Vandals Remain in First After Win

Eureka evened their season record at 3-3 last Friday with a 64-12 thrashing of an undermanned team from McDermitt.

Vandal’s coach Fred Minoletti said the Bulldogs only had eight players they could suit up for the game. But, he said, he had to give credit to them for even being willing to come the long five-hour bus trip from home to play with just eight, meaning that all eight had to go both ways every down the entire game.

Minoletti kept the ball on the ground most of the time, piling up 329 yards using eight different runners. Quarterback C.W. Landry only attempted three passes and completed two.

On the ground, three freshman players carried the ball six times each, Wyatt Anderson for 83 yards, Brandon Lee, 52 yards and Ashton Sanders, 27 yards. Anderson also had three touchdowns.

The Vandals outscored the Bulldogs 30-6 in the first quarter. Minoletti said the ground game averaged 8.7 yards per carry most of the game, using a lot of runs up the middle where McDermitt did not show to be very strong. “We could have had Landry pass the ball quite a bit, but we didn’t really want to, or need to.”

He also said, “We even started putting the second team players in after the first quarter. The younger guys played the entire second half and scored three times. We were not hurting ourselves so much now as we had been either. I think we had one fumble, but no bad mental mistakes.”

So, the Vandals (3-3, 3-0) now sit atop the 1A Northern-east with two games to play. This week, they travel to Elko to face Independence, also known as the Nevada Youth Training Center. The Colts (2-3, 1-1) are new to football since 2015, having dropped the sport for a few years in 2009 when they had played in the 2A division. Eureka won last year’s meeting 42-22.

The Colts do have one main player but do not list names on their roster. No. 12, a junior, has rushed for 481 yards and eight touchdowns, and the team has 984 rushing yards on the season. He is also the quarterback with 264 yards on 17 of 43 attempts, four touchdowns, and three interceptions.

Minoletti said, “I think if we can contain him on offense, we’ll be okay, and they are known to commit quite a few penalties.”

Eureka’s totals on the ground are 1,422 yards and Landry has 412 yards passing, 28 of 47, one touchdown and two interceptions.

The boys will finish the season a bit earlier than most teams, with their final game Oct. 20 at home against Owyhee (0-5, 0-2).