On a cold, wet night for the second week in a row, the Green River Wolves came up against the top defense in 3A in the always tough Cody Broncs and came away with a hard fought 21-13 win.
The Wolves remain undefeated on the year at 4-0.
It was a classic battle between the No. 1 ranked defense from Cody and Green River's No. 1 ranked offense. Cody's defense held Green River's offense, which had been averaging 457.7 yards per game, to just 244 yards in total offense and actually had more total offensive yards with 267 to the Wolves 244, but Green River came up with big plays on both offense and defense when it counted.
Once again, Green River got off to an early lead with the big plays in the first quarter drive being a 20-yard pass reception to receiver Anthony Mitchell, followed by another pass from quarterback Chance Hofer to Gavin Heiser for 19 yards and the touchdown on a fourth down call by head coach Don Maggi.
Cody took over and marched down the field, but Green River's swarming opportunistic defense stopped the Broncs on two consecutive plays inside the five-yard line. Cody was forced to try a field goal which they missed and all their momentum was stopped with the great defensive stand by the Wolves.
Green River's defense again asserted itself when senior Cole White came up with an interception to stop Cody's drive. The Wolves took over and despite a big play by Devin Love on a 45-yard catch and run, the Wolves offense stalled as a short, 29-yard field goal missed in the wet, windy weather.
Despite Cody's dominating defense, the Wolves managed to score once again on their next drive when Candon Croft ripped off a solid 11-yard run followed by a touchdown pass from Hofer to White, who made a nice catch and run over a Cody defender for the second score of the game. After the PAT kick by Erik Gwaltney, the Wolves were up 14-0.
Cody however came right back to prevent a run away and marched down the field with the aid of a penalty and scored on a 4-yard run to close the gap to 14-6 when Chance Andersen blocked the extra point attempt.
Neither team scored in the third quarter, so it was anyone's game going into the fourth. Green River's defense came up big time after time late in the game with the big play being another Cody turnover as junior Dallan Serrano came up with a big interception in the fourth quarter. The offense moved the ball with another big pass from Hofer to White, with Hofer taking it in on a quarterback sneak to go up two scores late in the game to make it 21-6.
Cody got the ball back and mounted a drive of their own, culminating in a 10-yard run for the touchdown.
The Broncs then tried an on-side kick which was recovered by the Wolves. The Wolves ran out the clock to secure a big win.
Throughout the game, the Wolves got excellent line play on the interior on defense from Payton Tucker, John Mackie and Justin Rubalcaba along with excellent secondary and linebacker play from a host of Wolves defenders including Serrano, Croft, Heiser and Mitchell.
The state's 17th ranked defender in 3A, Chance Anderson, led the Wolves with an incredible 33 defensive points, which will likely move him well into the top 10 defenders in 3A.
The Wolves will host Evanston next week in their annual homecoming game.
Reader Comments(0)