The Wave will begin their playoff season in hot water, with a rematch against the Fernley Vaqueros today.
The Wave’s first game against their valley rivals ended in their favor with a 33-6 win. After their recent shutout over Lowry, 48-0, the Wave will be going into the playoffs with a perfect season to bolster their spirits.
Despite their record, coach Brooke Hill said he isn’t taking Fernley any less seriously, particularly given their habit in the past of turning the game around against Fallon.
“Well, obviously they’re going to do some things differently than they did the first time,” Hill said. “So we’ll we, you know, that’s football. We just saw them two weeks ago so we’re fairly familiar with them. Obviously, them being in the league as long as they have been, we’re pretty familiar with them. But we have to expect the unexpected. We have to expect them to do something that they didn’t show us the other day, and we’re going to have to counter with some of the same things, so we’re going to have to handle whatever type of adjustments that they make.”
The Vaqueros ended their own season close behind the Wave, 7-2 in D1-A and 8-2 overall close to a perfect season like the one they were determined to take from Fallon.
Fernley’s running game is normally known to be on par with Fallon’s, rushing 2,715 yards total this season over Fallon’s 1,937 by a close margin.
Fallon, though, has a potent rushing game, with Cade Vercelotti gaining 859 yards for 12 touchdowns. Trae Workman had 330 yards and one touchdown.
“Well we handled their running game really well,” Hill said elaborating, on their previous victory over Fernley. “They usually have a very strong running game but you know we were pretty prepared the last time we played them. But that’s what football is, especially when you see a team the second time around. You make adjustments. So whatever adjustments that they make, and I’m sure they’re making them, and obviously we’re doing some things differently even though we had a pretty good outcome the last time, we know we can’t just come in with the exact same game plan.”
The Wave has been able to rely steadily on their passing game that has grown over the season to Hill’s liking since he mentioned early on that this was something the team was striving to improve.
Fallon quarterback Connor Richardson finished the season with 148 completed passes in 220 attempts for 1,989 yards and 26 touchdowns, a completion of percentage of .673 percent that exceeds Fernley quarterback Kyle Throckmorton’s of .413 percent. Throckmorton does exceed Richardson in rushing yards, however, at 1,004 for the season with a 100.4 gained per game over Richardson’s 414 with 41.4 gained per game.
Richardson’s primary receiver was Brock Uptain, 554 yards and five touchdown. Connor Nelson had 471 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns.
It is true that this is indicative of differing strategies, since Fernley is an aggressive rushing team and Fallon has been focused on improving their passing game to compliment their pistol formation.
This was clear in the number of sacks on Richardson, five total. Though the Wave was able to keep up with this with five sacks of their own,
Hill said he is still pushing Richardson to get better, to continue to manage the game and be productive as he said Richardson has done all year long.
“They got in there a little bit, yeah,” Hill said acknowledging Fernley’s sacks, “but that’s because of the aggressive defense that they run. We expected some of that and we’ll expect that again. But Connor has been pretty good about getting the ball out quick in those situations and avoiding some of that too. Obviously they’re a good team at 7-2, but we don’t expect Connor to do anything different than to be Connor. If he does that then we’ll be in pretty good shape.”
The playoff game is a one-week season with the winner advancing and the losing players hanging up their helmets for the season. While Hill acknowledged that the pressure is on, he also said that the Wave is in their groove now and that no one player puts themselves above another, contributing to their success.
“We take what teams give us,” Hill said. “That’s what you see from week to week that’s a little bit different, who’s getting the ball, and who’s not. We’re focused on one thing, and that’s getting a W. The kids are focused on that. We’re 10 games into this thing and they know their roles, and how to approach it, and they understand that we’ve told them they don’t have to do anything outside of what they normally do. They just have to go out and play football.”