Grizzlies win a big one, beat undefeated Saratoga

It was the biggest game of the year – so far – when the top-ranked Rocky Mountain Grizzlies hosted the second-ranked Saratoga Panthers for Homecoming Friday night, but in a week of possible distractions, the Grizzlies put it all together and defeated Saratoga 18-8.

Coach Jessee Wilson was pleased with how his team approached the challenge and prepared.

“I told those guys every day, ‘We just need two hours a day of football, two hours a day, and then you can have fun,’” he said. “I thought we had a really good week of practice as far as breaking it down that way. I think that helps kids put it into perspective, like, we just need two hours.

“I was really happy with the way that we came out, too. I told them that it was going to be really important that we just come out right from the gate and just jump all over them, because that’s a team you don’t really want to give any momentum to. So we had planned all week on taking the ball, and luckily, they won the toss and deferred, and we got to have the ball.”

Getting the opening kickoff paid off for the Grizz, who covered 69 yards in three plays: an 11-yard pass from Mason Moss to Jaxx May, a 40-yard run by Sam Loyning and an 18-yard sweep by Cooper Ward for the touchdown. Moss booted the PAT, and Rocky led 7-0.

“They came out in the look that we figured they were going to come out in, and we blocked them up really well, threw a little pass to Jaxx right out of the gate,” Wilson said. “It helped that his defender fell down. … That (run by Loyning) was a good old-fashioned buck sweep. And then on the very next play, I kind of thought that one worked pretty good, so let’s just run it to the other side and see what happens. And sure enough, it was a touchdown.”

Saratoga responded to the Grizzly drive by moving the ball 70 yards after receiving the kickoff, largely due to the efforts of senior running back Griffin Bartlett, the workhorse of the Saratoga backfield. Saratoga moved from the Panther 13 to the Rocky Mountain 11, but after Bartlett scored a touchdown, the play was called back on a holding penalty, and the Panthers then gave the ball back to Rocky on downs.

The Grizz went three and out on the ensuing series after a false start penalty set them back. Saratoga also went three and out and punted to the Grizzly 4. The Grizz moved the ball out of the shadow of their own end zone, but penalties again set them back, leading to a punt.

“Our Achilles heel this week is that we were in pretty good shape a lot of times, but then we would have some sort of penalty that would derail a drive,” Wilson said.

The game developed into a punting contest for a while, and after the Grizz failed to gain a first down at midfield, Moss executed a perfect coffin corner punt to the Saratoga 3. The Panthers gained one first down but then punted to the Rocky 34.

The Grizz put together their best drive since the opener, with Loyning busting free for a 33-yard run to the Saratoga 14. With the final seconds of the first half ticking away, Wilson tried for one more play and a spike. Loyning gained six yards, but the Grizz couldn’t get lined up to spike the ball before time ran out.

Wilson took ownership of the decision.

“I knew they had to stop the clock to set the chains, and I thought maybe because there were about 17 seconds left, since we broke that run, I thought maybe if we just ran the exact same play again, we might catch them and just get in really quick and then have enough time to spike it afterwards,” the coach said. “We should have spiked it. We should have spiked it initially, and then we would have had two shots (to the end zone) or at least kicked a field goal.

“That was mismanagement by me just trying to sneak in as many plays as we could. I just thought we could get up to the ball a little bit quicker than we did. We didn’t, but that’s a good thing to learn, and I think one thing about this game is that we learned a lot of lessons, which is great because we’re in a competitive game against a really good team, and we just happened to not have to learn them the hard way.”

Second half

Saratoga took the second-half kickoff and drove 65 yards to score as Bartlett again ran hard. The Panthers even overcame a holding penalty and scored on a 27-yard touchdown pass over the middle from Jace Westring to Hunter Johnston. A two-point conversion pass to Brody Johnson put ‘Toga up 8-7.

But back came the Grizz. Rocky Mountain drove 86 yards following a blindside block penalty on the kick return. Runs by Loyning advanced the ball to the Grizz 32, and Moss snared a high snap from center and brought it down, then took the ball right, fought through traffic and turned on the afterburners for a 68-yard touchdown run. His two-point conversion put Rocky up 15-8.

