DON McDERMOTT / PVT Tonopah (white) won its first-ever state football championship, beating Carlin 54-20 at Reno in November. Scott Thibodeaux Advertisement

In 2004, Tonopah left Class 2-A, where 11-man football is played, to become a member of the Nevada Class A Eight-Man Central Division.

Which meant the Muckers had to make the difficult transition from a slug-it-out-in-the-trenches attack to the wide-open, fast-break eight-man style -- with just one preseason to prepare.

It was a monumental undertaking to revamp the Muckers' football program; it required total focus by the coaches to require the players to change both their attitudes and their work habits.

"When I took over the job, the mind set was more 'me and I' .... than 'we and us' ... that was something we had to change first," said Curt McElroy, who became the Muckers' head coach and had to reconfigure the program to prepare the Muckers for the eight-man game, that for years in Nevada had been dominated by Carlin, Wells, and Pahranagat Valley Alamo.

The Muckers, with their offensive and defensive units playing with relentless aggressiveness, demolished Carlin's Railroaders 54-20 Nov. 17 at Damonte Ranch High School to claim the first-ever state football championship for the Nye County team.

Tonopah finished 11-1, winning its last 10 games, including a 3-0 run in the playoffs. Enroute to the finals, the Muckers avenged their lone loss (16-0 to Las Vegas Mountain View Christian) with a 44-8 rout of the Saints, and they ended a Coleville,Calif., 10-game winning streak with a 52-16 romp in the semifinals.

The Muckers, with guards Ronnie Lowndes and Tim Smith and center Roberto Miramontes doing the grunt work up front, generated 553 yards in total offense, including 410 rushing (Scott Thibodeaux 18-143, Kevin Valentine 4-64, Mike Dolfin 5-30, Steven Carnell 11-103, Tyler Bessire 5-70) and 143 passing.

Tonopah's 3-3-2 defense allowed only 16 touchdowns in 12 games and 115 points overall. The defense, appropriately enough, scored the game's final touchdown on a 40-yard interception return by Tommy Boni with 0:21.3 seconds left.

Amazingly, it was the fifth touchdown the Muckers had scored in the final 12 minutes.Thibodeaux, a junior quarterback, scored on a 41-yard run and added the two-point conversion to give the Muckers a 30-20 lead with 11:50 left in the game.

At 4:34, Dolfin, who would rather knock people down as a linebacker than run the football as a tailback, blasted over from the 11 to boost the Muckers' lead to 36-20.

At 3:12, Bessire, on an end-round, sprinted 63 yards for a TD that pushed the Muckers' lead to 42-20. Bessire was Nevada's all-classes receiving leader in 2006; this season, he was strategically -- and effectively -- used as a counter-measure rusher.

Intending to run out the clock in the final two minutes, the Muckers used back-to-back dive plays. On the second, Carnell got past the line -- and there was no one there. He dashed 60 yards for a touchdown with 1:12 left.

Boni, whose mother Judi is the Muckers' volleyball coach, picked off a pass in the right flat and ran untouched 40 yards to complete Tonopah's 32-point assault in the final period.

Carlin had 357 yards total offense, with Meacham completing 15 of 44 passes for 303 yards and three touchdowns. Urie, who had rushed for more than 200 yards in several games this season, was limited to 49 yards on 16 attempts.