Football: Wolves come up big in homecoming shoot-out

COLEVILLE - Seven touchdowns and 54 points represents pretty good production for any high school football team on any given day. On Saturday, the Coleville Wolves put those numbers on the scoreboard in the first quarter alone and then went on to a 108-30 Western 1A eight-man triumph against Mineral County.

Solid performances in all three phases of the game - offense, defense and special teams - paved the way for Coleville (8-0 overall, 3-0 league) to win its homecoming game and take a giant step toward capturing the division championship. The defense forced seven turnovers, including Jason Peters' 30-yard interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, and special teams consistently provided favorable field position on a day when the Wolves scored 14 touchdowns against the Serpents from Hawthorne (5-3, 2-1).

"I think we really helped ourselves out with that," Coleville coach Will Sandy said. "Scoring-wise, this is the best game we've had since I've been here. The defense was big because we came up with seven turnovers (four fumble recoveries and three interceptions), and the special teams gave us good field position all day. It always helps the offense to work with a short field."

It also helped to have Peters, who threw for six touchdowns, ran for four others and scored a fifth on his interception return. Peters completed 14 of 19 passes for 219 yards and rushed for another 137 yards on 14 carries.

Emmi Sandoval caught eight passes for 138 yards, including four touchdown receptions. The junior wideout also returned the opening kickoff 52 yards to put Coleville in good field position to start the game and was a factor with his strong leg on kickoffs.

"One thing that doesn't show up in the stats, but Emmi had 15 kickoffs and a lot of those resulted in touchbacks," Sandy said. "That really is important because they have a couple of quick kids, if you can limit what they do, that's a huge advantage. And when they are held to touchbacks and have to start from the 15 on an 80-yard field, that's really limiting them."

After returning the opening kickoff beyond midfield, Sandoval then caught a 14-yard touchdown strike from Peters to put Coleville on the scoreboard. John Hamilton's PAT run made it 8-0.

The Wolves then capitalized on a turnover when Hamilton took a pitch around the end for a 5-yard touchdown run. Peters ran for the PAT to give the Wolves a 16-0 lead.

They never looked back. Coleville led 54-14 after one quarter and 78-30 at halftime.

Then again, putting points on the scoreboard early was critical against a Mineral County squad that came into the game with a decided advantage in size and depth with more than 30 players suited up as opposed to Coleville's 14. The Serpents list seven players at 240 pounds or more, including 290-pound fullback Rudy Dominque, and also boast the state's leading rusher, Logan Espinoza. By comparison, Peters is Coleville's biggest player at 210 pounds.

"I thought we had to get some points on the scoreboard because they're so big and strong," Sandy said. "It's terrifying how big they are, and I didn't know if we'd run out of gas because we really haven't had to play a complete game until now. But the kids came out and showed they could go the distance."

Espinoza, who has rushed for more than 1,500 yards on the season, was limited to 59 yards on 26 carries by the Wolves.

Steven Koelling-Lynch was in on four tackles and five assists, in addition to recovering four fumbles. Outside linebacker Jay Clark had four solo tackles and 12 assists, while Sandoval assisted on 10 tackles.

Hamilton rushed for 69 yards on 16 carries and also caught a 42-yard TD pass from Peters. And Mat Randall rushed for 74 yards on nine carries in the second half, including touchdown runs of 10 and 1 yards in the fourth quarter.

One key aspect of the win is that Coleville has the inside track to homefield advantage in the playoffs. If the Wolves win at Smith Valley on Saturday, they will be assured of being at home when the playoffs begin on Nov. 7 (and possibly the state semifinals a week later).