No. 1 Rocky Mountain toys with another 6A SIC foe. Hook-and-lateral TD says it all
Rocky Mountain played as many as five quarterbacks last season. But there’s no doubt who’s taking snaps for the Grizzlies in 2024.
Senior Austin Rovig kept the top-ranked Rocky Mountain football team surging along with a 46-17 home victory over Middleton on Friday night, putting the Grizzlies alone atop the 6A Southern Idaho Conference’s Foothills Division.
Rovig was an efficient 18-for-23 passing for 365 yards and five touchdowns before handing the game over to backup Collin Chapman midway through the third quarter.
“He has a high football intelligence,” Rocky Mountain coach Scott Criner said of Rovig. “He’s really competitive, and he brings it to the field every day since the day he got to Rocky.”
The Grizzlies (7-0, 4-0) are averaging a state-leading 424 yards and 49.8 points per game, complemented by a defense that also ranks No. 1 in the state, at 195 yards and 10 points per game. Rocky boosted those totals with a season-high 515 yards Friday night while holding the Vikings (4-3, 3-1) to just 83 total yards.
So far it’s been a season of dominance for the Grizzlies, whose first five games finished with a running clock because of the 40-point mercy rule. And a lot of it has to do with their versatile and vast number of playmakers.
Four different Grizzlies caught touchdown passes, led by senior receiver Kade Benedick with two. Benedick totaled six receptions for 95 yards, and he was part of a hook-and-lateral for a score near the end of the first half.
On second-and-4 from the Middleton 38-yard line, Rovig started the trick play by completing a 14-yard pass to Benedick, who then flipped it to senior running back Taeshaun Reese as he came sprinting along the Rocky sideline. He sped into the end zone for a 27-10 lead with 1:33 left until halftime.
“We’ve been running that play over and over in practice,” Rovig said. “Coach told us we’re going to have it in a game, so get ready. When he called it, we knew exactly what to do and executed.”
Rocky Mountain senior wide receiver Jeff Thompson added six receptions for 146 yards and a score, and senior running back Jordan Kafari had both a rushing and receiving TD. Junior kicker Sawyer McLinden connected on a 44-yard field goal, too.
Although the result was familiar, Friday’s game didn’t start the way the Grizzlies wanted.
Middleton returned the opening kickoff 59 yards to the Rocky Mountain 41-yard line and churned downfield behind junior running back Tyke Harper. Then on third-and-goal from the 1, quarterback Drew Holman scored on a keeper for a 7-0 Middleton lead with less than four minutes off the clock.
Rocky Mountain took its first lead of the game, 14-7, with the help of an interception by senior Trey Broadbent with 9:01 on the clock in the second quarter. The Grizzlies scored six plays later on Rovig’s 37-yard pass to Benedick.
Another Rovig-to-Benedick touchdown came just 13 seconds later after the Grizzlies recovered a fumble on the first play of Middleton’s ensuing drive.
The Rocky Mountain defense finished with three takeaways, including another fumble recovery in the third quarter by sophomore defensive end Luke Abernathey. They also forced a safety in the fourth quarter.
“The teams that we’re going against are going to get better and better,” Abernathey said. “So we need to get better and better as well.”
This story was originally published October 11, 2024 at 11:41 PM.
