By BOB SNELL
The Progress
VVHS athlete Gabby Potter runs the ball for the Bulldogs during a game at the Lady Bulldog Invitational Tournament held last weekend at the Sports and Events Complex in Mesquite. PHOTO BY JASON ANDRUS/The Progress
Both Virgin Valley and Moapa Valley competed in the eighth annual Lady Bulldog Invitational flag football tournament on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 3-4 at the Mesquite Sports and Events Complex.
Virgin Valley took down three-time champion Green Valley of Henderson, 13-12, in the championship contest. It was the Lady Bulldogs’ first tournament title after finishing runner-up three different times – twice against Green Valley.
Moapa Valley, meanwhile, went 1-2 in tournament play. The Lady Pirates defeated Clark of Las Vegas, 26-6, in Friday’s opening round before falling to Green Valley, 25-12, and to Palo Verde of Las Vegas, 21-18, on Saturday.
VIRGIN VALLEY
The Lady Bulldogs opened tournament play by blanking Legacy of North Las Vegas, 34-0. Quarterback Nina Miramontes threw four touchdown passes – two to Calla Haviland and one each to Gabby Potter and Natalie Plancarte. Potter also tossed a TD pass to Malia McOmie.
Virgin Valley next defeated Liberty of Henderson, 25-13, in a game VVHS head coach Joey Bowler called “the most physical game we’ve ever played.”
Trailing 13-12, McOmie ran for a score to put the Lady Bulldogs up 19-13 at the half. She later caught a TD pass from Miramontes in the second half to clinch the victory.
The win sent VVHS into the championship contest to face Green Valley, the two-time defending 4A state champions.
The Gators scored first, but the Lady Bulldogs pulled even on a TD pass from Miramontes to Potter. Green Valley would score again to lead 12-6 at halftime.
Haviland caught a touchdown pass from Miramontes and McOmie added the conversion putting Virgin Valley up 13-12.
The Lady Bulldogs withstood one last Green Valley drive to hold on for the win.
“That was a big win for us,” Bowler said. “It’s finally nice to beat them. I thought our defense played lights out in all three games. We’ve always told the girls on any given night they can play with anyone and win.”
MOAPA VALLEY
The Lady Pirates, the defending 3A state champions, got three touchdowns from Alexis Gould in rolling over Clark to open the tournament on Friday night.
Moapa Valley was shorthanded, however, for Saturday’s action but that didn’t stop them from giving Green Valley and Palo Verde all they could handle.
“We had a chance to win both games, but we made a couple of mistakes that cost us three touchdowns,” MVHS head coach Dave Belcher said. “Two against Green Valley and one against Palo Verde.”
The Lady Pirates drove inside the Green Valley 10-yard line three times but came up empty – twice on interceptions and once on downs.
A pick-six against Palo Verde was also a turning point.
“It was a great tournament that gave our inexperienced girls some valuable experience,” Belcher added. “We always get better as the season goes along.”
Ellie Cornwall, Paige Fairchild, Lexy Fullman and Alexa Nuckles all scored touchdowns for the Lady Pirates during the tournament.
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
