Beaver Dam’s Cesar Soto looks for running room during a recent contest. The Diamondbacks fell to Beatty on Friday in the first home night game in school history. Photo by Bob Snell
It was a festive occasion at Beaver Dam High School Friday night. The Diamondbacks were hosting their first-ever football game under the lights.
After a brief dedication ceremony prior to kick off to thank all those who had a hand in the project, especially Trent Reber, it was time for some Friday night lights.
Visiting Beatty spoiled all the fun, however, by scoring on its first seven possessions in rolling to a 46-6 victory in the 1A Southern League contest.
The loss put a major dent in Beaver Dam’s postseason hopes as the D-Backs dropped to 0-3 in league play and 2-3 overall. The Hornets improved to 2-1 in league and 3-1 overall.
Beatty rushed for 347 yards on the night with Alan Sandoval rushing for 133 yards and Fabian Perez 126.
Hornet quarterback Jacob Henry rushed for 77 yards and scored four touchdowns while completing 2-of-4 passes, both for TDs.
Henry threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Sandoval on Beatty’s first possession and Perez scored on a 17 yard run on its second possession. Henry followed with a 16-yard TD strike to Geo Maldonado to put the Hornets up 18-0 after one quarter of play.
The Diamondbacks responded with a nice drive to the Beatty 13-yard line with quarterback Isaac Ojeda completing passes of 10 and 19 yards to Azzario Sepulveda and 12 yards to Donovan Peterson. But an incomplete pass, two runs for zero yards and a sack ended the drive.
The previous possession saw Ojeda hook up with Caleb Mace for a 57-yard gain to the Hornet 18-yard line. The drive went backwards from there with four plays resulting in a loss of 22 yards.
The Diamondbacks were held to minus one yard rushing on 20 attempts by the Beatty defense, which included three quarterback sacks, while Ojeda completed five passes for 107 yards.
Henry added scoring runs of five and 24 yards to put the Hornets up 34-0 at halftime. His 13-yard TD run increased the margin to 40-0 with 7:59 left in the third quarter.
Beaver Dam gave the home crowd something to cheer about on the ensuing kickoff when Sepulveda returned the kick 80 yards for a touchdown.
Henry’s fourth touchdown of the night, a 16-yard run, capped the scoring with three minutes left in the third quarter.
Beaver Dam will be on the road this Friday for a non-league game at Laughlin at 6 p.m. They will play at league foe Indian Springs the following week on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. The home finale is scheduled for Oct. 25 against Spring Mountain.
