PVT FILE PHOTO Al Giannotti is surrounded by his troops on the gridiron. PVT FILE PHOTO The 1978 Trojans ran rampant during the regular season as well as the playoffs. THE 1978 TROJANS Regular season PVHS 16, Virgin Valley 6 PVHS 18, Indian Springs 0 PVHS 28, Lincoln County 0 PVHS 20, Tonopah 12 PVHS 22, Virgin Valley 0 PVHS 20, Tonopah 0 PVHS 42, Indian Springs 0 PVHS 8, Moapa Valley 6 Playoffs PVHS 3, Moapa Valley 0 Pershing County Lovelock 18, PVHS 0 (state finals at Lovelock) Advertisement

There were two highly successful eras in Pahrump Valley High School football. The first was from 1976 through 1981, when the Trojans won 29 of 50 games and advanced to the Nevada Class A state championship game after the 1978 season.

(The second was from 1993 through 1995, when Gary Findley's teams won 17 and lost 11.)

Since the fall of 1973 through the 2007 campaign, PVHS teams have won 102 games on the field and 204. In the 2001 season, the Trojans forfeited victories against Ely White Pine and Henderson Coronado for using an academically ineligible player.

The Al Giannotti years were special, in the sense that PVHS had been playing football for only three years when Giannotti succeeded Richard Travis as head coach. Hank Wohle was 0-8 in 1973, while Travis was 1-7 and 1-9 in the 1974 and 1975 seasons.

Giannotti's first team was 3-4 and scored only 55 points. But the PVHS defense -- which had been racked for 348, 307 and 231 points in its first three campaigns -- allowed only 77. The Trojans lost 6-0 to the Cedar City (Utah) JVs, 12-0 to Lincoln County, 8-0 to Indian Springs and 22-0 to Moapa Valley; their wins were against Indian Springs 22-8, Virgin Valley 14-13 and Tonopah 13-8. The win against Virgin Valley was the first time PVHS had defeated a Southern Nevada Class A League opponent. PVHS won on a touchdown pass from quarterback Winky Neth to wideout Mark Fanning in the waning moments of the game.

Tonopah, which had been playing football for more than 50 years and had won a state championship in the 1920s, controlled the Trojans in the early years of the intra-Nye County rivalry. The Muckers won 42-0 and 20-0 in 1973, 39-8 and 50-8 in 1974 and 24-12 in 1975, and held an early lead against the Trojans, whose defense shut them down in key situations.

The 1977 Trojans made it two consecutive wins against Virgin Valley, another traditional Nevada small-school football power, winning 20-8 to start what was going to be a wacky season.

Pahrump Valley's inability to generate a consistent offense put pressure on a solid defensive club that would permit only 130 points -- 40 in a shutout loss to Moapa Valley in the season finale.

The Trojans split with Virgin Valley, losing 30-14 at midseason. PV's other wins were both against Tonopah, 20-6 and 28-0. Indian Springs won 14-8 and 12-0; Lincoln County prevailed 20-0.

The 1978 season vaulted Pahrump Valley football into statewide prominence. After winning just eight of 41 games in their first five seasons, the Trojans won nine straight games to win the league championship for the first time -- and qualify for the 1-A state playoffs.

The defense came of age that season, permitting only 42 points and registering six shutouts -- both school records that stand today.

The Trojans swept the season series from Virgin Valley (16-6 and 22-0), Tonopah (20-12 and 20-0) and Indian Springs (18-0 and 42-0), as well as beating Lincoln County 28-0 and Moapa Valley 8-6.

In the Southern finals (the state semifinals), Randy Gordon's field goal late in the game lifted the Trojans to a 3-0 victory against Moapa Valley.

Throughout the regular season, Gordon and quarterback Tim Worden had been the go-to players for the offense. Worden completed 9 of 13 passes for 132 yards in the 22-0 win against Virgin Valley. Gordon rushed for 761 yards on just 71 carries in the first seven games and had 926 on 86 rushes going into the first Moapa Valley contest, an 8-6 Trojans win.

The state championship game was played in the snow and cold of Lovelock, a village that was a wearing, grinding two-day trip by school bus in 1978. Then, as now, there is no direct route from Pahrump to Lovelock, located between the Trinity and West Humboldt mountain ranges, about 85 miles east of Reno.

Gordon was limited to 27 yards on 17 carries, while Lovelock -- in the finals for the fifth straight year and riding an 8-1 record -- generated 220 yards total offense. PVHS defensive back Keith Steib finished the season with nine interceptions.

The defensive unit included Steib, Worden and Gordon, along with Greg Day, Tim Allison, Casey Williams, Marty Strote, Lonnie Light, Charley Dodge, Mike Maus and Tony Gunter.

The 1978 roster was completed by Corby Robinson, Moni Ward, Ted Stratford, Dusty Gill, John Robinson, Larry Pallan, Danny Daffer, Xavier Gardea, Oscar Gardea, Pat Scanlon, Mike Augustine, Tony Trigulero and Richard Winslow.

E. L. Braden and Joel Sanders were the assistant coaches.

Traveling with the team were manager Glen Woner, mascot Paul Giannotti, Loren Steib, Mike Floyd and Mike Sylva.

In 1979, Pahrump Valley finished 5-3 and a year later, the Trojans were 7-2, giving them 21 wins in 27 starts over those three seasons.

The 1979 losses were to two teams that would dominate PVHS football for most of the next 28 years -- Virgin Valley and Moapa Valley. PVHS fell 38-0 and 37-0 to Virgin Valley and 26-7 to Moapa Valley.

Giannotti's team did not make the playoffs that season, but the Trojans qualified in 1980. That season the Trojans lost 26-6 to Moapa Valley in a regular season game and 12-6 in the first round of the playoffs.

In February 1979 poles -- donated by the Valley Electric Association -- were installed at the football field. The lights were funded by the Nye County school board.

The first game under the lights was played Sept. 21, 1979, with the Trojans defeating Lincoln County 6-0. The Trojans won the West Division title as Keith Steib rushed for 1,200 yards on 170 carries and scored seven touchdowns. His three interceptions raised his school-record total to 12 in a career. Charlie Dodge, Tony Trigulero and Xavier Cardea were first-team selections. And Giannotti was named coach of the year.

The 1980 season started with PVHS defeating Pahranagat Valley Alamo 6-0 as Larry Pallan intercepted three passes; PVHS would finish the season with 19 picks.

In a 36-12 rout of Indian Springs, Gary Nerger rushed for 185 yards and three TDs. Mike Floyd -- who wore the No. 33 -- gained 107 yards and scored two TDs in a 41-7 win against Lincoln County. Nerger's two fourth-quarter touchdowns lifted PVHS to a 20-12 conquest of Tonopah.

In a 34-16 win against Virgin Valley, Nerger and Floyd led a ball-control rushing attack. Angelo Santovito's passes and Nerger's rushing paced the Trojans to two late-season wins that pushed the Trojans into the playoffs for the second time in three seasons.

Nerger scored the only PV touchdown in the South playoff loss to Moapa Valley, then coached by Marty Taggart. Santovito ended the season with 55 completions on 130 attempts for 792 yards and nine TDs. End Ted Stratford caught 18 for 290 yards.

Giannotti coached only one more season; in 1981, the Trojans finished 2-6, beating only Indian Springs and Tonopah. In summer 1981 Giannotti announced his retirement as a coach but said he would remain at PVHS as a teacher. He eventually would return as a coach, but his football days were over.

Pahrump Valley teams were 29-21 under the direction of Giannotti, who elevated the Trojans to respectability in Nevada small-school football.