October 7, 2010 I The Lovell Chronicle I 7
www. LovellChronicle.com
BY DAVID PECK
The Lovell Bulldogs
celebrated homecoming in
style Friday night, keep-
ing their fans on the edge of
their seats and their coach-
es nervous by edging the
Greybull Buffaloes 7-6 in a
true nail-biter.
It was a festive night for
the Bulldogs. After a spirit-
ed pep rally and bonfire the
night before and a pre-game
tailgate party, fans and
players alike were ready for
a good game, and the Bull-
dogs and Buffs delivered.
"It was a great atmo-
sphere," coach Doug Ha-
zen said. "The fireworks (at
halftime) were great. The
kids loved it. It gave us a
little extra spark after half-
time."
Early on, the Buffs
moved the ball well with
their talented backfield of
crafty senior quarterback
Clay Cundall, quick half-
back Austin Frazier and
huge fullback Hayden Go-
ton, driving 92 yards to
score on their first pos-
session after the Bulldogs
punted them deep. Cun-
dall capped the methodical
19-play drive with a one-
yard quarterback keeper.
The Buffs missed the PAT
but led 6-0, having used up
most of the time in the first
quarter.
"They shocked us a little
bit right away until we got
adjusted to what they were
going to do," Hazen said.
"They have a lot of weap-
ons. It took us a while to get
adjusted to the speed of the
game with their option."
Hazen said the Bulldogs
practiced all week on play-
ing the necessary "assign-
ment" defense against the
option but were almost con-
centrating too much on as-
signments rather than hit-
ting and weren't aggressive
enough early.
"We started blitzing and
DAVID PECK
Lovell senior wide receiver Kaleb Leithead hauls
in a 12oyard pass from Koty Johnson for a key first
down during Lovell's 7-6 win over the Greybull
Buffaloes Friday night. The Bulldogs travel to
Wyoming Indian Friday.
doing some things with our
defensive tackles (moving
the tackles)," he said.
Greybull kicked off to
the Bulldogs and like a
lightning bolt, the Bulldogs
took the lead. Kick return-
er Mark Grant fielded the
kick at the 11 and took it
straight up the middle, got
some blocks, found a seam
and raced 89 yards for a
touchdown. Cody Savage
booted the PAT and Lovell
led 7-6 at the end of the first
quarter.
"Mark did a great job
running with it, but it was
the whole squad," Hazen
said. "We've been saying as a
staff that it was only a mat-
ter of time before we would
return one for a touchdown.
It was perfect timing. We
got our chance and took ad-
vantage of it."
Hazen also said he liked
how Grant took the ball
straight up the field.
"I don't like guys who
juke and jive," he said. "I
like kids who go north and
south with kickoff returns -
one cut and go."
There would be no more
scoring in the game. Grey-
bull fumbled the ball away
in Lovell territory on its
next two possessions with
the second miscue recovered
by the Bulldogs at their own
one-yard line. Meanwhile,
the Bulldogs fought the
field position battle, finding
it difficult to get the ball out
of their own end of the field,
although they did drive the
ball out of danger after the
second fumble thanks, in
part, to a 20-yard hookup
from Koty Johnson to Cody
Savage.
"We wanted to make
them drive the football,"
Hazen said. "Nobody should
be able to drive the length
of the field on us. We really
killed ourselves on that first
drive. We had them on the
ropes a couple of times ~d
let them off.'
"Other teams we've
seen (on film) gave up big
plays to those guys but we
made them drive the ball
and with that many fakes
the ball is going to come out
sometimes and it did."
Greybull drove into
Lovell territory again but
Mark Grant batted down a
Clay Cundall pass on third
and right, forcing a punt.
DEFENSIVE HALF
In the second half, the
Bulldogs gave a little yard-
age but continued to make
big plays on defense, twice
stopping Goton on fourth-
DAvm PECK
Lovell senior defensive tackle Darren Ballard hangs onto Greybull receiver
Austin Frazier during Lovell's narrow 7-6 win over the Buffs Friday night. The
win boosted the Bulldogs to 4-1 on the season.
down-and-short plays to
force the Buffs to turn the
ball over on downs. On one
play in particular, Hazen
recalled, Steven Pickett put
a hard hit on Goton that
stopped the big fullback
cold.
