Grizz rally to edge Greybull in classic nail-biter

The Rocky Mountain-Greybull football rivalry has produced some classic games in recent years, and Thursday’s clash in Greybull was no different as the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies pulled out a 36-33 come-from-behind win.

To say the least, the Grizzlies had trouble stopping the Greybull offense led by quarterback Cord Edeler. The hometown Buffs led 14-0, 21-7 and 27-14 before the Grizzlies took a 28-27 lead and eventually pulled out the three-point win.

Rocky head coach Jessee Wilson said he was a bit worried heading into the game that, with Greybull having lost to Saratoga 54-6 and the Grizzlies beating Saratoga 18-8 the following week, his team might naturally let down a bit, even with the rivalry. Even some fans told him the Grizz should win big.

“I knew that wasn’t going to be the case,” Wilson said. “Greybull didn’t play their best game when they played Saratoga. They knew they were much better than that. So I can’t completely discount that thinking by our guys. You know, we tried to preach to them that every week you’re going to get everybody’s best shot. And especially with Greybull, you know they’ve got a lot of motivation to try to win this game, and so (we told them) it’s important that we come out with a good start, and we didn’t.

“But as disappointed as I was with the hole that we dug ourselves, I’m equally proud of how we were able to stop digging and climb our way out of it. Because it was pretty rough there for a little bit. You know, the other thing that I never shared with our players was that we just had to either beat Greybull or lose to them by less than eight points. I think our kids saw that on WyoPreps and maybe that kind of took away from getting up for the game.”

Early offense

The Buffs took the opening kickoff and came out firing, driving 65 yards to score. Edeler hit Jesse Brown and Bennett Sanford for gains, and Sanford and Mason Richardson ran the ball well before Edeler found Richardson for a 14-yard touchdown pass. A two-point conversion put the home team up 8-0.

After Rocky Mountain went three and out, the Buffs drove 57 yards to score again, overcoming a second-and-18 situation with a 26-yard completion to Alan Burgos, setting up a one-yard touchdown pass to Clayton Didrickson. This time the two-point conversion failed, and Greybull led 14-0.

“They did a really good job of scheming up our pass coverage,” Wilson said. “That’s the hard thing about playing Greybull. We’re so familiar with each other, and we know what each other is going to do. So in some ways that makes it easier to kind of scheme each other up a little bit. In the second half we ended up making some adjustments, and that’s a credit to Justin (Moss) and Austin Haslem for problem solving there, which made a huge difference. They were still able to move the ball, but it wasn’t as consistent. … By making those adjustments, I think it really saved our bacon a little bit.

“He (Edeler) played great, and credit to Greybull for their scheme that they put out there.”

Edeler completed 30 of 36 passes for 329 yards.

Trailing 14-0, the Rocky offense finally shook off the early-game doldrums and drove 72 yards to score with strong running by Sam Loyning and a 16-yard pass from Mason Moss to Cache Thompson that set up a two-yard touchdown run by Loyning. With a Moss PAT, Rocky trailed 14-7 about 4½ minutes into the second quarter.

But Greybull continued to roll on offense, driving 63 yards to score again as Edeler passed for gains of 13, 11 and 12 yards, leading to a seven-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Chacon. This time the Buffs kicked the extra point to lead 21-7.

Now fully operational on offense, the Grizz drove 80 yards to score as Moss hit Jaxx May for 14 and Loyning burst free for a 49-yard gain. Moss hit May for 11, and Loyning took it in from eight yards out as Rocky hung tough, trailing 21-14 with 2:29 left in the first half.

Back came the Buffs, who continued to gain chunks of yardage in the passing game, quickly reaching the Rocky 2-yard line. Edeler scored on a quarterback sneak, but the Buffs misfired on a two-point conversion pass, leaving the Buffs up 27-14 at halftime.

Wilson said he believes Greybull kept trying for the two-point conversion in order to score as many points as possible, needing to win by more than eight points in order to win a tie-breaker, but actually missing out on the conversions cost the Buffs as each team ended up scoring five touchdowns, but Rocky made four extra-point kicks and a two-point conversion.

