored 15 for the Vandals and Terell Watson had nine but all the rest of the team only scored four points.

The night before, at Carlin, Green was the top point maker with 20 followed by Gage Hayward with 18 and Gavyn Bowling with 10. In all, Minoletti said 10 of the Vandal’s 11 players scored in that game.

With three games remaining, Eureka (8-9, 5-3) will have a big challenge to hold on to a playoff spot as they face both league leader Wells (11-8, 7-1) and second place Jackpot (13-2, 6-1) in Eureka this Friday and Saturday.

The season finale will be at McDermitt Feb. 14.

Last week, the NIAA again changed the location of the 1A Region II playoffs.

First, it had been set for Virgin Valley High School in Mesquite. However, Mesquite has a number of other special events that same weekend and most all of the rooms in town were already booked.

Then the tournament was moved to Coronado High. However, after agreeing to be the host, Coronado officials decided they did not want to hold the tourney at their school three consecutive days.

The NIAA then shopped around and found four other schools in the Vegas area willing to host for one day of the tournament.

So the schedule now for the boys is Feb. 20 at Basic or Legacy, Feb. 21 one game at Clark and the other at Coronado, and the finals Feb. 22 at Faith Lutheran.

For the girls, games will be at Basic or Legacy Feb. 20, at Clark Feb. 21 and the finals Feb. 22 at Faith Lutheran.