They say offense wins games; defense wins championships.
It’s unknown how accurate that old adage truly is, though the Mountain View defense definitely bought in Friday against visiting Lovell, holding the Bulldogs (1-2) to just 37 yards rushing, en route to a 21-12 win.
“Lovell is a very good team — they’re big up front, and they have a really good running game,” said MV head coach Brent Walk. “They have a young quarterback, but he’s the coach’s son — we knew they were going to be a really good team. At the end of the day, we didn’t play perfect, but it was a huge win for us. We’re really excited about it.”
Weather was a factor for both teams, as the Buffalos (3-0) found their best bet against a stacked Lovell defense was on the ground. After a scoreless first quarter by both teams, MV quarterback Justus Platts scored the first points of the contest on a 9-yard run; he scored again later in the quarter on a 1-yard plunge to give the Buffs a 14-0 lead at the break.
Lovell battled back in the third quarter, holding the Buffs scoreless, while scoring 12 points of their own — the first on a 43-yard pass from quarterback Kyson Crosby to Owen Walker, the second a 3-yard pass from Crosby to Matthew Newman — to cut the lead to 14-12.
Mountain View added to their lead in the fourth, courtesy of a 5-yard touchdown run by Race Carr, while the defense locked the Bulldogs down, allowing just seven yards of total offense in the final frame. Unable to get anything going offensively, Lovell returned home with the loss, 21-12.
“We did a great job of shutting down their run game,” Walk said. “We held them to 37 yards on the ground — the week before, they had 225 yards rushing [in a 17-15 loss to defending 2A State Champs Big Horn]. We played really well, except in the third quarter — we gave up a lot of yards in the third; it kind of got away from us. But other than that, I think we were in complete control of the game — offensively and defensively — which is really good for us.”
A combination of weather and good pass defense by the Bulldogs kept MV in check through the air — Platts completed just five of 12 passes for 48 yards and an interception. Kolby Roitz and Race Car caught two balls apiece, for 26 and 14 yards, respectively; Ashton Colangelo caught one pass for eight yards.
Where the Buffs did get it done was on the ground, racking up 226 rushing yards. Jackson Sawyer led the charge, with 94 yards on 17 carries, followed by Platts, who ran the ball 10 times for 61 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Race Carr carried five times for 25 yards and a score, while Ashton Colangelo carried once for 22 yards. Wyatt Buckley finished with 15 yards on six carries, while Roitz rounded out the ground game with two carries for nine yards.
“We had 226 yards rushing against a very good defense,” Walk explained. “Lovell’s is by far the best defense we’ve faced up until this point. That’s what I love about our system — and Lovell did some very good things scheme-wise in terms of the passing game — and that opened up the run game for us. The guys up front did a great job — Jackson Sawyer ran the ball very well for us, and we have a bunch of other guys that are touching the ball. We weren’t thinking run-heavy going into the game, but what I love about our offense is, if you try to take this away, we like to think we have something else to attack you with.”
Levi Jones led the team in defensive points with 15 (5 tackles, 4 solo, 1 for loss, 1 interception), followed by Sawyer with 11 (5 solo tackles, 1 for loss) and Roper Buckley with 8.5 (4 tackles, 3 solo, 1 for loss, .5 sack). Carr finished with 6.5 points (2 tackles, .5 sack), while Mason Tims (3 solo tackles) and Roitz (3 solo tackles) finished with six points apiece.
“Defensively, it was everybody — our defensive front, our linebackers, our secondary — we played really well, except for maybe a couple of big plays,” Walk said. “Credit to Lovell and their coaching staff — they came out ready to play, and we got on our heels a little bit. But then we got right back to it. And we did a great job defensively in the fourth quarter.”
The Buffalos are on the road this week at Cokeville, the team that knocked them out of the 2A State Playoffs last season. Walk said his team has been looking forward to this game since last November.
“We’re definitely excited for the Cokeville game,” he said. “We just need to build on playing very physical — I love our offensive and defensive line. We have dudes that are coming to play, and play hard. Cokeville’s quarterback is a really good football player. Our focal point is to do everything we can to shut down their run game.”
