Eagles’ victory exactly as planned: Lessons learned earlier in season lead to 42-0 win over Lake Mead

The feeling at the Eagles’ football practice Tuesday was one of relief coming off of Friday’s huge 42-0 victory over 2A program Lake Mead.

“Obviously (it was) a great win for the program, regardless of who it comes against,” said Boulder City High School coach Chris Morelli. “I think the boys really came together Friday night; they executed the game plan and pulled everything together.”

Coming off a solid performance the week prior in a 39-6 loss to Sunrise Mountain, the Eagles took what they learned from that outing to earn Friday’s win.

“The Sunrise game really did a lot of good for us, showing the boys what we needed to work on,” defensive coordinator Alex Moore said. “We played assignment football on Friday and we executed perfectly. Everyone did their job, everybody was in the right spots and we made big plays because of it.”

Along with pitching a shutout on the defensive end, the Eagles used a solid rushing attack against Lake Mead during Friday’s rout, something Morelli is hopeful to see more of.

“Top to bottom, I think everyone did a great job running the ball this week,” Morelli said. “That’s exactly what we need to do in order to open up the passing game the way we would like to. I thought everyone did a great job picking their spots and running through the holes. I’m really proud of our unit.”

Led by nine rushers, the Eagles totaled 279 yards on the ground, with all six of their touchdowns coming from different rushers.

Leading the unit Friday was senior Aaron Walker, who finished the night with 83 yards on 15 carries, while senior Brian Foster garnered 52 yards on five carries and sophomore Thorston Balmer garnered 38 yards on four carries.

“I thought the offensive line really did a great job for us,” Balmer said. “There were a lot of holes up front for us to go through, which made it easy for us to get the running game going.”

Tallying rushing score for the Eagles were junior Briggs Huxford (one carry for 34 yards), sophomore Travis Hungerford (four carries, 29 yards), senior Dillon Viera (four carries, 26 yards), senior Michael Morgan (two carries, 13 yards), senior Taylor Hatchel (four carries, 3 yards) and junior Cyrus Quintana (one carry, 1 yard).

Hatchel also connected on a 20-yard pass to Viera.

Having little time to celebrate their victory, the Eagles will host Pahrump Valley on Friday in what Morelli expects to be a physical contest.

“We would love to celebrate our victory, but it’s time for us to get back to business,” Morelli said. “We’re going to go up against a really tough physical opponent on Friday, and I’ve mentioned to the kids that we need to punch them in the mouth first before they punch us. If we can play their style of football, I think we’ll have a good chance to have another solid week.”

Contact Robert Vendettoli at BCRsports@gmail.com.

Upcoming Games

■ Today: vs. Pahrump, 6:30 p.m. junior varsity

■ Friday: vs. Pahrump, 7 p.m. varsity