Fallon’s Wyatt Peek hauls in a pass against Lowry on Friday.
Photo by Tony Erquiaga.
A week removed from stunning Elko, Fallon finished the regular season with its third-straight win to clinch the No. 2 seed and first-round bye to the Northern 3A football playoffs.
Lowry High grad Calvin Connors returned to Jerry Tobin Field as the first-year head coach of Fallon, replacing Brooke Hill, who retired after last season. Fallon’s 42-6 win over Lowry spoiled senior night for the Buckaroos, who are graduating 13 seniors. Fallon improved to 5-2 in the Northern 3A while Lowry dropped 2-5.
With the win, Fallon is off this week and will play the winner of No. 3 Elko (5-2) and No. 6 Lowry, who will battle on Friday. In the other quarterfinal, No. 4 Spring Creek (4-3) hosts No. 5 Fernley (4-3) two weeks after the Spartans upset the Vaqueros, adding to the chaos when Fallon also pulled off the upset over Elko.
Truckee (7-0) won the regular-season title and will face either Spring Creek or Fernley.
The regional semifinals are Nov. 8 with the winners advancing to the state semifinals on Nov. 15. The state championship is in three weeks.
In last week’s regular-season finale, the turnover bug, has bitten Lowry all season, came back on the opening drive of the night on an interception deep in Fallon territory. The Greenwave wasted little time in responding and led 7-0 with 8:21 left in the opening quarter on a 29-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Bird to Calin Andersen.
The Buckaroos turned the ball over on downs on the ensuing drive and the Greenwave quickly drove 44 yards off of two passes by Bird and Carson Medley made it 14-0 on a 2-yard run with four minutes to go in the first quarter.
After the teams traded punts, Lowry looked poised to trim the deficit in half, but saw a 53-yard drive end at the Fallon 2-yard line on an interception.
The Greenwave proceeded to drive 98 yards and increase the lead to 21-0 on a 49-yard run by Michael Robinson.
On the second play of the ensuing drive, Erick Valencia scored on a 70-yard run to close the gap to 21-6 after the missed extra point with 4:34 left in the first half.
Fallon added the final blow of the first 24 minutes of play, scoring with eight seconds left on a 9-yard pass from Bird to Wyatt Peek.
The Greenwave tacked on two more scores in the second half, the first on a 33-yard pass from Bird to Anderson and the last a pass from Colin Shishido.
Lowry’s Connor Peterson was 8-of-18 for 81 yards passing and Valencia ran for 202 yards on 23 carries. Valencia also had four receptions and Ryder Huitt caught three balls for 40 yards.