“It’s our favorite play,” Wilson joked. “We almost snap it over his head, and then he follows Sam to run a touchdown. So that’s our best play, seems like. He definitely showcased his speed. You think about where he hits the line. He’s at about the 30, and then he gets 70 yards in about eight seconds. … I think the biggest difference between Mason this year and Mason last year is he’s put on about 30 pounds, but he’s gotten faster, too. I thought Mason showed a lot of toughness this game.”

May halted the next Saratoga series with an interception, but then Moss was picked off in the end zone.

Early in the fourth quarter, Westring left the game with an injury, and strong-armed backup Brogan Love took over as the signal caller. On his first play, he found Max Jones deep over the middle for a 48-yard gain to the Rocky 6, but the Panthers fumbled on the very next play. Loyning scooped up the loose ball and raced 64 yards to the Saratoga 26. A holding penalty helped stall the drive, and Moss booted a 25-yard field goal, putting Rocky Mountain up 18-8 with 3:23 left in the game.

After his initial success, freshman Jones was picked off twice more in the final minutes of the game, once by Moss and a second time by Ryan Grant, sealing the conference win for the Grizz.

Wilson was pleased to see Saratoga leave the field with just 8 points on the scoreboard when the Panthers had been scoring lots of points including 60 against Wind River and 54 the week before against Greybull. Senior Masen Twomey was a man possessed against Saragota as the RMHS middle linebacker.

“He’s kind of a game wrecker in some ways,” Wilson said. “He plays with a lot of attitude, which sometimes gets him in trouble, but I think everybody on our team is pretty happy he’s on our team. The kid’s just tough.

“I thought Justin (Moss) did a really nice job (as defensive coordinator). He put together a really good game plan for these guys.”

The Grizzlies finished with 343 yards of total offense Friday, rushing for 300 yards and passing for 43, while Saratoga rushed for 152 and passed for 190.

Loyning gained 137 yards rushing on 16 carries, Moss 92 yards on nine carries and Ward 72 yards on seven carries. Bartlett led Saratoga with 121 yards rushing on 25 carries.

Moss completed six of 16 passes for 43 yards. May caught three passes for 21 yards, Grant two for 19 yards and Loyning one for three yards.

Moss finished with 20 defensive points, Twomey 19, Loyning and May 17 each, Grant 15, Paul Shetler 13 and Cache Thompson 9.

Wilson said the win could be a season defining game.

“I’m super proud of them,” he said. “There could have been a million excuses for not playing well. It’s Homecoming or it’s senior night, and they’ve got all of these things going on and stuff. But they rose to the occasion and played really well, and they played together. … They made plays when we needed to make plays offensively and especially defensively.

“So it was a really great collective effort. I’m super proud of the way that they’re playing, and I think that resolve is going to show up down the line.”

Conference finale

The Grizzlies will close out the regular season with a conference game at Greybull tonight (Thursday) at 6 p.m.

The Buffs (5-1) fell to Saratoga 54-6 two weeks ago but bounced back to beat Sundance 49-41 Friday. The Rocky-Greybull game is always a doozy.

“I watched their game against Sundance, and they looked like a totally different team (than the game against Saratoga),” Wilson said. “They’re talented, and they’re led by Bennett Sanford. He was a tremendous back last year. And then they have their quarterback, Cord Edeler. He’s been the backup for the last three years, and it’s finally his show now. They’ve kind of gone away from their wishbone stuff, not completely, but they like to spread it around and try to get the ball downfield to Mason Richardson, number 7, a big, tall kid.”

Wilson said he doesn’t fear a letdown against Greybull after the Saratoga win because of the rivalry of the Buffs and the team’s one-game-at-a-time attitude.

“As far as our coaching staff goes, it’s really important that we just keep the same message,” he said. “We just need to be better than the team we were last week and so play our best game and clean some stuff up, get rid of some dumb penalties and stuff from this week. Our kids are always excited to play Greybull.”