Panthers like to stalk their prey, then pounce. Pahranagat Valley pounced with senior running back Caleb Hansen for 199 yards on 14 carries and took a 54-6 win at Round Mountain in Southern Division IV action last week.
Hansen’s efforts, the best of his career, secured the regular season championship for PVHS and extended their national winning streak to 77. Hansen’s previous best had been 91 yards against Sandy Valley last year.
Tabor Maxwell completed 13 of 21 passes for 170 yards and three touchdowns, all to Wade Leavitt.
Maxwell’s season total’s are 1,618 yards on 105-for-151 (69.54 percent), 22 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, which puts him No. 1 for passing leaders in all of Southern Nevada, at least for now. Tate Martell of Bishop Gorman did not play last week.
Leavitt had seven receptions for 140 yards, including TD catches of 44, 37 and 15 yards. He also had a 14-yard rushing TD and now has 928 yards for the season. He has 25 receptions for 523 yards and nine touchdowns. Hansen’s season total is 275 yards rushing on 27 carries.
Hansen said the coaches put Leavitt in an end position, and he and Jordon Cryts were the running backs most of the time. “I got a lot of the reps for the trap plays during the week in practice and that was the play we ran a lot of the time. Our linemen did a really good job getting lanes open for me to run through and I was able to get outside for a couple of long runs for quite a few yards.”
Ike Taylor had five tackles and Utah Ray 4.5 for the Panthers.
Corbin Jensen scored on a 5-yard run for Round Mountain (5-2, 3-2) in the fourth quarter. Clint Schurringhausen had 42 yards on 10 carries for the Knights. Austin Boerst and Jerry Sanders both had 39 yards rushing.
Again, for the second straight week, the Panthers had the ball less than half the time of possession as their opponents.
This week, PVHS played Thursday at league newcomer Beaver Dam (0-6, 0-5), who lost to Tonopah last week 56-44.
Pahranagat and Beaver Dam have never played in football and comparison stats put the Panther well in front, averaging 58.3 points per game to 25.3 for the Diamondbacks.
The four-team Division IV Southern playoffs begin Nov. 7 with Alamo likely hosting Sandy Valley or Beatty in the first round, depending on who won the game between them Oct. 30. The Hornets are 6-1 against Sandy Valley since 2007, but lost last year’s game 28-15.
