Rocky Mountain’s football winning streak ends with lopsided loss in 5A semifinals

With Rigby holding onto a 17-3 lead late in the third quarter of the 5A semifinals Friday night and facing third down deep in their own territory, the snap skipped 20 yards past quarterback Keegan Thompson.

Instead of falling on the ball, he collected it, eluded two blitzing linebackers and lofted a pass to a wide-open Christian Fredricksen near midfield for a first down. Four plays later, Rigby scored to extend its lead to 24-3.

It was that kind of night for the fifth-ranked Trojans, who upset top-ranked Rocky Mountain 31-9 and emphatically ended the Grizzlies’ 22-game winning streak.

“Sometimes I’d rather be lucky than good,” Rigby coach Armando Gonzalez said of the play after the game.

Against the Grizzlies, his team was both. And now Rigby will advance to the state title game for the first time in school history.

Rigby (9-1) will have the opportunity to avenge the only blemish on its record with a rematch against Coeur d’Alene (9-2) at the Kibbie Dome next week. A kickoff time and date have not been set yet. Coeur d’Alene beat Rigby 31-26 in the season opener.

Rocky Mountain (10-1), which hadn’t lost since the state semifinals in 2017, didn’t have an answer for a much more physical Rigby squad. The Trojans racked up 403 yards of offense against the state’s top defense.

“When I got here, I saw a team that had the potential to be great but just needed some more work in the weight room and commitment to offseason conditioning,” said Gonzalez, who is in his third year with the program. “And I think that’s what you saw tonight — a very physical and well-conditioned team doing what we’ve done all year long.”

Defending state champion Rocky Mountain went wire-to-wire as 5A’s unanimous No. 1-ranked team. And it hadn’t been seriously challenged in its first 10 games this season with the exception of a 19-13, overtime win four weeks ago over Eagle. Rigby beat Eagle 56-20 last week in the quarterfinals.

“I think early we weren’t executing some of our pressures fully, and that caused us to get a little out of sync and lose some confidence early,” Rocky Mountain coach Chris Culig said. “And then we were just scrambling trying to figure it out. They’re good up front.”

In the first quarter, the game had all the makings of a back-and-forth affair, as the two teams traded field goals after stalling out in the red zone.

But Thompson started rolling in the second quarter and never looked back. He threw touchdown passes of 15 and 16 yards to Trajen Larsen and Fredricksen in two of the Trojans’ next three drives to take a 17-3 halftime lead.

Rocky Mountain took the opening kickoff of the second half and marched into Rigby territory before turning the ball over on downs.

Then two possessions later, Rigby took a commanding 24-3 lead when Thompson hit Brycen Uffens in stride on a 32-yard scoring strike with 1:42 left in the third quarter.

Rocky threatened to get back in the game by responding with a seven-play, 50-yard drive that culminated in a 10-yard pass from Kobe Warr to Jordan Erickson. But after a failed two-point conversion attempt left Rocky down 24-9, Rigby ground out the clock before adding a late score to seal the victory.

“Obviously, it’s tough. We put in all this work and we have a great program and we expect big things,” Rocky Mountain quarterback Colby Jackson said. “Things weren’t clicking on offense all around. They’re a great team … but they just got the best of us tonight.”

The Grizzlies finished with a season-low 142 yards of offense.

Meanwhile, Thompson was 11-of-18 passing for 188 yards and four touchdowns, while rushing for 90 yards on 12 carries. Brigham Youngstrom rushed for 111 yards on 17 carries.

This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 11:02 PM.