Bulldogs drop shootout with Mountain View

Like a faceoff at the OK Corral, the Lovell Bulldogs and Mountain View Buffaloes engaged in a good old-fashioned western shootout Friday night at Robertson Stadium in Lovell, and by the time the dust cleared, the Bulldogs found themselves on the wrong end of a 42-35 score.

Having played two of the top teams in Class 2A in the form of Big Horn and Mountain View, the Bulldogs find themselves 0-2 heading into week three of the young season.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of season yet to play, but we’ve faced probably two of the best teams we’ll see this year, and we went toe to toe with them,” head coach Nicc Crosby said.

Lovell dropped the season-opener to Big Horn at home on September 6, 28-24.

“We gave ourselves opportunities to win both games at the end against all odds,” Crosby noted, and he had nothing but praise for a high-octane Mountain View offense led by dynamic junior quarterback Justus Platts.

The visiting Buffalos racked up 455 yards of total offense, 163 yards rushing and 292 passing, unofficially.

“It’s pretty easy to point to our defense and say we didn’t have a great defensive game, but that would be shortchanging Mountain View and their offense, especially their quarterback,” Crosby said. “In my career I can’t think of a more explosive player I’ve coached against than Mountain View’s quarterback. We’ve played dual threat quarterbacks before, but just how strong, quick, fast and athletic he was in addition to how he throws the ball, you scratch your head about how to slow him down. We can certainly say we know some things that don’t work, but we hope to get an opportunity to play them again and try some other things.

“We made different adjustments throughout the game. They just did a really good job of countering our adjustments. They kept hitting hitchers underneath on their RPOs (run-pass options), so we drop our backer underneath them, and they run a quarterback draw.”

And just when it appeared the Bulldogs would stop a drive, Mountain View would get a key first down as the visitors only punted once in the game.

“I haven’t counted the number of third and fourth downs they converted,” Crosby said. “Several times we’d be in a good position to break up a pass or make a tackle before the first down marker, and we just weren’t able to do it. For them to be that strong and explosive, that’s crazy.

“Despite all of that, we had a chance to win the dang game.”

Scoring aplenty

Mountain View took the opening kickoff and immediately displayed their offensive prowess, driving 78 yards in 11 plays as Platts played a role on 10 of the 11 plays. The Bulldogs appeared to have halted the drive on fourth and 11 from the Lovell 12-yard line with a pass breakup, but they were whistled for pass interference, and the Buffalos scored on the next play, a dart from Platts to Brendon Walker over the middle. Mountain View led 7-0.

The Bulldogs answered with a 66-yard drive of their own as junior running back Chase Crosby, and seniors Braxton Felkins (running back) and Davin Crosby (quarterback) ran hard. Davin Crosby hit Owen Edwards for 17 yards, then lofted a 21-yard touchdown pass to 6-6 receiver Owen Walker, who went high over a defender to snare the aerial. The game was tied 7-7 late in the first quarter.

Mountain View countered with a 66-yard drive capped by a nine-yard touchdown run by Platts, but this time the Bulldogs couldn’t answer as quarterback Crosby was hit for a loss on third and three. The Bulldogs were forced to punt, and Mountain View took advantage by driving 60 yards to score as Platts finished the drive with a 26-yard run right up the middle. Mountain View led 21-7.

Lovell gained two first downs on the ensuing series but gave the ball back to Mountain View on downs at the Buffalo 35. After being hit with a 10-yard holding penalty, Mountain View drove 75 yards to score again as the slippery Platts gained big chunks on the ground time after time, then hit Walker on an eight-yard touchdown pass. Mountain View led 28-7 at halftime.

Wild second half

The Bulldogs had no quit in them and scored on the first play of the third quarter when, taking advantage of Mountain View’s aggressive safeties, Coach Crosby called for a flea-flicker from Chase Crosby back to Davin Crosby, who then found a streaking Matthew Newman for a 51-yard touchdown pass. Lovell was back within striking distance trailing 28-14.

“They executed it to perfection,” Coach Crosby said.

