New year, same result. Rocky Mountain holds off Mavs’ comeback to keep ax trophy
The Battle of the Mountains rivalry trophy has made itself comfortable at Rocky Mountain High. And it won’t need to move anytime soon.
The No. 2-ranked Grizzlies staved off a late charge at Mountain View for a 39-36 victory Friday, marking their third straight win in the series between state powerhouses.
The win also keeps the 50-pound rivalry trophy topped with a 3-foot fireman’s ax at Rocky Mountain (1-0) for another year. The Grizzlies have won every meeting with Mountain View since the schools introduced the trophy three years ago.
“My class, 2021, we’ve had it for (three) years and so we’re trying to keep it in Rocky,” Grizzlies senior quarterback Kobe Warr said. “It’s a big symbol for us.”
Friday marked the season opener for both teams after losing two games to the COVID-19 pandemic. The West Ada School District cleared all of its teams to play without fans Tuesday night, creating a scramble to get ready for a marquee game in three days.
Rocky Mountain’s vaunted defense surrendered its most points in regulation since 2015. It struggled to keep Mountain View quarterback Jake Farris (330 total yards, five TDs) in the pocket and never found a way to contain receiver Kayden Chan (11 catches, 172 yards, three TDs).
But 5A’s top defense two years running made the final stop it needed with a play it inserted midway through Friday’s game.
Mountain View (0-1) got the ball back down by three with 1 minute, 50 seconds left and all the momentum on its sideline. The Grizzlies forced three straight incompletions, and then Ty Tanner and Mason Jacobsen combined to stop a scrambling Farris 3 yards short of the needed first down.
“We had a play that we just put in during the game, and I dropped to my responsibility,” Tanner said. “I saw Jake started to roll out and realized I had to come over the top and help. … We got the stop that we needed.”
Rocky Mountain coach Chris Culig, the Grizzlies’ defensive coordinator, noted his team has plenty of work to do shoring up its secondary. But he said he was proud it hung in there as Mountain View scored all 36 of its points in the second half.
“This group has won a ton of games,” Culig said. “There was no giving up. … I’m not happy to give up 36 points. But I’m sure happy we got more points than they did.”
Rocky Mountain jumped out to a 16-0 lead in the first quarter and never let it slip away. Warr finished 15-of-19 for 207 yards and two TDs, adding another 63 yards and a score on the ground.
He provided perhaps the highlight of the night, spinning and scrambling in the third quarter before leaping off his feet to find a wide-open Kade Thompson for a 34-yard touchdown.
“I think he’s a special quarterback,” Culig said. “It’s just people haven’t seen him. He hasn’t lost a lot of games in his career.”
Rocky Mountain’s jack-of-all-trades Jordan Erickson returned the opening kickoff of the second half for a 95-yard touchdown. And he caught what proved to be the game-winning score on a 34-yard skinny post from Warr, Rocky Mountain’s only points in the fourth quarter.
The rest of the season remains up in the air during the coronavirus pandemic with only West Ada schools and Kuna cleared to play in the 5A Southern Idaho Conference. But Rocky Mountain and Mountain View both have at least one more game set on their schedule.
The Grizzlies travel to Centennial (0-1) on Sept. 11, while Mountain View travels to Eagle (1-0) the same night.
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 10:27 PM.
