Trend continues in Las Vegas’ rout of Sunrise Mountain

Northeast League opponents had little success stopping Las Vegas’ high-powered offense before Friday night.

The trend continues.

The No. 4 Wildcats bolted to a 35-0 lead in the opening 7 minutes, 14 seconds en route to a 48-14 victory over host Sunrise Mountain.

“We talked to our kids about playing Wildcats football, and I thought we came out and executed well in the first half,” said Las Vegas coach James Thurman, whose team posted a first-half shutout. “You can’t argue with 48-0 at the half.”

The Wildcats (7-0, 5-0 Northeast) have averaged 45.8 points per game for 229 tallies in five league games.

Farrell Victor, who ran for 115 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, opened the scoring 36 seconds into the game on a 54-yard breakaway.

With Sunrise Mountain forced to punt from its end zone on its first two possessions, Las Vegas took advantage of a short field to score twice in 2:52.

Quarterback Hasaan Henderson had TD passes of 20 yards to junior Vince Castro and 15 yards to junior Joshua Mayfield. Henderson had 95 yards passing, all in the first quarter.

Interceptions by William Haywood and Kivon Rhone led to touchdown runs of 25 yards by Victor and 24 yards by Castro for a 35-0 lead.

Royce Gonzaque returned an interception 61 yards for a touchdown, and junior Jason Cottle nearly had another pick six four plays later before being caught at the 1-yard line after a 19-yard runback.

Victor cashed in two plays later for his 16th rushing touchdown of the season to make it 48-0.

“Victor is a talented kid. He’s our go-to guy,” Thurman said. “But we have a talented line that blocks for him.”

The Miners (0-7, 0-5) got on the board on the third play of the fourth quarter on a 2-yard run by Demetrius Stegall after Leo Hubert recovered a fumbled punt.

After Sunrise Mountain recovered the ensuing onside kick, Tyree Mays scored five plays later on a 2-yard run.

Miners junior quarterback Chris Moore had 136 yards passing.

“I’m just proud of our guys that they kept playing after getting behind by so much so early,” Sunrise Mountain coach Ky Edwards said. “That’s a big step towards becoming a winning program. But all in all we made too many mistakes to be in the game.”

Despite the undefeated start, Thurman still sees room for improvement heading into next week’s rivalry game against Rancho.

“We’re just trying to get better each day,” he said. “Hopefully we can peak at the end.”