Robert Perea
There was nothing fancy about the way Fallon’s Carson Melendy carved up the Fernley defense last Friday night. He didn’t dance and didn’t dazzle; he simply ran like a man late for something important and unwilling to be stopped.
Melendy ran for 357 yards on 23 carries to lead the Greenwave to a 42-15 win in Fernley last week, giving Fallon the chance to clinch the No. 1 playoff seed with a win at Elko this Friday night and leaving Fernley hoping for a shot at the No. 2 seed.
But Melendy needed only five of those 23 carries to define his night and decide the outcome of Friday’s game. Melendy had touchdown runs of 80, 67, 68 and 22 yards, and another run of 43 yards that set up a touchdown run by Matthew Bird, accounting for 280 of his yards on just five plays.
Even so, the Vaqueros were feeling good about themselves after opening the second half with a 10-play, 75-yard drive to cut Fallon’s lead to 21-15. That is, until Melendy ripped off his third touchdown of the night, the 68-yarder that put the lead back to 27-15.
After that, Fernley managed just one first down on its last four possessions, while Melendy added another touchdown and Fallon’s Alijah Juarez punctuated the night with a 15-yard fumble return for a touchdown.
“That might honestly be the first time since I’ve been a head coach that I’ve had a team that just kind of submitted,” Fernley coach Anfernee Sloan said. “Like, they were just done when they knew they were out of the race.”
When he got the ball in open space, Melendy made sure there was no race.
On the game’s first play from scrimmage from Fallon’s 20-yard line, he took a handoff straight up the middle, hesitated slightly to let the hole open up, then burst through and was eight yards ahead of the closest defender when he crossed the goal line 80 yards later.
Fernley answered with a 9-play 65-yard drive on its first possession, with 63 of the yards coming on runs by Keeshawn Love, who scored on a 13-yard touchdown. After a penalty against Fallon on the extra point, the Vaqueros went for a two-point conversion and made it to take an 8-7 lead.
On the first play of Fallon’s second possession, Melendy took a handoff designed to go to his left, cut back to his right into the middle and again found nothing but an empty field in front of him for a 67-yard touchdown to put Fallon back on top 14-8.
The teams traded punts for the next five possessions, but Melendy started Fallon’s fifth drive with a 43-yard run to the Fernley 26, and six plays later, Bird ran it in from six yards out to make it 21-8 at the half.
But after thinking they were back in the game with their opening drive of the third quarter, everything caved in on the Vaqueros.
The win moved Fallon to 6-0 in the Northern 3A and sets up a showdown in Elko, which is 5-1, Friday night. A win gives Fallon the No. 1 playoff seed. An Elko would give the Indians the top seed if they beat Spring Creek next week.
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