Rocky Mountain football aces another test, shows why it’s the No. 1 team in Idaho
The Rocky Mountain High School football team entered the season as the state’s No. 1-ranked 5A team. But an opening gauntlet of four perennial playoff teams in four weeks would show if the Grizzlies deserved that lofty preseason ranking.
Consider that test aced.
The Grizzlies dispatched No. 5-ranked Eagle 17-10 on Saturday in the annual Herb Criner Bowl rivalry game, scoring their seventh straight win over the Mustangs and sending Rocky Mountain into its bye week secure as the early statewide favorite.
“We’ve done a good job of growing every week and working on the things that we need to be,” Rocky Mountain senior linebacker Gage Tanner said. “I think that will help us just keep building until the goal we want, which is a state championship.”
Tanner and the Rocky Mountain (4-0) defense turned in another dominant performance worthy of a state champion Saturday. The Grizzlies forced four turnovers. They held Eagle (1-2) to seven first downs and 253 total yards. And they allowed the Mustangs to run only three plays inside the red zone.
Eagle’s only touchdown came on an 87-yard catch from Ian Duarte in the second quarter. Without it, the Mustangs would have finished with just 166 yards.
“We just played on a different level of aggressiveness,” Rocky Mountain junior linebacker Brody Swearhart said. “I haven’t seen our team play this physical yet. I feel like we really took it up a notch tonight.”
Swearhart got the Grizzlies started Saturday, recovering a pair of first-quarter fumbles after poor air quality from wildfires moved the game to Saturday.
Those two fumble recoveries led to 14 points, as Rocky Mountain quarterback Tegan Sweaney hit Luke Luchini for a 20-yard touchdown and CJ Jacobsen for a 22-yard score. A week after racking up 366 passing yards and five total TDs, Sweaney completed his first nine passes for 112 yards and two scores.
He finished the night 17-for-31 for 226 yards, completing passes to 10 different receivers as Rocky Mountain led throughout.
“He’s growing. He’s getting better,” Rocky Mountain coach Chris Culig said. “He’s getting more confident.”
Both teams settled into a second-half stalemate, with the only points coming on a 34-yard field goal from Eagle kicker Justin Haas in the fourth quarter.
The Mustangs created the half’s best scoring opportunity when Revan Perry picked off Sweaney on the second play of the second half, and a penalty set Eagle up at the Rocky Mountain 23-yard line. But the Grizzlies’ defense rode to the rescue again, giving up only 2 yards and a missed 38-yard field goal attempt.
The victory ensures Rocky Mountain a second rivalry trophy in as many weeks. And it caps a four-week run that saw it top Eagle (14 straight playoff appearances), Mountain View (nine straight playoff appearances), Coeur d’Alene (13 straight playoff appearances) and Middleton (eight straight playoff appearances in 4A).
“I think we’ve got a really good chance to be special and reach all of our goals,” Culig said. “We’ve got to keep getting better. We made some mistakes today that we just can’t be making when we’re playing really good teams, because you’ll pay for it.
“It shouldn’t have been 17-10, in my mind, just because we made some mistakes.”
EAGLE LEADERS
Duarte finished the night with seven catches for 159 yards and a TD. He also ran for 32 yards on four carries.
Eagle quarterback Brett Liljedahl went 5-for-10 for 110 yards with a TD and an interception.
UP NEXT
Rocky Mountain: The Grizzlies take a bye week before beginning the meat of their 5A SIC Foothills Division schedule by hosting Centennial (0-3) on Sept. 23.
Eagle: The Mustangs jump back into 5A SIC River Division play by hosting upstart Owyhee (3-1) on Friday.
This story was originally published September 10, 2022 at 10:05 PM.
