Grizz fall just short of state title game, drop heartbreaker to Sundance

Rocky Mountain coaches have been replaying Friday’s semifinal playoff game against Sundance over and over in their heads and through watching video, and the outcome is still the same – a 27-21 win for the Sundance Bulldogs on the RMHS field in Cowley.

The Grizzlies jumped out to a 14-0 lead and led 21-7 at halftime, but Sundance, behind talented quarterback Kade Mills, rallied in the second half to knot the score at 21, then drove 78 yard in the final minutes to score the winning touchdown.

“I thought we did a great job of coming out and establishing what we wanted to do,” Rocky head coach Jessee Wilson said. “I thought we had good diversity in our play calling. We had some things on film that we knew we would be successful against, and so yeah, in that first half we did great.

“I thought Mason (Moss, quarterback) made some really good reads when throwing the ball. They came in trying to stop our run game. Obviously, when you run for about 300 (yards) a game, that’s going to be a big priority for any team you’re trying to play against. But I thought we did a nice job of blocking some things up early on, and I thought we did a nice job of working those edges.”

Strong first half

The Grizz were rockin’ and rollin’ early. After the opening kickoff carried out of bounds, the Grizzlies drove 65 yards to score thanks to crisp passing by Moss and strong running by senior running back Sam Loyning, whose 25-yard burst carried the Grizzly offense into Bulldog territory at the 36. Moss hit Jaxx May for a 12-yard gain and a 19-yard hookup to the six. Three plays later, Moss converted a quarterback sneak from a half yard out, and with his PAT, the Grizz led 7-0 4½ minutes into the game.

With their first chance on offense, Sundance drove 50 yards to the Rocky Mountain 19, but May stepped in front of a Mills aerial for an interception, ending the threat. Moss had actually intercepted Mills on the first play of the drive, but when the Sundance receiver fell down with little contact, Moss was whistled for pass interference.

After the May interception, the Grizzlies drove 95 yards to score. Moss got the Grizz out of their own end with a 28-yard run down the left sideline to the Grizzly 43, and after a pass to Ryan Grant gained six yards to the 49, May took a jet sweep around left end, followed some blocks and raced 51 yards for a touchdown. Rocky led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Sundance drove to the Rocky 18, but an errant snap from center lost 18 yards, and a fourth down pass wasn’t close, giving the ball back to Rocky Mountain.

Unfortunately, the Grizz went three and out, and Sundance drove 59 yards to score on a 10-yard pass from Mills to Lyman Halverson with 1:43 left in the first half.

After the kickoff, the Grizzlies executed the two-minute offense, and after a pair of runs by Loyning netted 13 yards, Moss found junior Cache Thompson down the right sideline. Mills went high for an interception, but the ball bounced off his hands and into the waiting arms of Thompson, who raced to the 1-yard-line but then kneeled, hoping to run clock and not give Sundance a chance to respond. Moss ran a QB sneak for a touchdown, and the Grizz took a 21-7 lead into the locker room at halftime after Sundance attempted to put points on the board but fell short.

It worked out, but Wilson said Thompson should have just scored the touchdown on the pass.

“I told the kids, ‘We’re gonna try to get a first down here, and then we’re gonna try to get aggressive, but we don’t want to give them the ball back before half, because we want to go in with a two-score lead if we can.’ And so, Cache, maybe watching a little too much NFL football or something, decided to take a knee right there, and he’s like, ‘Well, there’s like 40 seconds left on the clock.’ I was like, ‘OK, all right, it sounds good, but it about gave me an aneurysm running down there.”

Second half comeback

The second half was a different story for both teams. Sundance took the kickoff and drove 51 yards after a 28-yard return. It was the Mills and Halverson show for Sundance between runs by Mills and passes to Halverson. Halverson ducked and wove his way to pay dirt from 11 yards out, and Sundance trailed 21-14.

“I think on offense and defense, they made some good adjustments,” Wilson said. “We were coming out of halftime with a two-score lead. We really wanted to make sure that we protect and don’t allow big for big plays. So we were playing over the top quite a bit. They did a good job of getting the Halverson kid into some of that wide receiver screen game because we were playing off, they did a good job of that.”

After the Grizz went three and out, Sundance also had to punt after gaining one first down.

After an 11-yard run by Moss, May took a jet sweep around left end for 31 yards to the Sundance 35, but the play was called back on a mystery illegal formation penalty. The Grizz recovered to reach the Sundance 47, but on fourth and two, Moss was hit in the backfield on a carry, and Sundance took over at the 50.

Sundance worked to the Lovell 32, and on third and 11 Mills rolled right and appeared to be looking for running room but then pulled up and hit Trevor Lyons wide open deep down the right sideline for a touchdown – a blown coverage by the Grizzly secondary who were concentrating on Mills. The score was tied 21-21 early in the fourth quarter.

