After a bye week, the Moapa Valley High School Pirates returned to Overton for their homecoming back in black (uniforms that is) and swept past Pahrump Valley 60-0, claiming their fifth straight win and their second shutout of the season, the Web site, nevprep.com, reported.

The win guarantees a home game for Moapa Valley in the Southern 3-A playoffs. But before the tournament comes the battle for the regular season league title against long-time rival Mesquite Virgin Valley Thursday in Overton.

In 2006, the Pirates edged the Bulldogs 15-14 to win the league title and earn the South's No. 1 seed for the playoffs.

While Moapa Valley (6-3, 3-0) and Virgin Valley (8-1, 3-0) tangle, Pahrump Valley's Trojans (0-7-1, 0-3) travel to Boulder City (2-6, 0-3) for their league finale. Kickoff is at 7 p.m., Thursday.

Both the Trojans and Eagles need to win to claim the No. 4 seed in the playoffs. In a similar situation in 2006, the Trojans won 34-14 to grab the No. 4 seed. They lost 20-10 to No. 1 Moapa Valley in the first round of the playoffs.

The Pirates and the Bulldogs have dominated the rest of the Southern 3-A. Moapa has outscored league opponents 146-14.

"Virgin Valley is going to be tough and it will be evenly matched," said Moapa coach Brent Lewis. "Even though we have two different styles it is going to be even, no doubt about it."

Virgin Valley lost that regular-season finale in 2006, but the Bulldogs prevailed 10-7 in the state championship game, played before a standing-room only crowd at Arbor View High School in Las Vegas.

While both teams have already clinched a home playoff game, the winner of Thursday's game will gain home field for advantage for the second round as well.

Faith Lutheran's Garrett Sherwood scored three first-quarter touchdowns as Las Vegas Faith Lutheran (6-3, 1-3) jumped to an early lead and then held on for a 28-23 Southern 3-A victory Friday.

Sherwood scored on a one-yard run, a 90-yard run and on a 35-yard pass reception from Max Done in the first quarter and Bobby Moretti was good on three point-after kicks for a 21-0 lead.

"We played a great first half," said Faith Lutheran coach Jacob Kothe, whose team scored on its first two possessions of the game. "But in the second half-our pass defense was not good and we had some penalties that helped them keep drives going."

Boulder City scored in the first on an 18-yard run to cut it to 21-6 before a 15-yard run by Done and Moretti's kick pushed the lead to 28-6.

Boulder got a 33-yard field goal before the half to make it 28-9 and a 16-yard run in the third quarter cut the Faith lead to 28-15. With under four minutes to go in the game Boulder scored on a six-yard run.

The win gives the Crusaders the No. 3 three seed in the South which means they will face play either Moapa Valley or Virgin Valley in the first round.

Virgin Valley defeated Faith 41-20 and Moapa stopped the Crusaders 42-0 in regular-season games.

Max Done, the Crusaders' quarterback, did not play against Moapa Valley. In his return to the starting lineup Oct. 12, he threw five touchdown passes in a 40-7 win against Pahrump Valley.

"We're happy with the win, obviously," said Kothe. "You want to go into the playoffs with a win. It would have been nice to finish them off, but we've been preaching all season that we need to peak at the right time because in previous years I've felt like we peaked too early," said Kothe.

Sherwood finished with 179 yards rushing on 13 carries to go with six unassisted tackles, eight assisted tackles and a forced fumble for the Crusaders' defense.

Done completed 10 of 14 passes for 189 yards and no interceptions against the Eagles.

NOTES -- Pahrump Valley, Southern 3-A champion just two years ago, slumped to 3-7 in 2006 and now need a victory Thursday to avoid its first winless season since 1998. The Trojans, then coached by Scott Dean, finished 0-9 and were outscored 273-74 ... The Trojans have had four winless seasons in their football history, which dates back to 1973. That year, they were 0-8 under the direction of Hank Wohle. In 1984, with Dave Hare as coach, PVHS was 0-8, and in 1996, the Trojans were 0-9 under Gary Findley, after going 7-3, 5-4 and 5-4 in the previous three campaigns. That 5-4 record in 1995 was the last time the Trojans finished above .500. The 2004 team was 5-5, with Steve Nygaard as coach .

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Times Sports Editor Don McDermott contributed to this story.