The wait is finally over.
After nine long, and sometimes brutal seasons, the Sparks High football team is returning to the postseason. The Railroaders secured the spot after a thrilling 36-35 win at home in their final regular season game last Thursday over Wooster. That win, coupled with Elko’s 48-13 loss at Spring Creek, kept Sparks in sixth place in the 3A Northern Conference standings and earned them the third seed in this week’s league quarterfinals.
It wasn’t easy though. Wooster entered the game against Sparks just 2-7 overall on the season but went out fighting. The teams traded blows throughout the night, but as they’ve done all season the Railroaders did what they do best, run the ball.
Jorge Dominguez carried most of the load by running the ball 27 times for 241 yards and two touchdowns. Not be outdone, however, was fellow senior Vashisth Patel who ran the ball 17 times for 141 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and the go-ahead two-point conversion late in the fourth. Dominguez also hauled in a 29-yard touchdown pass from Patel to help secure the victory.
Sparks (4-6, 4-5) now turns its attention to the playoffs where they will face a Churchill County (8-2, 7-2) team that they just saw a few weeks ago. The Greenwave got a 48-23 win in their Oct. 13 showdown in Fallon, partly due to holding Sparks to just 144 total rushing yards. The game is set for Friday at 7 p.m. in Fallon, with the winner facing two seed Spring Creek Nov. 9.
The last time the Railroaders made the postseason was 2008 when they fell to Truckee 57-0.
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