"That one gave me goose
bumps when I watched it,"
he said. "He picked up big
bull drove the ball to the 36
but left a bad pitch on the
ground and Hunter Hinck-
ley recovered Greybull's
third fumble of the game.
Lovell drove to the Grey-
bull 20 and could have run
out the clock, but a third-
down pass fell incomplete
and a fourth-down run came
up short, giving Greybull
numbex 99 and drove him. the ball with 18 seconds to
backwards." play.
After the second fourth-
down stop, the Bulldogs
drove into Greybull terri-
tory before punting, forcing
the Buffs to operate from
their own end of the field for
a change. Lovell then forced
Greybull to go three and out
and Billy Davila got a hand
on the Greybull punt, put-
ting the Bulldogs in great
shape at the Greybull 31.
Johnson hit Kaleb Leit-
head for a 12-yard gain on
third and 11, and strong
running by Dino Collins ad-
vanced the ball to the five
before the Buffs held. Grey-
Buried deep, the Buffs
tried two passes, which fell
incomplete, then tried a lat-
eral and halfback pass, but
the Bulldogs smelled out
the play and hit Frazier for
a three-yard loss as time ex-
pired.
Greybull dominated
the statistics, out-gaining
the Bulldogs 221-93 on the
ground, although Collins led
all rushers with 88 yards on
27 carries. Goton led Grey-
bull with 79 yards on 15 car-
ries, and Frazier added 73
yards on 12 attempts.
Johnson completed two
of 11 passes for 32 yards,
Cundall one of seven for 23
yards.
"We just weren't click-
ing the way we should have
been," Hazen said. "We
couldn't seem to put it all to-
gether. We did run the ball
decent, but until the third
or fourth quarter we were
getting three or four yards
(a carry) instead of eight or
10, and if we had a negative
play we were in a hole. Koty
was just slightly off."
Davila led the Bulldogs
in defensive points with 27,
recording 14 assisted tack-
les, three solo tackles and
a blocked kick. Joey Croft
and AJ Montanez added 18
points each, Croft on 11 as-
sisted tackles, one solo tack-
le and a recovered fumble
and Montanez on 10 assist-
ed tackles, one sack and a
fumble recovery. Grant had
16 points, Pickett 14, Sav-
age and Leithead 12 each,
Hinckley and Collin McAr-
See 'WIN,' page 9
i
tt
Ft
i:
t
i
H
BY BRAD DEVEREAUX
It's a sweep!
Well on their way to a suc-
cessful 2010 volleyball season, the
Rocky Mountain Lady Grizzlies
flexed their muscles at the Grey-
bull/Riverside Duals Friday and
Saturday in south Big Horn Coun-
ty, sweeping the tournament with
four wins against their opponents.
The Lady Grizz made the sweep in
the true sense of the word, not al-
lowing opponents to win even one
game throughout the weekend.
Rocky Mountain first faced the
Tongue River Lady Eagles. The
Lady Eagles have been a force in
recent years, but after a few meet-
ings this season, the Grizz have
shown they are the favorite. They
beat Tongue River 25-18 and 25-5
Friday to kick off the tourney.
"We dominated that match,
partly because of a lot of good
serves," coach Carol McMillin
said, noting that Rachel Allred
had a nice streak of 11 points in a
row while serving.
The Lady Grizz met Wyoming
Indian next. McMillin said the
Grizz continued to serve well and
the hits started picking up for a
25-6 and 25-10 victory.
"The team seemed to be work-
ing well together during the
game," McMillin said.
Saturday morning, the Lady
Grizz continued their momentum
and beat Moorcroft, 25-11 and 25-
20.
McMillin said the team eased
up somewhat and lost their mo-
mentum for a few plays in the
second game, but they were able
to focus and close the gap for the
win.
"Our goal has been to not let
our momentum go down," Mc-
Millin said.