Second half

Getting the ball first to start the second half, the Grizzlies drove 81 yards to score in just two plays, a nine-yard run by Loyning and a 72-yard burst by Moss right up the middle. Rocky was back in it trailing 27-21 a minute into the third quarter.

Penalties marred Greybull’s first series of the second half including an illegal blindside block and intentional grounding, setting up a short field for the Grizz, who went 27 yards in five plays, with Moss going around right end from four yards out to score. The Grizz led 28-21 with 7:17 on the clock in the third.

Greybull then launched a 73-yard drive that ate up most of the rest of the third quarter, capped by a five-yard pass from Edeler to Burgos. The two-point conversion failed, and Greybull led 33-28 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Grizzlies fired right back, driving 66 yards to score as Moss converted a third-and-nine situation with a 14-yard pass to Ryan Grant, keeping the drive alive. Rocky reached the Greybull 18, and Moss broke numerous tackles with a Josh Allen style run that turned out to be the winning touchdown. A two-point conversion pass to Thompson put Rocky up 36-33 with 8:24 to play.

“I don’t think I can ever speak highly enough about Mason,” Wilson said. “He’s been due, I think, to just take over a game, as much as you can in a football game. There are so many players, so it’s hard for one kid to really be a difference maker. But this week he certainly was.”

Greybull battled back to reach the Rocky Mountain 35, but a dropped pitch lost 10, and a fourth-down pass fell incomplete. The Grizz ate some clock, then punted to the end zone. Edeler completed passes for 25 and 30 yards, then ran for 10 to the Rocky 20, but Grant stepped in front of a pass for an interception, sealing the Rocky Mountain win.

“I’ll give our secondary some credit for making some adjustments and playing much better in the second half, but also our D line,” Wilson said. “We started to get a little bit more pressure in the second half, and especially on that pick. Sam Loyning was chasing him (Edeler) down.

“The cool thing is that we had guys that stepped up and made plays. If you watch Sam run, holy cow, you talk about a guy who’s not real big, but he runs way bigger than he is. There were several times where he’s just running guys over. We didn’t have Cooper (Ward) as our second back, so we had Sam and we had Mason, and they both made up for Cooper’s share of the offense.”

Moss finished with 139 yards rushing on 15 carries, Loyning 131 yards on 20 carries. Moss completed nine of 14 passes for 112 yards, and May had six receptions for 47 yards, Grant two for 36 yards and Thompson one for 16.

Masen Twomey led the Grizz with 23 defensive points on seven solo tackles, five assisted tackles, three tackles for a loss and one sack. Grant finished with 19 defensive points, Moss 18, Loyning 16, Thompson 13 and May and Benson Jolley 10 each.

Home for the playoffs

Now 7-0, the top-ranked Grizzlies will host the Upton Bobcats in the first round of the Class 1A 9-man playoffs, with the kickoff set for Friday at 6 p.m.

Rocky defeated Upton 47-0 on October 2, and the Bobcats (4-4) are coming off a 49-6 loss to Sundance.

If the Grizz win, they will host the winner of the Greybull-Sundance game on Friday, Nov. 6. The Buffs and Bulldogs meet in Sundance Friday at 5 p.m. Greybull beat Sundance 49-41 on October 16 at home.

Wilson said the Grizzlies should be fully healthy Friday, with Ward returning after a week off due to concussion protocol after he was punched by a Saratoga player on October 16.

“The season starts over now,” Wilson said. “This is what I’ve got to talk about with our guys this week. Yeah, we beat them 47 to nothing last time, but they’ve had four or five weeks to get better, and we’ve had four or five weeks to get better.

“The biggest thing we’ve got to worry about is just taking care of ourselves. The message doesn’t really change. It’s boring coach speak, but we’ve just got to be better than we were last week, and I think we will be, too. I’m excited.”

Wilson said being served a little humble pie by Greybull right before the playoffs begin might be a blessing in disguise to help his team focus, adding, “I’m excited to see what our guys do.”