Defending 1A champs rout Spring Mountain

An 0-2 start isn’t exactly how Tonopah coach Curt McElroy envisioned his team defending its Class 1A state football championship from a year ago.

But on Friday, the Muckers served notice for the second straight week that they still plan on figuring into the postseason picture.

Tonopah scored 40 points in the second quarter on the way to a 75-12 romp at Spring Mountain in a Southern League game.

McElroy chalked up the 0-2 start to poor conditioning and his team having to learn a complex shotgun option/pistol offense.

“Our quarterback has 51 plays on his wristband,” McElroy  said. “We’re a complicated offense. We do a lot of different things. It takes a little while for them to get it down.”

Muckers quarterback Scott Thibodeaux certainly had it down Friday.

Thibodeaux scored five touchdowns and threw for another. The senior carried 11 times for 74 yards and three TDs, scoring on runs of 2, 3 and 49 yards.

And despite also throwing for 70 yards and a score, Thibodeaux might have made his biggest mark on special teams — where he scored on punt returns of 50 and 40 yards.

But Thibodeaux, who also plays cornerback, was unhappy his team trailed 6-0 early and led only 13-12 entering the second quarter.

“We just started off slow,” he said. “It’s in our heads. We always do that. We’ve got to get over that.”

Tonopah (2-2, 2-0) totaled 347 yards of offense, but it struggled in the first quarter.

Spring Mountain (1-3, 0-1) opened the game with an 11-play, 65-yard scoring drive spanning 4:30 that ended with Nigel Hinton’s 8-yard scoring grab.

But Tonopah rattled off 13 consecutive points and never trailed again.

“We made a couple adjustments as far as what we were doing with their receivers,” McElroy said. “We moved our linebackers out and tried to jam them at the line of scrimmage.”

It appeared to work, as Jeff Blackburn picked off two passes to help the Muckers keep the Eagles out of the end zone after the first quarter.

Tonopah also got big ground games from Denver Otteson (105 yards, three touchdowns) and Mike Dolfin (89 yards, two scores).

Delquan Danford led Spring Mountain with 58 yards on 10 carries, and Hinton caught three balls for 53 yards.