Wave’s big win clinches top seed in 3A North playoffs

WINNEMUCCA — What started out as a promising season for the Lowry football team turned into an injury-plagued year by the end of October.

With a number of players hurt and moved around to different spots, the Buckaroos finished the 2022 season on Senior Night this past Friday against Northern 3A East champion Fallon.

The Greenwave scored three touchdowns in the first quarter on their way to a 56-0 win.

Lowry ended the year at 1-4 in the Northern 3A East and 5-4 overall. The Greenwave are 7-2 overall and 5-0 in league play and will await the winner of Spring Creek vs. Hug in the playoffs on Nov. 4.

Fallon clinched the No. 1 overall seed over Truckee based on a formula, as neither team played a full schedule. Their head-to-head game was cancelled last month due to air quality.

According to the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, Fallon won four of the six criteria and is the No. 1 seed. Truckee, as a league champion, is the No. 2 seed.

“We have that as long as we keep winning. It’s what we wanted to achieve,” Fallon coach Brooke Hill said of having home-field advantage through the 3A state semifinals. “Our first goal was we had to win our league. We feel pretty good about where we’re at right now.”

Fallon drove 80 yards on the opening possession, taking advantage of a Lowry pass interference penalty along the way. The Greenwave scored four minutes into the first quarter on a 22-yard pass from Bryce Adams to Steven Moon for a 7-0 lead.

After Lowry was stopped on fourth-and-1 in its own territory, it took just one play from Fallon to be back on the scoreboard.

Adams found Moon along the sideline and the senior avoided a tackle and did the rest, scoring on a 49-yard pass play.

“We played pretty solid on both sides of the ball,” Hill said. “We executed real well on offense. Bryce had a big day. We ran the ball really well. On the defensive side, we forced turnovers. We haven’t done a good job forcing turnovers this year. We need to keep doing that because it creates short fields.”

Following a Lowry punt late in the first quarter, Adams found a new receiver to throw to and found Carter Paul for a 14-yard touchdown. The junior stretched out for a diving touchdown and a 20-0 lead with 44 seconds left in the quarter.

After being pinned deep in its own territory, Lowry drove from the 9-yard line and inside the Fallon 35 before seeing another drive end on downs. One play later, Adams connected with Moon for a 66-yard touchdown and a 27-0 lead.

That was the score at halftime, as the Greenwave missed two field goals toward the end of the first half.

Lowry turned the ball over on the opening possession of the second half off an interception by Jeremiah Prinz. That led to a 7-yard touchdown pass from Adams to Baylor Sanberg, who broke a pair of tackles before scoring. Fallon added the 2-point conversion to make the score 35-0 and begin a running clock midway through the third quarter.    

Miscues continued to mount for Lowry after a fumble on a completed pass. The Greenwave used the short field to their advantage and quickly drove 35 yards, capped off by a 5-yard run by Ethan Tarner.

Lowry fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Prinz scooped it up and ran in from 7 yards out to make the score 49-0 with 41 seconds left in the third quarter, as Fallon scored twice in less than 10 seconds.

The Greenwave’s Everdmar Garcia closed out the scoring late in the fourth quarter with a 3-yard run.

Thomas Ranson contributed to this story