The Wildcats (8-4) moved into the Sunrise Region title game for the eighth consecutive season.

"What we came here to do is give ourselves an opportunity to play next week," Las Vegas coach Chris Faircloth said. "And we did enough to get that done."

Las Vegas plays at Del Sol (10-1) for the title at 6 p.m. Friday. Del Sol advanced with a 28-24 win over Canyon Springs.

The Wildcats had managed next to nothing offensively until putting together back-to-back big plays late in the third quarter.

On third-and-14 from the Las Vegas 27, Marvin Campbell completed a 24-yard pass to Michael Alexander for the first down, and a roughing the passer penalty on the play moved the ball to the Silverado 34.

On the next play Schexnayder finally found some room to run. He blew through the hole, then bounced the play outside and won the footrace to the corner of the end zone to put Las Vegas up 6-0.

"Emery Schexnayder's a big-time player," Faircloth said. "He's the one guy that we've got that can go to the end zone any time he touches the ball. And fortunately, he did that for us."

Schexnayder had 9 yards on five carries before the TD run, and the team had managed just 48 rushing yards on 17 carries to that point.

"They packed the box," Faircloth said. "They put a lot of people in the box and make it real difficult."

Schexnayder came up with another big run on Las Vegas' second possession of the fourth quarter, sprinting 25 yards to the 1-yard line, setting up his 1-yard run to make it 12-0 with 7:10 to play.

Silverado (10-1) cut the lead to 12-7 on a 2-yard TD run by Telvin McMillian with 3:07 to go, but the Skyhawks' final drive stalled at the Las Vegas 49 with nine seconds left.

The Skyhawks came into the game averaging 336 rushing yards but managed just 110 Friday.

"We didn't believe that they could run the ball consistently on us," Faircloth said. "But you don't know that (for sure) until you start the game."

Silverado twice had the ball inside the Las Vegas 10 but failed to score. The Skyhawks had the ball at the Las Vegas 4 with less than a minute left in the first half, but Kolton Villa fumbled and Aareon Smith came up with the loose ball to end the threat.

"It's disappointing that we came away a couple times in the red zone without points," Silverado coach Andy Ostolaza said. "But Vegas is Vegas. They made the big plays when the needed to."

Contact Prep Sports Editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-4587.