Faith Lutheran beats Moapa Valley to open spring football season
Despite neither Faith Lutheran nor Moapa Valley having played football for nearly a year and a half, it didn’t look that way when they finally met Friday.
Both teams missed assignments here and there, and they combined to turn the ball over four times. But there were only three penalties — none against Moapa Valley — a low number for any game but especially considering the long layoff.
And Faith Lutheran showed it has some explosiveness. Marcos Canales ran for 147 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries, Grant Wood threw for 276 yards and three scores and the Class 5A Crusaders rolled to a 41-20 home victory over their 3A foe.
“That was a blast,” Faith Lutheran coach Mike Sanford said. “It was fun to watch the guys. We got better in a lot of ways as the game went on. Marcos Canales got better as the game went on, so did Grant Wood, our defense and our special teams.”
Canales popped a 66-yard touchdown burst to start the scoring, and Joshua Goynes caught a 67-yard pass later in the first quarter on his way to four receptions for 118 yards. Jaden Turner grabbed four passes for 44 yards and two touchdowns for Faith Lutheran, which had 448 yards of total offense.
Moapa Valley got off to a slow offensive start and finished with 192 total yards, led by Jayme Carvajal’s 76 yards and a touchdown on the ground. The Pirates were only 5-for-21 passing for 71 yards and two interceptions.
“It was great for the kids to get out here,” Moapa Valley coach Brent Lewis said. “It was fun at times when we did good things, but we are super green up front. We have one varsity lineman returning this year, so I’ve got basically a JV front that is trying to learn on the fly to play varsity football.”
Faith Lutheran led 20-0 after a 25-yard TD pass from Wood to Turner, but Wood threw interceptions on the next two possessions. One of them was grabbed by Landon Wrzesinski in the end zone to stop a Faith Lutheran march, and Duston Gordon returned the other 39 yards and set up the Pirates’ first score, a 14-yard pass from Cameron Reese to Austin Heiselbetz with three seconds left before halftime.
Canales ran for touchdowns of 3 and 31 yards in the second half, while Moapa Valley’s scores came on a 2-yard Wrzesinski run and 8-yard sprint from Carvajal, who added a two-point run after his touchdown.
“I was proud of the way we played in the second half,” Sanford said. “Moapa did a really good job coming back in the second quarter, and it was challenging because they got the ball first in the third quarter. We played really well in the third quarter, and that was the difference.”
Contact Jason Orts at jorts@reviewjournal.com. Follow @SportsWithOrts on Twitter.