The Lady Grizz did just that in
their next match against Dubois,
holding the Lady Ram offense
down to secure a 25-14 and 25-12
win.
McMillin said the team's three
top hitters, Leslie Blackburn, Eli-
za Higgins and Kallee Jo Wilson,
did really well at the tournament,
sending different types of hits to-
wards their opponents all week-
end.
"We talked about having three
strong hitters and how we can
wear a team down," McMillin said.
"I'm sure most teams are trying to
take Eliza out of the picture, but
Kallee Jo and Leslie are hitting
equally as well."
Rachel Allred has been adding
Some offense as a right side hitter
as well and setter Lauren Peter-
son got a few kills over the week-
end, McMillin said.
'~Lauren has been doing a great
job setting all over the place," Mc-
Millin said. "She doesn't always
get the recognition the hitters
do, but it's the setter that makes
those hits possible."
Digging and blocking is im-
proving across the board, too, Mc-
Millin said.
McMillin said she and her as-
sistant coaches were happy after
the team dominated the duals.
"We were pleased. We saw
some confidence building with
the girls," she said. "They were
relaxed. We tried some different
offensive moves that we've been
working on in practice. It was
good to see them executed in com-
petition."
In recent practices and con-
tinuing this week, McMillin said
the team's focus is improving de-
fense.
'%Ve're going to make sure we
are active and ready for anything,"
the coach said.
RIVERSIDE AND GREYBULL
The Grizz will host the Riv-
erside Lady Rebels Saturday at
the Rocky Mountain Middle/High
School in Cowley. Games are at
noon (freshman), 1 p.m. (JV) and
2 p.m. (varsity).
McMillin said the Grizz beat
Riverside in three games earlier
in the season, but Rocky Moun-
tain is making sure not to look
past the match. She said River-
side has some strong outside hit-
ters that can hit at deep angles
and the Lady Grizz will have to be
tough while blocking to eliminate
Riverside's options on offense.
The Lady Grizz will travel
to Greybull Tuesday, Oct. 12, for
another match, McMillin said.
Games will be at 4 p.m. (fresh-
man), 5 (JV) and 6 (varsity).
McMillin said the team has
goals of doing well at State and
also placing first in the 2A North-
west Conference, but she said the
team is still "taking it one game
at a time."
"Every week when we get
ready, we concentrate on the com-
petition and what we have to do to
win," McMillin said.
Lauren Peterson gets under
the ball and bumps it to her
waiting teammates during a
recent match.
STANDINGS
2A WE ;T FOOTBAI
Conf. Overall
Team W L W L
Linen 4 D 4 1
Lovell 3 4 1
GrevbuU 3 3 2
Bin Pinnv 2 Z 3 2
Plnedele 2 2 2 3
Mtn. View 1 | 1 4
Kemmerer t ~ | 4'
Wvo. Indian O !4 O S
RESULTS
Friday, October 1
Pinedale 20, Mtn. View 0
Big Piney 32, Kemmerer 13
Lyman 49, Wyo. Indian 32
Lovell 7, Greybull 6
SCHEDULE
Friday, October 8
Mtn. View at Lyman, 4 p.m.
Big Piney at Pinedale, 6 p.m.
Kemmerer at Greybull, 6 p.m.
Lovell at Wyo. Indian, 6 p.m.
1A WE,' ;T FOOTBAI
i Conf. Overall
Team W L W L
[nkevtlln 4 O S O
Dubnis 4 0 S O
Burlinnton 3 1 3 :)
bckv Mtn. 2 2 ~ 2
Wind River 2 2 ~ 2
Riverside 1 3 2 3
$ardoaa 0 4 O S
$hnshnni 0 4 O 5
RESULTS
Friday, October 1
Cokeville 47, Rocky Mtn. 6
Dubois 26, Burlington 8
Wind River 20, Saratoga 10
Riverside 26, Shoshoni 13
SCHEDULE
Friday, October 8
Dubois at Cokeville, 2 p.m.
Rocky at Shoshoni, 2:30 p.m.
Wind River at Burlington, 3 p.m.
Riverside at Saratoga, 3:30
ri
!
ii
i!
