For at least one afternoon, the communities of Mesquite and Overton were pulling for each other.

The Nevada Class 3-A state football championship game was to have been played at 6 p.m. Saturday in Reno. The only way Virgin Valley and Moapa Valley could avoid that 700-plus mile round trip was to win in the state semifinals last Saturday.

They did. Last-minute heroics by the Pirates and Bulldogs enabled both to advance to the state championship game, now slated to be played at Clark High School Saturday at 1 p.m.

Moapa Valley prevailed 21-20 at Spring Creek, while defending state champion Virgin Valley came from 14 points down to edge visiting Fernley, 35-34.

Those victories set up a rematch of the 2006 championship game, won by the Bulldogs 10-7 before more than 5,000 fans at Arbor View High School in Las Vegas.

At Spring Creek, Moapa coach Brent Lewis admitted that things "looked pretty darn hopeless" when the Pirates found themselves with a third and 18 with just under seven minutes to play and the Spartans holding a 20-7 lead.

Moapa got close on third down before Max Jenkins scrambled free to complete the fourth down pass and allow the Pirates to keep the ball.

After Jenkins hit Dustin Maletich for a 13-yard touchdown pass with 3:32 left in the game and added the PAT, Spring Creek still owned a 20-14 lead.

But a "miracle bounce" on the ensuing onsides kick, recovered by the Pirates' Cameron Lim, and a quick decision by Jenkins near the goal line on a broken play, helped Moapa tie the game at 20 with 1:58 left.

Jenkins added the kick for a 21-20 lead and Moapa held off the Spartans to secure the win.

At Mesquite, Virgin Valley got a five-yard touchdown run and two-point conversion run by Colton Terlink with 1:06 left in the game to take a 35-34 lead, but couldn't claim the win until Doug Hafen intercepted Bryce Baker's fourth down pass in the end zone with just six seconds left in the game.

Baker completed two passes for 35 yards and ran for another 15 yards on the furious last-gasp drive, but a delay of game penalty pushed the Vaqueros back to the 10-yard line before an incomplete pass and subsequent interception ended the threat.

The Vaqueros, whose lack of kicking game all season has led them to exclusively go for two-point conversions following touchdowns, were left with little choice but to go for the touchdown on the final drive.

But when Mike Kendricks scored on an 82-yard touchdown run on his only carry of the game with 9:05 left to give Fernley a 34-20 lead the Vaqueros looked to be in good shape to pull the upset over the South's top seed.

The Bulldogs answered with a six-play, 79-yard drive, capped by a double pass from Hafen to Terran Leavitt to Johnny Gleave for a 62-yard touchdown, cutting the Fernley lead to 34-27 with 6:26 left.