Moapa Valley’s ‘tough week’ ends with win

Monday’s storms that washed out part of Interstate 15 northeast of Las Vegas led to a strange week at Moapa Valley High School’s athletic programs.

The school’s sporting events were postponed all week, but the Pirates finally got back on the field Saturday. And though it took Moapa Valley some time to get going, the Pirates found themselves in familiar territory in the end, coming up with a 43-30 win at Desert Pines.

“It was a tough week,” said senior quarterback Zach Hymas, who had a hand in all six touchdowns. “We had the flooding. A lot of us were out there helping people shovel stuff out of their basement, get water out of their basements, clear off their property. It was well worth it. We knew it was an important game and we had to play it. And I’m glad we came out with a win.”

Hymas threw three TD passes and ran for another in the second half as Moapa Valley (3-0, 1-0 Sunrise League) shrugged off a slow start.

The Pirates had 146 yards of offense in the first half and trailed 16-13 at halftime.

“The bus got here early, and we sat around forever and it seemed like it just took us until the second half to get clicking,” Moapa Valley coach Brent Lewis said.

The Pirates took the lead for good when Hymas found a wide-open R.J. Hubert for a 48-yard TD strike with 2:11 left in the third quarter. Hymas added the 2-point conversion run, and Moapa Valley led 28-22.

Hymas added a 10-yard TD pass to Hubert and a 14-yard scoring strike to Cole Mulcock in the fourth quarter. Hymas finished 13-for-17 for 187 yards and four TDs.

“We set him up with the run,” Lewis said. “We were running the ball pretty well, and we got eight, nine guys in the box and were able to get single coverage out on R.J. And I don’t know that there’s a lot of guys that can cover R.J. in single coverage.”

Hymas added scoring runs of 2 and 3 yards. Hubert caught five passes for 86 yards and three TDs.

Moapa Valley started slowly on the ground, with just 46 rushing yards in the first half. But Kaleb Bodily, rushed for 73 yards in the second half, and the Pirates finished with 163 yards on the ground. Bodily had 100 yards on 21 carries.

“As soon as we started running the ball, they had to respect it and couldn’t just focus straight on the pass,” Hymas said. “Kaleb Bodily and Andrew Huerta getting all those hard-earned yards and the linemen, too. They were kicking butt today.”

Desert Pines quarterback Marckell Grayson completed 10 of 21 passes for 204 yards and three touchdowns. He had a 47-yard TD pass to Jon McCoy, who was left all alone on the right sideline, with 8:16 left in the first half. He added TD passes of 13 and 55 yards to Andre Watts in the second half.

McCoy had three catches for 83 yards, and Isaiah Morris rushed for 51 yards on 13 carries for Desert Pines.

Contact Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4587. Follow him on Twitter: @DamonSeiters.