Grizzlies clobber Shoshoni as playoffs approach

There was a time not long ago when Shoshoni playing at Rocky Mountain would be a clash of titans, a battle of two evenly matched, traditional rivals. But on Friday evening, the Grizzlies dominated the Wranglers at home in a 49-14 smackdown.

When asked, head coach Jessee Wilson declined to call the game a statement victory, but he was pleased with how the team played, other than being whistled for more penalties than usual.

“We played really well. We were really physical,” Wilson said. “We kind of imposed our will, which is what we wanted to do. Shoshoni has good athletes, and we knew that they were weaker around the line of scrimmage, and that’s probably the strength of our team. I’ve been saying that all year, and so in some ways, I think it was a bad matchup for them, but it doesn’t take away from our execution overall.

“I thought we did a lot of really, really good things. The only downside to that was the number of penalties we accrued over the course of the game.”

After forcing the Wranglers to punt early in the game, the Grizzlies were buried back at the 3-yard line, Wilson said, but drove 97 yards to score despite being whistled for four penalties on the series.

“We had a couple of holding penalties I guess I’ll just say I didn’t necessarily agree with, but part of that was just due to Masen Twomey and Tayt Beall, who just manhandled some kids. They were just pancaking the guys to the ground. And so the officials kept throwing flags, which was killing me. But we were able to overcome that.”

Senior Triffen Jolley capped the drive with a seven-yard run to put the Grizz up 7-0, and he added a six-yard run later in the quarter to put Rocky up 14-0 at the quarter break.

Jolley scored for the third time in the second quarter on a 59-yard burst (PAT failed), and senior Colten Bitton picked off a Caden Kisling pass for a 78-yard pick six that put the Grizz up 27-0 at halftime.

“That was kind of a big moment in the game,” Wilson said. “Because that’s right before halftime, and they had found some stuff offensively that was working for them. Their quarterback kind of ran and scrambled around a bit, and then he throws up a ball coming back to the other side, and they’re on about our 40. That’s the most they had moved the ball the entire half.

“And then Colten comes up and snatches that out of his hands, and Landon Pruett does an outstanding job of sprinting across the field to get in front of Colten to get that last block, to spring him for a touchdown. At that point in time it was 20-0. They get one score, maybe they think they’re back in the game, but that one kind of sealed the deal.”

It was Mason Moss time in the third quarter. The sophomore quarterback scored on a three-yard run (two-point conversion good) and threw touchdown passes of 49 yards to Will Watts and of 33 yards to Pruett. Rocky led 49-0 after three to start the running clock. Kisling threw fourth-quarter touchdown passes for Shoshoni to Oakley Hicks of 62 and 30 yards to get the Wranglers on the scoreboard.

The final statistics tally shows that the Grizzlies rushed for 270 yards and passed for 178. Jolley had 12 carries for 117 yards and three touchdowns, Moss eight carries for 91 yards and a score. Cooper Ward had nine carries for 29 yards, though he had a long touchdown run called back on a penalty. Sam Loyning had four carries for 23 yards, Jaxx May two for 12.

Moss completed 11 of 13 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions, and May was one of one for 5 yards. Bitton caught three passes for 16 yards, Watts two passes for 62 yards, Pruett two for 57 yards, Coby Wachob two for 9, Evin Clendenen one for 22, Ward one for 7 and Ryan Grant one for 5.

“We wanted to come out and establish a run game, and I think we did that,” Wilson said. “And then we loosened them up a little bit. Mason played a really good game, took care of the ball.”

Wilson said he appreciated having the luxury of working on the passing game in the second half to get ready for the postseason, thanks to a four-possession halftime lead.

“I wanted to make sure that we got some passing in just to work on some of that stuff as we get closer to the playoffs,” he said. “So we probably threw it a little bit more in the second half. On one drive, we almost went down the field just throwing the ball, which was really cool (the first drive in the second half).

“The guys took care of the ball. We had no turnovers, and it’s one of the big takeaways from this game — no turnovers at all for us, and we had three interceptions against them. … One thing I really loved about this game is that we got so many guys to touch the ball. We had six different players record rushing attempts, and we had seven guys catch a ball in the game. And when we’re clicking like that, and we can spread the ball around, boy, it really makes it hard to play defense (against us).”

Moss led the Grizzlies with 19 defensive points on two interceptions, one pass breakup, three unassisted tackles and one assisted tackle. Jolley and Alex Walker added 11 points each.

Senior Night

The Grizz will host Wind River for Senior Night Friday at 6 p.m. and honor graduating seniors Beall, Bitton, Jolley, Pruett, Juan Rodriguez, Wachob and Watts.

“They’ve almost been with me from the start,” Wilson said. “They were sophomores when I took over as the head coach, so it’s going to be kind of a sad occasion for me, I’m not going to lie.”

Wind River is 1-6 on the season, 1-3 in conference games, with the team’s lone win coming against winless Wyoming Indian. Still, Wilson is anything but looking past the Cougars.

“I think they’re a much better matchup for us than Shoshoni is just in terms of style of play,” he said. “They’re big up front, and they’re going to run that double wing offense, which is led by their full back, Jeff Rushing, who runs about 30 to 40 times a game. They’re pretty big up front. They’re really physical. They’re going to come off the ball and just try to run it down your throat, you know, three yards in a cloud of dust.

“They’re perfectly happy if they get three yards. They’ll go for it on fourth down, and they’re just going to try to hold onto the ball as long as they possibly can. And I think in some ways that’s some of their defense, too, just by playing ball control, not letting you have the ball. It’s a one-man show for the most part. And then they’ll run a little bit of option with their wing backs, but honestly, they’ll probably run that fullback dive and quarterback sneak and just try to hold onto the ball as long as they can.”

Defensively, the Cougars will sometimes run a five-man front with just one linebacker or sometimes a 4-2 or a 3-3, Wilson said.

“They’ll play in your face and come up field pretty hard, and they’re really going to crowd the line of scrimmage, I think, against us,” he said. “They do a good job of changing up those fronts, trying to confuse you. We’ll just have to play assignment sound football.

“I think up front they’re trying to put a lot of pressure on you early, try to make you make a mistake in the backfield. And I think, in part, they do that because their athletes on the back end are not super strong, and so they’re going to try to get to you before you can get a ball off or something like that. And so they’re just going to try to play really physical and be in your face. And that’s the thing. They’re fighting for their playoff lives.”