Vandals Ready for Tough Road Test at Carlin after Bye Week

Eureka didn’t play football last week, it was their bye week. But coach Fred Minoletti said it was good to have some time off, to heal up from a few injuries and keep working hard to prepare for the game this week at Carlin. “A good time to have a bye week,” he said. “We had a couple of kids with minor sprained ankles and sore muscles. I think they’ll be healed up in time for this week.”

Going into the game with the Railroaders, the Vandals are in first place in 1A Northern-east after they opened league plays with the exciting 28-22 win at Wells.

The Vandals have won the last three times in meetings with the Railroaders including 38-6 last year at Crutchley Field.

This year both teams have three losses on the season already and up to now have played just one common opponent, Smith Valley. Both lost to the Bulldogs.

“We have to be able to stop the run game of Carlin,” Minoletti said.

Looking at comparisons, Eddie Gomez of Carlin and C.W. Landry of the Vandals are neck-and-neck in total yards per game. Landry is averaging 152.5 yards and Gomez 153 yards “and can be a handful if he gets going downhill.”

In team scoring averages per game, Carlin is scoring 30.4 points a game and Eureka 17.5 points per game. But in passing average per game, Landry leads with 94.4 yards compared to 48 yards for Railroaders quarterback Jimmy Payne.

Minoletti said they did scout Carlin in their home game last week with Independence of Elko, a close win 50-44 for the Railroaders. “As long as we stay out of our own way, I think we’ll be OK.”

In weeks to come, the Vandals have home games with McDermitt and Owyhee and an away game at Independence.

Virginia City and Whittell lead the 1A Northern-west at the moment, both 4-0, with Excel Christian of Sparks at 3-1. Virginia City and Whittell meet in Virginia City Oct. 21.

Pahranagat Valley (4-0) and Beatty (3-0) lead the south. Defending state champion Spring Mountain is 3-1. Pahranagat hosts Spring Mountain in Alamo Oct. 13. Beatty gets Spring Mountain the following week and Pahranagat Valley Oct. 26.