Lovell JV gridders drop finale to Cody Monday

The Lovell High School junior varsity football team concluded the 2023 season with a 35-15 loss at home to the Cody Broncs Monday evening.

“Before the game started, we preached cutting down turnovers and making some stops defensively,” coach Steven Durtsche said. “We did an excellent job of cutting down turnovers and did not have any in the first half. We held onto the ball and moved it well. We just did not capitalize to keep some drives alive so that we would have the clock in our favor.

“Cody was big and physical and ran the ball well. They chewed up much of the clock for most of the game. It looked like we might go into halftime down 21-7. With about three minutes left in the first half, we got into our spread offense and started throwing the ball around the field. We have some receivers that we knew they could not guard as long as we gave (quarterback) Kaeson (Anderson) enough time to make throws. Kaeson did a good job of distributing the ball around the field and finding open receivers.”

Durtsche said Matthew Newman, Owen Edwards and Owen Walker made “great catches” to help Lovell march down the field, and with about 30 seconds before halftime, Anderson fired a pass to Walker in the end zone that he said was “perfectly placed.”

“It was in a place where only Owen could catch it, and Owen made a great one-handed catch to haul it in for the touchdown,” Durtsche said. “Bronco Billy (Jasper Hatch) finished the drive with the extra point, and we went into halftime down 21-7.

“In the second half we played much better defensively. Cody scored two more times, but one of their scores was an 80-yard pick 6 in the third quarter. We were trying to make something happen, so we started out in the spread offense to start the quarter and were marching up the field. Cody made a great play on the ball and picked it and took it to the house. After three quarters the score was 28-7.”

Lovell began gaining yardage on offense in the fourth quarter, Durtsche said, moving the ball on the ground in some heavier sets. Parker Steenbakkers ran the ball well, he said, breaking some long runs. Taggart Shumway and Hatch also contributed in the run game, Durtsche said, getting the Bulldogs near the goal line. Hatch took a direct snap in the heavy set and broke a 15-yard run for the touchdown. Steenbakkers scored the two-point conversion.

Cody added a touchdown in the fourth quarter to make the final score 35-15. 

“At the end of the day, of course, we hoped to get a W to end our season, but there is lots to be happy about,” Durtsche said. “We had a competitive JV season. Almost every game was decided by less than a touchdown. Our guys played hard every down of every game. They learned and developed so much during the season.

“Lots of the JV dudes will be our dudes on varsity next year, and they got lots of reps to show us what they can do. The freshmen learned a lot of football and will be ready to step up and be our JV dudes next year. We are happy with the effort that we saw throughout the year and hope the experience will help our program for years to come.”

In other recent games, the Lovell JVs fell to Rich County, Utah, 36-28 on September 29 and to Powell 27-16 on October 2.