Football: Greenwave breaks late tie to defeat South Tahoe

Despite both teams tallying more than 200 yards in penalties, the Greenwave football team broke a 3-3 tie in the second half, shutting out South Tahoe to win its first road game, 16-3, of the season Friday at South Tahoe High School.

Fallon (2-2) returns home this week to host Sparks on Friday at 7 p.m. to cap off Homecoming Week.

Greenwave Hall of Famers Larry Barker (play-by-play) and Randy Beeghly (color) will call the game, which can be heard on KKTU 99.5 or online at www.network1sports/station/kktu. The junior varsity team faces Sparks at 4:30 p.m.. Fallon has no freshman team this year.

Although Fallon never trailed in the game, the offense couldn’t find the end zone until the fourth quarter due to penalties. Unofficially, Fallon committed 10 penalties for 110 yards while South Tahoe finished with 11 penalties and 115 yards.

Carson Melendy’s big punt return in the fourth quarter set up the Fallon offense in South Tahoe territory. After back-to-back holding calls, Rylan Clark found the end zone from 2 yards out to give Fallon a 9-3 lead early in the quarter.

Penalties hurt the Vikings on their second drive of the final quarter before Dominick Tapia intercepted a pass at Fallon’s own 34-yard line with four minutes left in the game. Quarterback Matthew Bird’s toss to Melendy on third-and-5 gave Fallon a first down in Viking territory before South Tahoe called a timeout with 2:31 left.

After another third-down conversion from Melendy, the junior running back punched it in with a 3-yard score to give Fallon a two-possession lead with two minutes left in the game.

Fallon had multiple chances to reach the end zone in the first half, beginning with its opening drive that saw Melendy’s long kickoff return give Fallon possession in South Tahoe territory. The drive stalled after a pair of short runs and a deep incomplete pass before Bird’s pass on fourth-and-9 from the Vikings’ 37 was deflected.

After forcing South Tahoe to punt on fourth-and-19, a personal foul set Fallon back 15 yards to start the drive on its own 25. The drive stalled again but Fallon’s defense stopped South Tahoe on its own 10 to give Fallon the ball at midfield with two minutes left in the first quarter.

Melendy carried Fallon late in the quarter, including a run of 15 yards plus a South Tahoe face-mask penalty that put Fallon 13 yards away from the end zone. Going into the second quarter, though, South Tahoe stopped Bird’s fourth-down rush attempt on the 5-yard line.

Another forced punt allowed Wyatt Peek to return the kick to the Vikings’ 9-yard line. With seven minutes left in the half, Bird’s third-down pass was incomplete but a pass-interference penalty gave Fallon new life inside the 10-yard line. The Greenwave, though, resulted in a 27-yard field goal from Bird to break a scoreless tie with 5:21 left in the half.

The Vikings responded in the next series with a field goal with 54 seconds left.

FOOTBALL STANDINGS

(Overall, League)

3A North

Truckee           4-0, 1-0

Elko                 3-0, 1-0

Fallon              2-2, 1-0

Lowry              1-2, 1-0

So. Tahoe       2-2, 0-1

Fernley            1-3, 0-1

Sparks             1-3, 0-1

Sp. Creek        0-4, 0-1

5A North-Div. II

Douglas           4-1, 0-0

Reed               3-1, 0-0

Reno               2-1, 0-0

McQueen        3-2, 0-0

Sp. Springs     3-2, 0-0

Manogue         2-3, 0-0

5A North-Div. III

Carson            3-2, 0-0

Galena            2-2, 0-0

No. Valleys     2-3, 0-0

Dam. Ranch    1-3, 0-0

Wooster          1-3, 0-0

Hug                 0-4, 0-0

Independent

Dayton            2-2