By BOB SNELL
The Progress
The Virgin Valley High School Flag Football team finished in third place at the annual Lady Bulldog Invitational held Friday and Saturday at the Mesquite Sports and Events Complex.
Earlier in the week, the Lady Bulldogs defeated Clark, 24-6, and Centennial, 14-13, before participating in the tournament.
After defeating the VVHS junior varsity in Friday’s opening round of the tournament, the Lady Bulldogs faced Desert Oasis in a semifinal contest on Saturday. Virgin Valley fell 25-12 sending the Lady Bulldogs into a third-place match up against Bishop Gorman.
The loss to Desert Oasis was the first loss suffered by Virgin Valley in over two years.
VVHS scored on a 22-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Davie Slack to Aracely Lopez and a nine-yard run by Lopez to trail 19-12 at halftime. The Lady Bulldogs were able to move the ball in the second half, but could not cash in on their scoring opportunities.
Lopez led the Virgin Valley offense rushing for 166 yards on 19 carries while Slack completed 10-of-16 passes for 79 yards. McKenzie Averett and Tyra Ludvigson each had three receptions. Gentree Draney led the defense with five flag pulls while Mercades Jordan had three.
Against Bishop Gorman, VVHS jumped out to a 19-18 advantage at halftime on the way to a 32-24 triumph over the Gaels.
Lopez had an outstanding game for the Lady Bulldogs rushing for 213 yards on 20 carries and scoring three touchdowns on runs of 12, 60 and six yards. The senior also threw an 11-yard TD pass to Logan Cude and caught a five-yard scoring pass from Slack.
Draney led the defense with seven flag pulls with Denise Silveyra, Lopez and Slack registering three apiece.
In last Monday’s season-opening victory over Clark, Lopez threw three touchdown passes to lead the way. Lopez tossed scoring passes to Natalie Plancarte (one yard), Cude (11 yards) and Easton (30 yards). Plancarte also threw a one-yard TD pass to Nataly Martinez.
Jordan had five flag pulls and two sacks to lead the defense with Cude and Draney also recording five pulls each.
Against Centennial, Lopez threw a five-yard touchdown pass to Averett with 58 seconds remaining to pull out the win for the Lady Bulldogs.
Lopez hooked up with Cude on a 52-yard scoring pass to put Virgin Valley up 7-0 in the first half, but Centennial rallied to take a 12-7 lead at halftime.
Lopez completed 8-of-16 passes for 93 yards and also rushed for 78 yards on 11 carries.
Virgin Valley will play at Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
