Vandals remain atop 1A East after 50-14 win over Carlin

Eureka picked up their fourth straight win of the season with a 50-14 victory at Carlin last week.

Chris Drayton had one of the best games of his career, 127 yards on 15 plays and two touchdowns. “We were able to go to him quite a bit and he ran the ball well,” said coach Fred Minoletti. “He didn’t play the whole game because we had such a big lead by the fourth quarter.”

Halftime score was 44-14.

Minoletti said the teams were even at 14 in the first quarter. He said both times Eureka scored, “We had a let down on special teams and allowed the Railroaders to run the kickoff back for touchdowns both times We were moving the ball well, but Carlin stayed even with us that way and didn’t even have to run an offensive play.”

The Vandals (4-0, 1-0) buckled down defensively after that in their first league game. Ashton Sanders assisted on nine tackles including four solo tackles. Chace Green, Gage Hayward and Drayton assisted on eight tackles each.

Clayton Shota who shined so well in the game with Pyramid Lake Sept. 20 individually accounting for 349 yards, had another good game against Carlin. He was 6-for-9 passing, 89 yards and three touchdowns, two to Drayton and one to Hayward. Plus he rushed for 96 yards on eight carries and one touchdown.

Eureka was to play McDermitt this Friday, but the Bulldogs have cancelled their season leaving the Vandals with an open date.

However Minoletti said the team has picked up a non-counting game with the White Pine JV’s this Saturday in Ely, “Just to keep sharp.”

The next league game is with Independence in Elko Oct. 11.

The Vandals finish the regular season a little bit earlier than most other teams that go one more week, playing on Oct. 25 at Wells.

The 1A NIAA state playoffs setup this year has the East league playing the South League and West verses Central in the opening round Nov. 8-9.