Grizzlies struggle in 48-0 loss to Pine Bluffs

The former long-running television program “ABC’s Wild World of Sports” famously featured the words “the thrill of victory” and the “agony of defeat” in its program introduction.

The two extremes played out over the last two weeks for the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies as they experienced the “agony of defeat” in Laramie Saturday one week after a thrilling “thrill of victory” win over the Greybull Buffalos in Class 1A 9-man playoff games.

Indeed, the Grizz were on Cloud 9 after a thrilling last-minute 35-34 win at rival Greybull in the semifinals on November 14, and perhaps they experienced a bit of emotional hangover from the big win when they met Pine Bluffs in the state championship game Saturday at the University of Wyoming War Memorial Stadium.

Whatever the case, the Grizzlies struggled Saturday against a well-oiled machine in the form of the Pine Bluffs Hornets, who crushed the Grizz 48-0.

“I think a big part of it was that Pine Bluffs has so much experience in these championship games,” head coach Jessee Wilson said. “They’ve won it three out of the last five years, and they’ve been there four out of the last five years, I’m pretty sure. And so, with our group, we tried to take some steps to put us in a position where we were in a good head space prior to the game starting.

“We looked really good in pre-game, but then it was kind of a combination of things between Pine Bluffs just being well versed – they do what they do really well – and that maybe we panicked a little bit early on in the game.”

Any panic would be well-warranted as the Hornets took the opening kickoff and went 65 yards in two plays, with senior quarterback Carsten Freeburg pump-faking and then racing left through traffic and down the sideline for a 61-yard touchdown run. With the PAT, Pine Bluffs led the stunned Grizzlies 7-0 40 seconds into the game.

“We had about three guys that just about had him,” Wilson said. “And it was very close to just being a sack. He’s an explosive player. He’s a great runner.”

When it was their turn, the Grizz couldn’t move the ball when two runs by senior Triffen Jolley netted four yards and a third-down jet sweep by Cooper Ward was stopped for no gain.

“They had a really good game plan for us, and it took us a little bit of time to identify what was going on with our run game,” Wilson said. “That’s what we hang our hat on, and they were just perfectly content with letting us get two or three yards at a time, which I don’t blame them for. We just didn’t get any of those explosive plays like we’re accustomed to.

“I think with that (three and out) and them scoring on the second play of the game, that combination of things and being on the big stage kind of took a toll on us early on in the game.”

The Grizzly defense stiffened on the second Pine Bluffs series, and it took Pine Bluffs 11 plays to move 68 yards, with Freeburg converting a key fourth-and-five situation with an 11-yard run. Senior Ty Scarborough scored on a two-yard run, and Pine Bluffs led 14-0.

Rocky went three and out again, hampered by a holding penalty and a sack, and Pine Bluffs went 58 yards in eight plays as Freeburg beat a strong blitz to loft the ball to Cade Fornstrom for a 27-yard completion that set up a two-yard touchdown run by fullback Gabe Federer. Pine Bluffs led 21-0 after one.

“They schemed us up really well. They did a great job,” Wilson said of the Pine Bluffs defense. “And I think part of that is that I had built our offensive game plan based off of what they did really well against us the time before. And so instead of doing that, they actually attacked our offense in a completely different way.

“They had a good plan in place; they would actually pull their corner up for run support. We could have exploited that. They did key on Trif, and they’re smart coaches. They keyed in our guards. We throw a lot of eye candy out there for kids to look at, and their kids are really well coached. A lot of the credit just goes to Pine for having a great plan.”

The key for the Pine Bluffs defense was not getting caught up in Rocky’s motion by focusing on the line and not the motion, and Wilson joked, “I always tell our guys, ‘When my daughter grows up, I want her to marry an offensive lineman, because he’ll never lie to you, but running backs and quarterbacks will lie all the time.’ So they did a great job of doing that.”

