Defense seemed to have checked its hat at the door in the game between Whittell and Mineral County Aug. 31 in Hawthorne.

A 60-56 win for the visiting Warriors over their former league counterparts. But Mineral County, Smith Valley and Coleville were moved to the new 1A Central league by the NIAA last spring.

As noted, defense took a holiday as both teams probably racked up record number of total yards for the game.

No stats were posted for Whittell, but for Mineral County they just about popped the roof off.

The Serpents amassed 683 total yards for the game, 553 rushing and 130 passing.

Robert McFalls accounted for 387 yards on the ground. The number of touchdowns he scored was not recorded. Other running backs for Mineral County, Robert Brown and Tony Torres, had 63 and 84 yards respectively, albeit in a losing cause.

Junior quarterback Seth Bozzi was 6-for-10 passing and two touchdowns.

McFalls efforts on the night now put him in third place on the NIAA single game rushing records for 8-man teams, behind the 497 of Shedrick McClendon of Mountain View in 2002, and 464 by Jake Harding of Excel Christian in 2015.

Defensively, Griffen Inman was credited with eight tackles. Bodie Oberhansli and David Ditmer recorded seven each.

Unfortunately, it was Mineral County’s fifth consecutive loss to Whittell, but not as bad as last year when the Warriors won in Zephyr Cove, 104-58.

On the positive side, the four-point spread is the closest margin of loss in the series with Whittell since 2004. The other was a six point loss in 2014.

This week, Sept. 8, the Serpents travel for a non-league game at Sierra Lutheran in Carson City, a day game at 1 p.m.

Their next home game is Sept. 14 against longtime rival Virginia City.