Dax Taylor
The Green River High School Football team opened the season this past Saturday against perennial 2A powerhouse and last year's 2A West Conference Champions, the Mountain View Buffalos.
An excellent crowd showed up on Saturday morning, including many Buffalo fans who made the short trip over from the valley to support their team. The spectators enjoyed a perfect morning of weather for the opener for both teams.
Green River got the ball to start the game after a 16-yard kickoff return by Hunter Lake. The offense took the field, led by returning starter from last year, Junior Max Hintz. On the first play from scrimmage, Hintz broke free on a 64-yard run. After a couple of runs and two penalties against Mountain View, Green River's powerful six foot, 200 pound senior running back James Herwaldt broke into the end zone. The Wolves got an early lead 6-0 after the P.A.T kick was blocked.
Green River's kick off was returned to the 25 yard line. Mountain View's offense, led by their returning quarterback, Junior Justus Platts, took the field. The Buffalos combined passing and running, culminating in Platts scoring the first of his four running touchdowns on a fourth down and three. It appeared the Wolves may have stopped Mountain View, but Platts took the ball in from 23 yards out. With the P.A.T. kick good, Mountain View had the lead.
The Wolves started their next drive on the 20 yard line with a four-yard run by Hintz, followed by a couple completions from Hintz to Junior Wide Receiver Dak Taylor. The Wolves suffered a crucial injury to Running Back Herwaldt, which was a huge loss for both the Wolves' offense and defense as he was out for the rest of the game. Junior Jaydon Walther came in to replace Herwaldt and carried the ball for a five yard gain. After another completed pass, things were looking good for the Wolves, but a holding penalty and then an interception stalled their drive and Mountain View got the ball back.
Despite a couple penalties and incomplete passes with the Wolves putting pressure on Platts, Platts was trapped in the backfield but broke loose with some nifty running and scored his second rushing touchdown of the game. This gave the Buffalos a 14-6 lead after the P.A.T. kick was good.
The Wolves got the ball back and, after a five-yard run by Hintz, had a pitchout intercepted to give the Buffalos excellent field position. Just three plays later, Platts connected with his receiver Brockton Walker in the end zone to up the lead early 21-6 with the P.A.T good.
The Wolves took over and mounted a long drive of pass completions and good runs. Taylor took the ball in for his second touchdown and the Wolves were back in it 21-13 after the P.A.T. kick was good.
Mountain View then mounted a long drive of their own. The big play came just seconds before the clock ran out on the first half, with Platts taking the ball in for his third rushing touchdown of the first half and giving Mountain View a 28-13 lead at the half.
In the second half of the game, Mountain View shut the Wolves out, with younger players from both sides getting a lot of playing time as Mountain View went on to an impressive 56-13 victory.
Despite the lopsided score, the Wolves had a number of good gains on offense. Still, turnovers at inopportune times took the Wolves out of scoring position and gave Mountain View a short field, which they took advantage of to score off the turnovers.
“We played a ton of kids for our pre-season game, which was really good,” Head Coach Blaine Christensen said. “I know the score is not what we wanted but the fact that we got so many kids playing time to see if they are ready for varsity football is a really good thing. Our team is excited to play our first game on Friday and they are ready to compete.”
The Wolves will host Lander in their next game this Friday starting at 6 p.m.
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