Douglas quarterback Hunter Hickey fires the ball to a Douglas receiver at North Valleys Friday night.
RENO — Hunter Hickey scored his third touchdown of the night with 1:37 left to lift the Douglas Tigers to a 30-24 win against North Valleys in Reno.
Hickey, a senior quarterback, scrambled around his left end for a 7-yard touchdown that broke a 24-all tie.
Douglas won its first game after dropping three straight to start the season.
North Valleys (0-3) was led by junior Garrett Pennington, who rushed for 282 yards (unofficially).
Jack Overton caught a 36-yard touchdown pass from Hickey to give the Tigers a 17-12 halftime lead.
Dayton falls
SPRING CREEK – Spring Creek got rolling early and dispatched the Dayton Dust Devils, beating them by a score of 42-0.
Spring Creek moves to 3-0 in the 3A North and has not been tested so far in league play after coming away with another blowout victory.
The Spartans’ defense a made the first statement of the game and stopped the physical running game of Dayton when they went for it on fourth and short from their own 30 yard line.
Spring Creek head coach Mike Tournahu said he was pleased with the way his front eight played against a run-heavy team.
“We worked with them a lot this week and they are getting more and more experience,” he said. “We got two good inside linebackers with K-Ci Slade and Xavier Edson and we got a good anchor with Jake Oliphant on the edge. It was an overall great effort.”
Giving the Spartans a short field to work with proved to be an unwise decision as Thomas Ledford found Dakota Larson on a screen pass that set up first and goal from inside the five.
Jason Painter had his first touchdown of the evening and punched it in on the next play to put Spring Creek up 8-0 after a successful conversion attempt.
Dayton tried to turn the tide and looked like it could have tied the game on its next drive after testing cornerback Dorian Ard.
Dayton worked the ball into the red zone but the passing game faltered as Painter came away with a pick that could have gone for six had it not been called back by penalties.
Painter finished the drive with another short touchdown run to put the Spartans up 16-0.
Dayton couldn’t get the passing game going and had both of its passing attempts fall incomplete in the early stages of the second quarter, forcing it to punt.
Unfortunately for Dayton, the kick fell into the hands of Painter, who returned the punt for a touchdown.
Painter picked up his first special teams touchdown and put Spring Creek up 22-0.
Tournahu said Painter is always a tough player for the opposition to handle.
“He’s a dynamic football player. You saw what he can do in the secondary at safety with that interception he had,” he said. “On offense he’s running the ball and playing quarterback. He’s doing a little bit of everything.”
Dayton now had to abandon its original game plan and looked to move the ball through the air to make up the deficit.
Ard had been targeted by Dayton’s offense but came up with Spring Creek’s second forced turnover of the game when he took advantage of an underthrown ball and got the interception.
The drive was capped off with Larson getting a touchdown reception on a slant route to bring the score to 35-0.
Painter ran the ball in from about 20 yards out on Spring Creek’s last possession of the half and the Spartans swaggered into the locker room up 42-0.
— Hasani Grayson/Elko Daily Free Press
VOLLEYBALL
Dayton sweeps
DAYTON — Dayton rolled past Spring Creek 25-17, 25-8, 25-19, Brianda Diaz had 10 kills, Ashley Mason had eight kills, Marissa Hein had three kills, Becca Mason had three kills and Tamia Powell added 22 assists for the Dust Devils.
BOYS TENNIS
Carson netters lose
RENO — Galena knocked off Carson, 10-8, Thursday afternoon in a 4A match.
Jared Barnard went 2-1 in singles and Bradley Wiggins had Carson’s only other singles win.
Jacob Wolz and Gabe Fanning had two wins in doubles. Michael Roman and Trevor Dawley grabbed a doubles win, and Eric Tomita and Wiggins combined for a doubles win, and Tomita and Dudley had a victory.