State champs again. Neither COVID-19 nor any opponent could stop Rocky Mountain football
After posing for photos and mugging with the 5A state championship banner, the Rocky Mountain High football team gathered for one final cheer.
“Who’s got it better than us?” it started.
“No one,” the Grizzlies replied in unison.
No one had a better Saturday afternoon than than Rocky Mountain, which knocked off defending state champ Rigby 17-14 at Rexburg’s Madison High to win its second state title in three seasons and third in six years.
The Grizzlies (9-0) also went undefeated to win the 2018 title, making them 31-1 in the past three years. Their only loss came to Rigby (10-1) in last year’s semifinals, a loss they avenged on Saturday.
“It’s one heck of a story,” Rocky Mountain senior running back Max Lehman said. “All I can feel right now is just relief.
“All the hard work that me and my teammates put in to just get to this point, and then we finally finish it off? The high school journey is over, and I couldn’t be more overjoyed.”
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Rocky Mountain’s defense led the way once again Saturday, forcing four turnovers in the first half and holding Rigby to a season-low 14 points. Rigby had only committed four turnovers all year and entered Saturday averaging 41.5 points per game.
The Trojans even benched their starting quarterback, junior Tiger Adolpho, at halftime, looking for a spark. The backup, Taylor Freeman, led Rigby to all of its 14 points. But that proved too little, too late.
“We didn’t take care of the ball in the first half, and that’s the difference in the game,” Rigby coach Armando Gonzalez told the Post Register.
Rocky Mountain’s defense showed cracks at times this year. The ball-hawking unit struggled to create turnovers in September at the level that made the Grizzlies the top defense in 5A two years in a row.
But they found their stride late in the season, creating 17 turnovers in their last five games and 11 in three playoff games.
“We’ve got the best defense in the state,” Lehman said. “Those are my boys. There is not a liability on our defense. Every player is a stud on our defense, and they go out and make huge plays for us.”
Rigby cut the lead to three points when Con Dansie caught an 8-yard shovel pass for a touchdown with 3:40 left in the fourth quarter. But Rocky Mountain recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.
Kobe Warr took the final kneel down, allowing the Grizzlies to storm the field in a year that not only required them to navigate their schedule. They also had to survive a global pandemic that threatened the season.
“There were so many hurdles,” Rocky Mountain coach Chris Culig said. “We got fortunate that we didn’t have a bunch of cases and people not playing. We got really lucky, but we worked hard at it, too.”
The largest threat came in the state quarterfinals. Rocky Mountain pulled junior varsity players up to varsity for the playoff push, then one tested positive. The Grizzlies’ offensive line narrowly avoided a quarantine going into their playoff game against Highland, senior defensive back Xander Nawahine said.
“This definitely means a lot more because we had to work extra hard to even have a season,” senior defensive back Brayden Rundell said. “We had to jump through a whole bunch of hoops. To even get here shows a lot.”
Rocky Mountain didn’t start the season until Sept. 4. The SIC redrew its divisions in the middle of the season. And the Grizzlies had three bye weeks.
But that state championship banner might mean even more than the previous two.
“I’m so proud of all my guys, all my teammates, all my coaches and the organization for just fighting through everything and finding ways to do things,” Lehman said.
The victory also allowed the Grizzlies to send Scott Criner, their offensive coordinator and former head coach, out with a state title in his final game before retiring.
Rocky Mountain finished with 400 yards of offense, running for 250 yards. No one broke the 100-yard mark, but Lehman led the way with 61 yards and both of the Grizzlies’ touchdowns. Jordan Erickson ran for 79 yards, and quarterback Kobe Warr finished with a team-high 81 yards.
Warr also finished 12-of-14 for 150 yards through the air.
This story was originally published November 21, 2020 at 4:34 PM.
