Mohave Dominates Havasu In Annual Golden Shovel Game

By Lonnie Stevenson

The annual Golden Shovel Game Sept. 8 between the Lake Havasu High School Knights and the Mohave Thunderbirds was the 52^nd time these two rivals have met.

For the first time since 2012, the shovel will be heading up to the campus of Mohave High School as the Thunderbirds won in dominating fashion, 42-0.

Mohave won the coin toss and elected to kick off to Havasu to start the game. Just 11 seconds later, sophomore Deegan Perry intercepted a Tyler Thompson pass and returned it 11-yards for a touchdown and Mohave was quickly up 7-0 and never looked back.

The Thunderbirds were led by sophomore quarterback Joe Yoney Jr., who was 20-26 for 278 yards on the night with 3 touchdown passes as well as 51-yards rushing and a touchdown.

Mohave took a 21-0 lead into halftime then started the third quarter receiving the kickoff and controlled the ball for the next 6:47 before senior running back Jonathon Williams scored on an 8-yard run and Mohave went up 28-0.

With the win, Mohave improves to 4-0 on the season and travels to Kingman for a Friday night match up against the Bulldogs.

Havasu, which drops to 1-2 on the season is off this Friday before hosting Youngkers Sept 22, for the Homecoming game.

After the game, coach Karl Thompson acknowledged his Knights had some things to clean up and work on this week but at the same time, they would stay on their regular routine by reviewing film the first of the week and then get on the practice field.

“We knew Mohave was coming into the game fired up and ready to play,” Thompson said. “They have a young team but they’re also an experienced team having a bunch of returning players from last year.

“Our team is still learning and growing,” Thompson continued. “We’ve got some guys that were on varsity last year but maybe didn’t see much playing time where this year we’re asking them to play more and take on more responsibility than in the past.”

“This a great group of players and they’re going to get it figured out and be a very good football team,” Thompson said. “We’ve got a lot of football still to be played this year and some more big games. I wouldn’t count us out.”

The week off will also give some of the Knights that have been banged up a little bit extra time to get better and be ready to go in two weeks.

The homecoming game on Sept. 22, will begin at 7 p.m.

After that game, Havasu will play four of the next five games on the road before the season’s final game at home Nov. 3, against Buckeye.