The Mountain View High School football team continued to roll over the weekend, putting up obscene offensive numbers on the road at Kemmerer Friday night, en route to a 61-6 win.
The Buffalos (5-0, 3-0 in 2A West) amassed nearly 617 yards of total offense, despite being flagged on seemingly every play (13 times for a whopping 145 yards, compared to one penalty for 10 yards for Kemmerer). Quarterback Justus Platts led the balanced attack, completing 16 of 22 passes for 319 yards and five touchdowns.
“Justus threw the ball really, really well,” said MV head coach Brent Walk. “There were a couple of times where we missed our pass protections, but other than that, our offensive line did a great job. Our receivers were catching his passes — it was pretty impressive.”
Lest anyone think the Buffalos went pass-happy on offense, MV also gained 298 yards on the ground, with two running backs going over the century mark, and a third knocking on the door. Walk said he was proud of how his team responded to the endless flags by the officiating crew, keeping their focus on where it needed to be — winning the game.
“It was really cool, how my kids handled it,” Walk explained. “We went in at halftime, and I told them, ‘Listen, flags are going to keep coming — there’s nothing we can do about it. You just need to come out and play.’ I’m very proud of the way they handled it.”
The Buffalos had the passing game working early, with Platts hitting Ashton Colangelo for a 41-yard touchdown pass on the second play of the game. Four more touchdowns in the first half followed, including a 12-yard strike to Kolby Roitz, a 26-yard gem to Race Carr, a 12-yarder to Brendon Walker and another to Colangelo at the end of the first half, this time for eight yards.
Kemmerer (1-3, 0-3 in 2A West) was able to put together a scoring drive of their own, stringing together a series of screen passes to running back Noah Parks that culminated in a 12-yard touchdown pass from Rangers QB Sam Thatcher to Parks for the home team’s lone score on the night. The Buffs led 33-6 at the break.
“Defensively, we were not phenomenal,” Walk said. “They had one kid that had 101 yards receiving, and they were all on screens and bubbles. But that gives us something to work on this week. We’ll get it fixed before Pinedale — Pinedale has some very good backs; probably two of the best that we’ll face so far. We know we’re going to have to go to work.”
The second half was spent primarily on the ground, beginning with an 85-yard touchdown run by Roitz to make it 40-6. The Buffs scored three more times in the fourth quarter, including touchdown runs of 42 yards and 51 yards by Wyatt Buckley and a 25-yard touchdown run by Jackson Sawyer. When the dust settled, Mountain View returned to Bridger Valley with a 61-6 win.
Sawyer led the charge on the ground, racking up 109 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. Roitz followed with 106 yards on three carries and a score, while Buckley finished with 90 yards on three carries and a pair of touchdowns.
Under center, Platts hit four different receivers on the night, with Colangelo reeling in six passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Carr caught five balls for a team-high 121 yards and a touchdown, while Walker caught two passes for 51 yards and a score. Roitz rounded out the receivers with three catches for 37 yards and a touchdown.
“Every single game we play, we have multiple guys touching the ball,” Walk explained. “Race Carr had a great game, Kolby, Ashton — Brendon Walker had some good catches for us. I was really impressed with Wyatt Buckley — he came in and had three carries for 90 yards, which is pretty damn good. We like to think we have a lot of weapons, a lot of kids that can make plays. At the end of the day, we just need to make sure we’re getting better every single day, every single week.”
Levi Jones was the leading points-getter on defense with 19 (13 tackles, 4 solo), followed by Roitz with 14 (7 tackles, 5 solo) and Roper Buckley with 13 (8 tackles, 5 solo).
Friday is Homecoming, with Pinedale (3-1, 2-1 in 2A West) coming to town to play spoiler. The Wranglers are coming off of a 30-7 loss to Cokeville, and will be looking to get their season back on track.
“Pinedale has those two running backs that are really good, their offensive schemes are good,” Walk said. “We need to lay our ears back and stop the run, control the line of scrimmage, from tackle to tackle. We were good at defending the run, but we just can’t give up big plays. On offense, our focus is to just keep getting better. We need to control ourselves, come out and play Mountain View football and hopefully get another victory.”
