Week 9 Football: Spanish Springs, Damonte Ranch, Carson and Reno all win in 5A football

The game in Sparks certainly lived up to the Rivalry Week hype.

Almost all the games in Northern 5A football did Friday night.

Spanish Springs won a back-and-forth thriller over Reed, 31-30, in high school footbal on Friday.

The North 5A league race got jumbled up with Reno's 14-6 win over top-ranked and first-place McQueen.

McQueen beat Spanish Springs, which beat Reno, which now has beaten McQueen.

So, the playoff seedings will come down to this final week's games on Friday night.

The Cougars trailed Reed by nine in the fourth quarter, 30-21, but got tough on defense, then got the game-winning field goal from James Bass.

Spanish Springs coach Rob Hummel joked that it is good he does not have any hair, or else he would have lost it during the game.

"There's no quit in our guys. There never has been. We just talk about finishing the game, playing all four quarters," Hummel said. "There's a lot of ups and downs. I'm sure from a fans standpoint, it was fun to watch. From a coach's standpoint, it's a good thing I'm bald because I would have lost the rest of my hair. It was a fun game. It's good to see the kids persevere and play through some adversity."

CJ Stinson scored for the Cougars after a blocked field goal.

"We just had to keep our heads up and keep playing hard," Stinson said. "Our students section really kept us up the whole game."

Nate Penney had an interception, one of two he had, in the final seconds to seal the win for the Cougars as Reed was driving late.

"I knew we had it in us to get the stops," Penney said.

Cougars quarterback J.J. Dain was 12-for-23 for 206 yards with one touchdown and an interception.

The Cougars defense rattled Reed QB Armaan Bajwa all night. Bajwa was 14-for-29 for 155 yards with two interceptions. He rushed for 138 yards and a score. Reed junior Spencer Firebaugh scored twice and rushed for 84 yards.

For the Raiders, Matty Lopez had nine total tackles, eight solo, and four quarterback hurries

Also on Friday, .Reno upset top-ranked McQueen, 14-6; Damonte Ranch raced past Galena, 46-8 and Carson won the huge rivalry game with Douglas, 17-15, in North 5A football.s

Drew Dutton and Niko Amari scored for the Huskies. Ashton Hayes had the Lancers touchdown.

Mason Reasoner scored three times for the Mustangs, including two interceptions returned for a score by the team as Damonte led 46-0 at the half.

Cooper Anderson threw for three scores, one to Cameron Rodriguez, who also ran for a score, and one to Maurice Coleman.

The Mustangs have won five in a row.

Damonte's win sets up a huge showdown at Bishop Manogue on Friday, along with the Reed at Reno game on Friday. Both will have a bearing on the final regular season standings and seedings for the 5A Regional playoffs.

McQueen plays at Galena and Douglas is at Spanish Springs on Friday.

North Valleys beat Wooster, 42-0 for the Panthers third shut out this season. They improved to 7-0.

Fallon coach Brooke Hill got his 100th career victory in the 45-14 win over Fernley.

Fallon plays at Lowry on Friday and Fernley is at Dayton.

The South Tahoe at Sparks game was canceled. Sparks coach Brad Rose told the RGJ the Vikings were already considering canceling the game, due to low numbers, but then had a COVID issue.

It would have been Sparks' Senior Night. So, the Railroaders (3-3 overall, 2-1 league) will have their Senior Night at North Valleys instead, on Friday,  Oct. 22 to close out the regular season.

Friday's Scores

Reno 14, McQueen 6

Spanish Springs 31, Reed 30

Damonte Ranch 46, Galena 8

Carson 17, Douglas 15

Lowry 38, Spring Creek 19

North Valleys 42, Wooster 0

South Tahoe at Sparks (canceled)

Elko 41, Dayton 0

Fallon 45, Fernley 14

Yerington 48, North Tahoe 0

Pershing County 40, West Wendover 0

Battle Mountain 39, Coral Academy 8

Saturday:

Truckee 48, Hug 8

Virginia City 52, Coleville 28

5A North standings

(League, Overall)

McQueen 4-1 6-1

Bishop Manogue 4-1 5-2

Damonte Ranch 4-1 5-3

Reno 3-2 5-3

Carson 3-3 3-4

Spanish Springs 2-3 4-5

Reed 2-3 2-4

Douglas 1-4 1-6

Galena 0-5 0-8

This week

Thursday: 6 p.m., Incline at Silver Stage

Friday: 7 p.m., McQueen at Galena;Damonte Ranch at Bishop Manogue;  Reed at Reno; Douglas at Spanish Springs; Carson bye.

 Truckee at South Tahoe; Spring Creek at Elko, Sparks at North Valleys; Hug at Wooster; Dayton at Fernley; Lowry at Fallon; Yerington at Incline; Battle Mtn at Pershing County.

Saturday Oct 23: 1 p.m., Virginia City at Smith Valley

3A-West Standings

League Overall

North Valleys  4-0  7-0

Truckee 3-1 3-3

Sparks 2-1 3-3

South Tahoe 1-2 1-3

Wooster 1-3 2-5

Hug 0-4 0-6

3A-East Standings

Elko 3-0 5-2

Fallon 2-1 4-3

Fernley 1-1 2-2

Lowry 2-2  6-2

Spring Creek 1-2  3-3

Dayton 0-3 0-6

Jim Krajewski covers high school and youth sports for the Reno Gazette Journal. Follow him on Twitter @RGJPreps. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com.