The Meadows rides defense to Division III title game

The Meadows’ defense appeared to make one crucial mistake on its second play on the football field Saturday.

The Mustangs spent the rest of the day showing how good they can be.

Burned for a long touchdown run in the first quarter, The Meadows shut down a high-powered Pershing County offense on its way to a 20-6 home win in a Division III state semifinal.

The Meadows (10-2) will face Yerington (8-2) for the state title at noon next Saturday at Bishop Gorman. Yerington was a 42-6 winner over Agassi Prep on Saturday.

“Our defense was just outstanding,” The Meadows coach Frank DeSantis said. “Our line, I wish I could just name all of them, they were great. We keep getting better.”

After The Meadows orchestrated a beautiful 16-play, 60-yard touchdown drive that chewed up the first 9 minutes, 15 seconds of the game, Pershing County needed only two plays for Marquis McKinney to run 65 yards around the right end to tie the game at 6-6.

“After that everybody knew they had to step it up,” said The Meadows senior lineman Mark Woodson, who had two tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry. “If one person messes up, then the whole team loses that play. Everybody did their job.”

The Meadows never let another Pershing County ball carrier out of its site.

Pershing County, which averaged 289.1 rushing yards per game in its first 10 games, had 23 carries for 56 yards, including 11 rushes for negative yards.

Pershing County (9-3) had just 122 total yards on 37 offensive plays and didn’t have a drive of more than five plays in the game.

Pershing County’s speed never became a factor. The Meadows’ defensive line got off the line of scrimmage quickly and spent plenty of time in the Pershing County backfield.

“We worked every day in practice on making sure they stayed inside and keeping them contained,” Woodson said. “We did it, and it showed.”

Meanwhile, the Meadows offense churned away the clock.

Bryson Navallo’s second touchdown run of the game — a 5-yard run off right tackle with 3:45 to play in the first half — put The Meadows ahead to stay at 13-6.

The Meadows then used a nine-play, 70-yard drive to expand the lead on a 9-yard TD pass from Jacob Gleason to Ethan Fridman with 23 seconds left in the half.

Jack Berkley’s 34-yard option pass started the drive, and Gleason’s TD pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage, but still fluttered to Fridman at the goal line.

The Meadows forced three punts and got a turnover on downs in the second half before using a 13-play, 32-yard non-scoring drive to burn nearly seven minutes off the clock before giving the ball back to Pershing County on downs at the Pershing 5-yard line with just 1:19 to go.

“I’m just happy for our seniors, and the whole team really, said DeSantis, whose team will vie for its first state title since 2009. “The kids were really dedicated, and they really worked hard.”