Miner Miracle 1982
The 1982 Nevada state championship game pitted Bishop Manogue against bitter rival the Truckee Wolverines.
Down 13-0 at the half, the Miner struggled mightily to move the ball. The third quarter passed with the ball changing possession but no score. It seemed like a field position battle with the Wolverines trying to run the clock out and win the state title. With about 2 minutes left in the game the Miners held Truckee for a 3 & out inside their own 10 and Truckee was forced to punt out of their own end zone. Manogue got the ball on about the 35 or so and scored with about 2 minutes to go. 13-7 Truckee.
Manogue tried the onside kick, but Truckee recovered and for all intents and purposes most people thought the game was over because even with timeouts and everything, if Truckee gave the ball back to Manogue there would be very little time left on the clock. All Truckee needed was 1 first down to seal the victory. So they handed the ball off and ran an off tackle play, and the running back got through the hole and bounced outside and Miners corner-Craig Burkett came in from the outside and the running back had the ball in his outside arm as he bounced that way. Craig just essentially tackled the ball and spun out from the tackle and to everyone’s surprise had the ball. He was tackled and Manogue had the ball with less than a minute to go on about the 40 going in with 1 time out left the Miner got the ball down to about the 25 used it.
The Miners were exhausted. With 10 seconds on the clock, this was going to be the last play. The Miners Quarterback Brian Kaskie threaded the needle between 2 DB’s on a skinny post to a receiver named Chris Scott, one of Manogues basketball stars. Now the score was tied at with no time on the clock and the only extra point left. So now it’s up to the kicker for the State Championship…..The kick was good. That was what’s known now as the Miner Miracle, scoring 14 in the last 2 minutes of the State Championship game to win.
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