Mountain View drove to the Lovell 40, but a key batted pass by end Kyle Wilson and a pass breakup by linebacker Davin Crosby resulted in Mountain View’s only punt of the game.

Taking the ball at their own 15, the Bulldogs drove 85 yards to score as Davin Crosby hit a key fourth-down pass to Newman for 10 yards and found Chase Crosby out of the backfield for 30. Felkins gashed the Buffalo defense for 14, and Davin Crosby scored on a six-yard run. The PAT was wide left, but Lovell was within one score trailing 28-20 late in the third.

Mountain View returned the ensuing kickoff to the 45-yard line, then drove 55 yards to score as Platts converted a fourth-and-four situation for a 24-yard gain, then scored untouched from two yards out. Mountain View led 35-20 early in the fourth quarter.

The never-say-die Bulldogs came right back, driving 62 yards as Davin Crosby hit Newman for a 30-yard gain over the middle. After a facemask penalty on Mountain View, Felkins powered to the 1, and Crosby scored on a quarterback sneak. Chase Crosby scored the two-point conversion, and Lovell trailed 35-28 with 8:37 to play.

Mountain View responded with a 62-yard scoring drive, capped by a 48-yard pass to Walker, to take a 42-28 lead with 5:57 left.

Game over? Hardly. The Bulldogs drove 64 yards in a minute and a half as Crosby hit passes of 11, 8 and 20 yards, then found Chase Crosby over the middle from 22 yards out for the touchdown. Mikkel Klepp’s PAT was true, and Lovell trailed 42-35 with 4:32 left.

Not wanting to give Mountain View another scoring opportunity, the Bulldogs executed a perfect on-side kick, and Newman dove on the ball to give the Bulldogs a final shot. Davin Crosby hit cousin Chase for 20 yards on fourth and two from the Mountain View 40, but given four shots from the 20, four passes fell incomplete, Mountain View batting away the first two, the third pass just long and the final pass nearly finding a diving Owen Walker in the end zone.

With 2:04 remaining on the clock, Mountain View held onto the ball for the win.

“For our boys to come out and fight the way they did says a lot about them and their character,” Coach Crosby said. “I want to thank the fans who stuck around to cheer us on, though we didn’t give them a lot to cheer about in the first half. Big picture, we went toe to toe with two of the best teams in 2A and need to move forward and get actual victories instead of moral victories. If we play our cards right we can get another opportunity at one or both of them.”

Platts completed 20 of 31 passes for 292 yards and three touchdowns, seven of the passes to Walker for 125 yards. Davin Crosby matched him, hitting 17 of 33 passes for 284 yards and three scores. Chase Crosby caught seven passes for 107 yards, Newman four passes for 96 yards and Walker four for 60 yards.

Mountain View also rushed for 163 yards as Platts ran for 133 yards on 23 carries. Lovell finished with 97 yards rushing as Felkins carried the ball seven times for 46 yards.

Felkins led the Bulldogs in defensive points with 14 on seven assisted tackles, three solo tackles and one tackle for a loss. Walker and Davin Crosby had 13 defensive points each, Kalell Gruell 10.

Road trip

After playing the first two games at home, the Bulldogs will make the long drive to Uinta County on Friday to take on the Lyman Eagles in a critical conference game. Kickoff is at 3 p.m.

Crosby said the Eagles will feature a totally different offense from the schemes the Bulldogs saw in weeks one and two.

“Lyman is going to go three yards and a cloud of dust (with a wing T offense) and try to beat you occasionally with a deep ball,” he said. “They like to play physical, aggressive football on both sides of the ball.

“It’s always been tricky to move the ball against them. They’ve done a good job throughout the years switching up looks in pass coverage, and they’re always tough against the run. Offensively, they use a lot of misdirection plays and pulls. We’ve got to be very disciplined on defense, tackle well and own the
line of scrimmage to slow them down.”

Lyman is 1-1 so far in 2024, clobbering Burns 48-6 and falling at Cokeville 13-8