Bulldogs suffer frustrating loss, fall to Big Horn by two

Arrrgh! No, that’s not a pirate, it’s the collective frustration Lovell Bulldog players, coaches and fans must be expressing in the wake of yet another hard-fought loss to the Big Horn Rams.

The Bulldogs opened the 2025 season in Big Horn Friday against the defending state champions and left with a disappointing loss, 17-15, despite controlling many aspects of the game.

“Our line dominated both sides of the ball,” Lovell head coach Nicc Crosby said. “They struggled to get anything going offensively. And really our offense outscored their offense. They were just able to turn two of our four turnovers into points, and one on a pick six. One receiver ran into the other receiver, and it went right off our hands and right to them.

“Our defense was well prepared. We made some good adjustments during the game. We just played lights out and just dominated the line of scrimmage, and our running game was very effective.”

Big Horn’s quick, athletic and aggressive defense was able to pick off Lovell sophomore quarterback Kyson Crosby four times. The first interception came in the first quarter and led to a short field and a 32-yard scoring drive. A 17-yard touchdown pass and ensuing PAT gave the home team a 7-0 lead.

Lovell drove to near midfield and punted, but on the following series senior Matthew Newman intercepted Big Horn quarterback Tucker Wulff at the Lovell 20, returning the pick 61 yards to the Ram 19. Four plays later, senior running back Chase Crosby scored from three yards out, and Lovell knotted the score 7-7 at the end of the first quarter.

There was only punting and no scoring in the second quarter, and the two rivals went into the locker room knotted at 7.

Lovell’s first drive of the second half resulted in the aforementioned 42-yard interception for a touchdown by Big Horn, but the Bulldogs fired right back, driving 81 yards on the next series to take the lead. Strong running by Chase Crosby, Cash Wassmer and Newman carried the Bulldogs into the red zone, whereupon Newman scored on a one-yard run. Wassmer ran in the two-point conversion, and Lovell led 15-14.

Newman’s second interception snuffed the next Big Horn drive, and the Bulldogs held onto the one-point lead well into the fourth quarter. A Ram interception deep down the sideline led to a drive to the Lovell 3-yard line. The Bulldog defense held, but Big Horn kicked a 20-yard field goal to take a 17-15 lead with 7:27 left on the clock.

The Bulldogs drove to their own 47, but on fourth and eight, the Rams picked off a pass for the fourth time and ran out the clock.

“It was a tough first varsity game for a quarterback, because they bring so much pressure from so many different places,” Coach Crosby said. “We went on some different snap counts to keep them off balance, which worked, but occasionally we weren’t disciplined and moved early, so it kind of benefited us sometimes and then benefited them sometimes, in terms of changing up our cadence and our rhythm on the snap count.

“In general, I was just so proud of our defense. I thought they played excellent and made it really hard for Big Horn to do what they wanted to do. I thought Owen Walker did a good job at safety, getting people lined up, and the defensive backs and linebackers were much improved from our zero week game against buffalo, being in the right spots. We pursued the ball and tackled well.”

Crosby said starting cornerback Wilson Hendershot was hurt on the first play of the game, and freshman Mac Morgan did a great job filling in, playing the rest of the game. Hendershot hurt his knee, and senior lineman Halen Strom hurt his knee later in the game. Chase Crosby also entered concussion protocol late in the game. All three were being evaluated early this week.

As the Lovell coaches evaluate game one, they’ll be looking for improvement in certain areas, Coach Crosby said.

“We’ve got to be able to be more balanced,” he said. “A big part of the game plan going into Big Horn was to run the ball. We felt like we had the more physical offensive line, and we did, and we ran quite effectively, but we’ve got to be able to move the ball through the air a little bit, too, and put some pressure on teams that way, as well.”

The Bulldogs did not complete a pass during the game, but Chase Crosby rushed for 86 yards on 18 carries. Wassmer added 63 yards on 19 carries, Newman 61 yards on 13 carries and Walker 13 yards on two attempts.

Long trip

The Bulldogs will open 2A West Conference play on the road Friday, meeting the Mountain View Buffaloes at 4 p.m. in distant Uinta County. Mountain View is 1-0 after beating Rich County, Utah, 54-14.

The Buffaloes are led by explosive quarterback Justus Platts, who rushed for 1,052 yards last season and passed for 1,654 yards. Crosby said the Bulldogs will need to play fundamentally sound football to limit Platts.

“It comes down to discipline and execution,” the coach said. “You can get away with a lot more when the quarterback’s not going to pull the ball and run for 30 yards at a moment’s notice. So you can’t be pulled out of position or whatever. And then the second part of that is, we can be in good position, but then we have to pursue and take good angles.

“We worked on a game plan last year and had lots of guys in position to make plays and just took bad angles, didn’t wrap up effectively and just let him have a heyday. But not only do we have a great offensive and defensive line, we’ve got plenty of athletes. We just have to get them in position to just get them to make plays. We have plenty of film on these guys and have a pretty good idea of what they’re going to do. The question is, when the play breaks down and the ball is still in his hands, are we going to stay disciplined and keep our leverage or let him break contain and make big plays with his feet?”