On Friday night, the Miners played their last game of the regular season against Ponderosa at home. They were dominant, working together to win the game 37-6.
The game started off slow, with a called-off Miner touchdown and many flags hitting the field. The first quarter ended 0-0.
The Miners started to pick up momentum in the second quarter. August Davidson kicked the ball in for a field goal with 6 minutes left, getting the Miners on the board 3-0. After some back and forth the Miners scored a touchdown with 2 minutes left and made the extra point. The Miners finished the second quarter up 10-0.
Coming out of halftime the Miners were scorching, getting an interception and touchdown only one minute into the third quarter. This put Nevada Union up 17-0. Ponderosa got the ball back but was unsuccessful at scoring. On the Miner’s very next possession, Senior Bodey Eelkema rushed passed countless Ponderosa players and ran almost the whole field to give the Miners another touchdown. Davidson kicked in the extra point, putting the Miners up 24-0 with eight minutes left in the third quarter. There was then a lot of back and forth with many scoreless possessions. This was until one minute left in the quarter where the Miners rushed it in for their 4th touchdown of the night. The team went into the fourth quarter 30-0.
Rallying after a few scoreless possessions Rhyder Eelkema got to shine, scoring his second touchdown with 8:30 left in the game. August Davidson made his 5th field goal of the game, putting NU up 37-0. After this the game slowed down, and there weren’t any points for a while. With a minute left in the game Ponderosa finally got themselves on the board scoring a touchdown, but proceeding to get their field goal blocked. The game ended with the Miners winning 37-6.
Some players that stood out in this game were Senior Dustin Philpott, who passed for 66 yards on .571% completion, Senior Bodey Eelkema, who scored 2 touchdowns and 12 points, and Junior Grady Kamba, who had 10 tackles on the defensive side of the ball.
The night also consisted of Senior Night celebrations, where the booster club celebrated graduating Seniors from the football team, cheer, sports med, and the band. Students met with their families under a balloon arch, and had a few sentences read about their time at Nevada Union and their future plans.
This was the last game of the Miners regular season, where their record was 6-4 overall and 3-2 in the Foothill Valley League. This booked them the 3rd seed in their league and the 11th seed in the CIF San-Joaquin section. They are now preparing to head into the playoffs where they will play against 6th seeded Kimball High School on November 3rd at home.
