Rocky Mountain drops Wind River contest 46-14

A chance for a young Grizzly football team to make their mark fell by the wayside Thursday, with the team suffering a hard bite from the turnover bug, throwing one interception and dropping three fumbles in a 46-14 home loss to Wind River.
The loss to the undefeated Cougars gives Rocky Mountain a 5-3 record at the end of the regular season. They now enter the postseason as a fourth seed from the West and will have one more chance to take down a titan, with the Grizz taking the field against the undefeated Lingle-Ft. Laramie Doggers Friday.
It was an ugly defeat and a tough blow for the Rocky Grizz to suffer at the end of the season. Rocky Mountain found more success through the air, with quarterback Lafe Files completing 13 passes for 183 yards, compared to 82 passing yards for the Cougars, but the Cougars dominated the running game, rushing for 375 yards in a dominant display. Rocky had a serviceable, but in comparison insufficient, 82 yards on the ground.
But, watching the game film, head coach Jessee Wilson said he saw another story than the one shown on the scoreboard and stat sheet. Taking away the possessions that ended in turnovers, the Grizz saw one possession end in a punt, one possession end in a failed fourth down conversion and the other two possessions end in touchdowns.
“You think of all the drives that didn’t result in turnovers and they result in touchdowns,” Wilson said. “Our game plan worked in some ways, we just got bit by turnovers. It was people not usually turning it over who were turning it over.  They are a good team, but it should have been a much closer game.”
Rocky started the game with positive momentum, stopping Wind River in six plays on their first defensive series. But it didn’t take long for Rocky Mountain’s primary nemesis, turnovers, to rear its head.
Three plays in Rocky Mountain’s first offensive possession, Wil Loyning coughed the ball up, resulting in Rocky’s first lost fumble of the game.
Wind River didn’t let that opportunity go to waste,  rushing it in for their first touchdown. They led the game 8-0.
Rocky found themselves stalled in trying to respond, with a fake punt pass attempt ending up in the dirt on fourth down.
“In high school, momentum is such a big thing. I thought early on we captured the momentum when we stopped and held them. On offense, we were moving the ball, we were having a nice balanced attack like we were looking for and then we fumbled and gave them a short field,” Wilson said. “A turnover is a huge momentum swing. With a young team, you have to ride the waves a little bit and be coach/psychologist on how you’re going to get the team back mentally.
“(Jake) Bischoff hit that pass every time in practice. Just drilled him in the chest every time. I had a ton of confidence. He just missed the throw and threw it in the dirt. It was a bummer,” Wilson said.
Wind River again made quick work of the short field. This time Wind River quarterback Cooper Frederick found his wide receiver from 17 yards out for the score.
At the end of the first, Rocky found themselves in a 16-0 hole.
“That Frederick kid, he’s a great athlete,” Wilson said. “Where he gets you in trouble is he is able to extend the play long enough to make coverage break down. It’s hard to cover someone for five seconds. The majority of their passes, he runs, does a great job of keeping his eyes down field and does a great job dinking the ball down to someone. I’m going to chalk that up to a lack of pressure by us, and part of that is because we didn’t utilize our strength on the offensive line and that is just being a bit quicker.”
With the next Rocky offensive possession resulting in a quick punt, Wind River continued to feast.
This time, Wind River wide receiver Jouquin Stevens took a handoff from the quarterback and found a straight path to the end zone on a sweep play.
Another successful two-point conversion later, the Grizz were in a dire 24-0 hole.
But before halftime hit, Rocky found a burst of daylight. Files found Tucker Jackson on an out route, and he outmanuevered several Wind River defenders to break free for a 73-yard run. Files completed a three-yard pass to Matthew Crosby for a two-point conversion. Rocky entered the locker room down 24-8.
“Tucker is just a mismatch. It doesn’t matter who he is going against,” Wilson said. “We ran a deep out, he catches it, breaks three tackles and takes it 60 yards to the house. He’s a big-bodied, strong receiver who can make big plays. We’re going to look to exploit that later this week.”
Receiving the ball to start the second half, Rocky suddenly had an opportunity to make it a one-score game.
It even seemed likely, with the Grizz driving the ball to midfield, before Files again found Jackson for what looked like another big gain. But as Jackson moved past the 20-yard line, a Wind River tackle popped the ball out, allowing the Cougars to recover.
Rocky Mountain gave Wind River a taste of their own medicine in the ensuing drive, forcing a fumble of their own. But Wind River got the ball back quickly, with Files throwing an interception on the next play.
Wind River responded with some classic power football, finally running it in the end zone from three yards out. With a successful two-point conversion, the score was now 32-8.
That series of events effectively shut the door on Rocky Mountain. Wind River scored twice in the fourth quarter, with a four-yard quarterback keeper and then a 51-yard quarterback rush. Files would get the Grizz on the board one more time, finding Loyning for a 14-yard touchdown pass, resulting in the final 46-14 score.
“Our guys were kind of down, and they gave away two easy touchdowns,” Wilson said. “That’s unacceptable, and that’s what I’m most upset about over anything.”
Files threw 13 for 23 in the contest, gaining 183 yards and throwing for two touchdowns, along with the interception.
Jackson continued to be an explosive player, recording five receptions for 124 yards and one touchdown.
Bischoff caught the ball four times for 21 yards. Loyning had two receptions for 22 yards. Clayton Thompson had two receptions for 16 yards.
“I’m encouraged by the number of receivers we used,” Wilson said. “It makes it harder for teams to focus on Jackson, because we have other options. I was happy that we spread the ball around in the passing game.”
Loyning had 15 rushing attempts for 51 yards. Triffen Jolley had five rushes for 28 yards.
Thompson led the defensive efforts, with seven assisted tackles, eight unassisted tackles, one pass breakup and one fumble recovery.
Jackson had four assisted tackles, and 10 unassisted tackles. Jolley had six assisted tackles and eight unassisted tackles. Bischoff recorded six unassisted tackles and one assisted tackle.
As the team moves onto the playoffs, the new environment now calls on the team to win or go home. Wilson said after a lopsided loss, his message to the team is one of confidence.
 “We don’t make some of the uncommon, uncharacteristic boneheaded mistakes, we’re in a ballgame and we are competing to win that game,” Wilson said. “The biggest thing for us is letting our kids know we believe in them and they should believe in themselves. Our best football is yet to be played. It’s not blind confidence. I’m not blowing smoke up their butt. I’d never lie to my guys. I truly believe we can win this game on Friday.”
Wilson said the key to beating undefeated Lingle is forcing them to pass the ball, playing into where Rocky Mountain will have an advantage.
“Their offense funnels through one guy – Louden Bremer. He’s a really great back. They do a good job of getting him in space. If we take that away and keep him contained, we will be in good shape,” Wilson said. “We’re looking to take away their strengths and look to make them throw the ball more. I think we have good matchups in the secondary. I think our guys are better out there. That’s what we want to force them to do, play into our strengths.”
Rocky will make the long trip down to Lingle this Friday. Kickoff is at 6 p.m.