One thing that hurt Rocky’s ability to adjust was that the team headsets failed to work, despite being tested before the game. The Grizz borrowed sets from Lovell they had brought just in case but until they switched were unable to talk to assistant Josh Sponsel for roughly the first quarter, their “eye in the sky.”

The Grizz gained one first down on the ensuing series on a roughing-the-punter penalty, then – down by three touchdowns – went for it on fourth and two, and Jolley was hit in the backfield. Given a short field, Pine Bluffs drove 37 yards in six plays, with Scarborough scoring from two yards out. The Hornets led 28-0 midway through the second quarter.

The Grizzlies then mounted their longest drive of the game, covering 66 yards and picking up four first downs, two on pass interference penalties and two on completions from Mason Moss to Will Watts and Colten Bitton. A pass to tight end Evin Clendenen reached the Pine Bluffs 12, but a sack and an incompletion ended the drive as time ran out.

Wilson said the failure to score in that situation killed any momentum the team hoped to gain in the first half.

Little things played a role in the first half, Wilson said. Ward was inches from turning the corner on the first kickoff return, and film showed that Moss may have actually intercepted a pass on the second Pine Bluffs possession that was ruled an incomplete pass.

Though behind the 8 ball, the Grizzlies never quit, Wilson said.

“What I do appreciate is that our guys continued to play throughout the entire game,” he said. “I just told them at halftime, ‘Guys, let’s just continue. Let’s just go out and have some fun and enjoy it. You seniors, it’s your last football game. I’m not going tell you that you’re going to win the game. We’d have to pull a pretty big, crazy upset to make that happen. But let’s just go enjoy ourselves in the second half.”

Second half

The Rocky defense stepped up in the third quarter and forced two empty drives by the Pine Bluffs offense. Masen Twomey, Landon Pruett and Jolley converged on Freeburg on fourth and one for a drive-killing stop, and a hit in the backfield by Jolley on third down thwarted the next series. But the Grizz couldn’t generate enough offense to threaten again.

A tipped pass interception set Pine Bluffs up at the Rocky 33, leading to a two-yard run by Federer and a 34-0 lead (PAT failed). The Hornets added a 14-yard touchdown pass to Fornstrom early in the fourth quarter to lead 41-0, and after Bitton recovered a Pine Bluffs fumble after a hit by Moss and Jolley, the Grizz gave it back on a failed double reverse pass play that was fumbled back to Pine Bluffs at the Rocky Mountain 3. The turnover set up a three-yard touchdown pass to Brady Freeburg. Pine Bluffs led by the final score of 48-0 as the mercy rule running clock began.

Looking back, Wilson said the Grizzlies didn’t play well, and Pine Bluffs looked like they had been on the big stage before and executed accordingly.

“I think we’re a much better team than we showed on Saturday,” he said. “We haven’t had a butt kicking like that in a while, and to have it on that big of a stage, man, I was just so sick for a while, but then after a little bit of time, you kind of get to reflect on the big picture, and I just think about how great of a season this really was.

I guess the big takeaway that I have from this game is that we won one game last year. And I think, holistically as a program, this is a good stepping stone. We graduate a fair amount of production off of this year’s squad, but I think we’ve got some other guys that are waiting in the wings that are ready to take over some of those spots, some of those sophomores.”

The Grizzlies finished with just 16 yards rushing on 32 attempts, while Pine Bluffs gained 269 yards on the ground on 31 attempts. Jolley led the team with 42 yards on 16 carries.

Moss completed 9 of 21 passes for 62 yards, and Bitton caught four passes for 34 yards, Ward and Coby Wachob one for 7 yards each, Pruett one for 6, Clendenen one for 5 and Watts one for 3. Freeburg completed 16 of 22 passes for 189 yards.

Moss led the team in defensive point with 25 on five assisted tackles, nine solo tackles and one pass breakup. Twomey added 15.5 defensive points, Bitton 15, Jolley 11 and Wachob 10.