JERRY ELLISON / PVT Scott Thibodeaux, 10, Tonopah's junior quarterback, breaks away on a long run, in the Muckers' 54-20 conquest of Carlin in the Nevada Class A State Championship football game Saturday, at Damonte Ranch High School in Reno. DON McDERMOTT / PVT The Muckers celebrate, after receiving the championship plaque. DON McDERMOTT / PVT Garrett Valenzuela, 17, and Chase Gibson, 84, of Tonopah run down Carlin's Kyle Meacham, in the Muckers' 54-20 conquest of the Railroaders, in the Nevada Class A State Championship football game Saturday, at Damonte Ranch in Reno. Advertisement

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

"We had people like Chance Kretschmer, yes. He was a standout player here and in college (at the University of Nevada Reno, where he led NCAA Division I-A football schools in rushing as a freshman)," said McElroy. "But we had to build a program where 'team' was emphasized. And today, the words we want to hear -- we and us -- were heard."

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

For Nye schools, it was the second team title during the fall season. The Pahrump Valley girls' golf team won its third consecutive state 3-A championship and a couple weeks later, McKenzie Dean of PVHS claimed her second straight 3-A cross country individual championship.

Tonopah, in football, 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.

Tonopah is now 6-3 in post-season games; the Muckers were 1-1 in 2004, 0-1 in 2005 (when they were a No. 1 seed but lost 64-40 to Laughlin in a first-round game), and 2-1 in 2006, when they fell 56-14 to two-time state champion Pahranagat Valley Alamo in the finals at Arbor View High School in Las Vegas.

The 2004 team featured running back Duffy Otteson and was a run-oriented squad that beat Laughlin, but lost 26-6 to Alamo in the semifinals.

The 2005 and 2006 teams, with Mitchell Lehner operating as a shotgun-option quarterback, used the pass -- sometimes as many as 60 in a game -- to demoralize the opposition. In the '06 state semifinals, the Muckers ravaged Carlin 64-44 as Lehner completed 30 of 43 passes for a state-record 645 yards and eight touchdowns. Alamo shut down the pass in the finals and prevented the Muckers from achieving a state title.

It was after that game that McElroy boldly predicted his team would be back in the finals in 2007. And because of a vastly improved defense and an offensive scheme that used the run as well as the pass with equally devastating effects, Tonopah got a chance to claim that long-elusive championship.

Tonopah's 3-3-2 defense allowed only 16 touchdowns in 12 games and 115 points overall. Saturday, the defense apprproiately 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 scored in the final 12 minutes.

Scott 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, Mike 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, Tyler 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, Steven 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.

Tonopah held 6-0 and 14-6 leads on touchdowns by Kevin Valentine (on a 42-yard pass from Thibodeaux and Bessire (on a 74-yard pass from Thibodeaux) before falling behind 20-14.

Carlin's R.J. Urie scored on 75- and 43-yard passes from Kyle Meacham, whose 12-yard toss to Anthony Danks gave the Railroaders a 20-14 edge early in the third quarter.

Tonopah regained the lead for good a couple minutes later, when Thibodeaux dived into the end zone for the TD and then threw for the two-pointer to wideout Garrett Valenzuela.

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 (Thibodeaux 18-143, Valentine 4-64, Dolfin 5-30, Carnell 11-103, Bessire 5-70) and 143 passing.

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.

"We got the job done this year with student-athletes, kids who worked hard on the field and in the class room ... and we had no eligibility problems," said McElroy. "On field, we wanted to move the ball around and developed a mind set that everyone would play. ... and they did."

McElroy, who worked with assistants Harvey Gonzalez and Jeff Harrison on developing the schemes that stymied opponents this season, is 34-11 in four seasons. That record includes an 18-0 run as well as four straight Central Division titles.

Kevin Valentine, the son of the coach, was especially emotional after the victory.

"We gave it all we had today," said Valentine, a senior free safety who had three interceptions and some key open-field tackles against Carlin, 9-3, which attacked with its version of the wing-T, devised by veteran coach Myron Branning.

"For me, as the son of the coach, I always felt I had something to prove, but over these last four years, we became what was most important, a band of brothers," said Valentine.

Added Dolfin, the enforcer of the Mucker defense, "A lot of players who sometimes don't get mentioned, like Garrett (Valenzuela ) and Jose (Arias) and Chance (Gibson) ... they all got the job done today."

NOTES -- The title for Tonopah was the first for a Nye County school in football since 1996, when Beatty won the Class 2-A championship ... The Hornets were 1-A champions in 1993 and 1990 ... Round Mountain prevailed in 1994 ... Gabbs was one of the first 6-man football powers in Nevada, ranking among the leaders in 1960 and 1961, as well as 1984 ... Carlin won back-to-back state 1-A championships in 2002 and 2003.