Truckee: Fallon’s new best friend

Nestled in the mountains, along the interstate sits a small town that sees varying degrees of weather.

It snows, a lot, in the winter, making Truckee one of the premier destinations for skiing and snowboarding. There’s plenty of sunshine in the summer, providing an escape from the triple-digit heat.

For the next two weeks, Fallon wants to love Truckee.

The 3A football regular season ends over Nevada Day weekend and the Greenwave still has a chance to win the league title but it needs some help from its California rival.

Fallon (6-1) travels to Spring Creek (5-2) and Fernley (7-0) hosts Truckee (6-1) tonight in a pair of pivotal matchups that will either crown the league champ or create a three-way tie for first that favors Fallon. Fallon and Fernley both go on the road to face the league’s worst teams in Lowry and Dayton, while Truckee hosts rival South Tahoe next Saturday.

Fallon can finish no worse than fourth and will host a playoff game next month. A win over Spring Creek gives the Greenwave no worse than the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye. Here’s what needs to happen for Fallon, Fernley or Truckee to win the league.

Fallon will be first if it beats both Spring Creek and Lowry and Truckee beats Fernley and South Tahoe.

Fernley will be first if it beats Truckee or it finishes in a two-way tie with Fallon. Fernley defeated Fallon last month.

Truckee will be first if it beats Fernley and South Tahoe, and Fallon loses to either Spring Creek or Lowry. Fallon defeated Truckee last month.

But as Fallon coach Brooke Hill has said, the Greenwave can focus only on the current week and remove any distractions.

“We haven’t even discussed that,” Hill said about the playoff picture. “We’ve just talked about taking care of what we need to take care of. All we can do is take care of us. If we can get a little help, that’s great.”

Defeating Spring Creek is not a given even though the Spartans lost their star quarterback and coach from last season. They possess the state’s best running back and receiver after the duo led Spring Creek to the state title game last year.

And Truckee beating Fernley isn’t easy, either. The Vaqueros are undefeated for a reason and their only close game came in the two-point win over Fallon last month on a last-minute touchdown. Even if the Wolverines can pull off the upset on the road, they will need to defeat South Tahoe next week to create the three-way tie.

The playoff picture will become clearer after tonight and Fernley will either be crowned the league champ or next week could see the league end in a tie that will favor Fallon because of its 20-point win over Truckee last month. And while Fallon would love nothing more than to receive that first-round bye, it’s even more important to get the No. 1 seed because of the state playoffs. The No. 1 seed from the North hosts the No. 2 team from the South and the state title game will be played in the North unless both teams are from the South.

Don’t you love high school football?

Thomas Ranson can be contacted at lvnsports@yahoo.com