The Grizzlies roared back and drove to the Sundance 17 as Moss ran for gains of 17 and 12 yards and hit Grant for 12. But Moss was sacked for a 15-yard loss, and a third-down pass to Grant was tipped away, and a fourth down pass to Jaxson Sponsel fell incomplete. 

The Grizzly defense forced a punt, but the Rocky Mountain offense went three and out on the ensuing series, and Moss punted to the Sundance 22.

Given new life with 3:50 on the clock, the Sundance offense steadily worked downfield as Mills hit Cord Marchant for 30 yards and Lyons for 27. Three plays later, Mills pitched the ball to Halverson, who connected with Marchant on a halfback pass to the end zone, putting Sundance on top. The two-point play failed, but Sundance led 27-21 with 14 ticks left on the clock.

Never quitting, the Grizzlies reached Bulldog territory as Moss hit May for 11 yards and Grant for 13 to the Sundance 41, but time expired.

The Grizzlies finished the season 9-1, counting a forfeit conference win over Shoshoni – the best season in Rocky Mountain history since the Grizzlies went 7-1 in 2020, going undefeated until falling to Lusk in the semifinals.

The Grizz rushed for 185 yards and passed for 141. Sundance rushed for 186 yards and passed for 237.

Moss gained 82 yards rushing on 15 carries and completed 10 of 15 passes for 141 yards. May gained 56 yards rushing on three carries, Loyning 52 yards on 13 carries. Grant caught five passes for 43 yards, May four for 48 yards and Thompson one for 50. 

Mills carried 17 times for 138 yards, Halverson 13 times for 33 yard. Mills completed 15 of 21 passes for 234 yards, and Lyman Halverson caught eight passes for 101 yards, Marchant four for 52 yards, Lyons three for 63 and Luke Halverson one for 21.

Wilson said Mills was as elusive a quarterback as the Grizzlies have faced this season.

“I don’t know if he had Vaseline on his pants or what, but my final assessment of this game was that, in the second half, we kind of lost some of our fundamentals,” he said. “As a program, I feel like we hang our hat on being good tacklers and being good blockers. Granted, that’s going to be harder to do when you have better athletes, of course. But there were a number of times I thought we were in really great position to make the play, and we missed a couple of tackles, even in really long down and distance situations.

“Like there was a third and 20 I think they ended up converting on in the second half, and we couldn’t convert on a fourth and two. And those were just mistakes from an execution standpoint. I thought schematically we were in a pretty good place. The majority of the game, we just didn’t do our jobs as well as we should have done.

Moss finished with 26 defensive points, Benson Jolley 18, Loyning 12, Thompson 9 and Evin Clendenen 8.

Bittersweet ending

Looking back, the Grizzlies were frustratingly close to advancing to the state championship game but fell just short.

“To use an analogy that I think is pretty relevant to my life (new baby in the Wilson household), after that game, I slept like a baby. I woke up and cried every three hours,” he said. “Those are tough. And I think what I’m most disappointed in, and what makes me most sad, and it’s the same thing every year, is that now I don’t get to hang out with those kids every day anymore. You know, those seniors, I thought, did a great job this year of stepping into their roles. Not every single one of them was a starter, but in every opportunity that they had, I thought they did a great job.

“I thought William Torres played a tremendous game on Friday. He made several plays, several great plays. Sam statistically didn’t have his best game, but man, he opened up a lot of other stuff because he was being keyed on. And so I just think about those kids. My heart hurts for them the most.”

The game was the final contest for seniors Jaxson Miller, Loyning, Paul Shetler, Travis Crosby, Treysen Merrill and Torres. Senior Masen Twomey was unable to play Friday, which Wilson said was huge, leaving a huge hole at middle linebacker and the offensive line.

“It was a great year until the end, kind of like last year,” Wilson said. “We had a really good, talented group, and I thought we were able to do a lot of stuff with them, and we were able to accomplish some pretty cool things. … But I think the ultimate goal always is that we leave the place better than how we found it. I’m very conflicted right now as I sit here, because I think I should be getting ready for another game. I felt like last year we overachieved, and I feel like this year we slightly underachieved, though it’s hard to base success off of one football game. The positive thing is that we bring a big bulk of this team back next year.”

Wilson said he was proud of the fact that the Grizzlies never quit.

“The one thing I love the most about this team was we were never out of it, ever,” he said. ”Against Greybull, we go down two scores, and we come back and we end up winning that one. Against Saratoga, we gave up the lead later in the game and then respond and come back and score. It was kind of a never say die attitude, and even in this last game they go down and score, and I’m talking to the huddle before that last 14 seconds, and there was not a single bit of doubt in their eyes that we weren’t going to find a way to come out and win that game. That shows me that we’re building that resilience and that toughness and all of those great lessons that football teaches you.”