Goal-line stand the difference as Ririe reaches first state champs game in program history

POCATELLO — With one minute left in the first half, the Aberdeen Tigers had earned themselves a golden opportunity. Less than a yard away from the end zone, they had four chances to cross the goal line for a potential game-tying score.

Instead, it was the Ririe Bulldog defense that changed the game and pulled all the momentum to their sideline as time expired. Ririe (11-0) stopped four straight runs from the Tigers (7-4), as they pulled out a 14-8 victory in Thursday’s state semifinal showdown at Idaho State University’s ICCU Dome.

Bulldog head coach Josh Huntsman called all four plays “a fight.”

“That was incredible. I haven’t seen anything like that, really, in high school football,” he said. “Those boys just bowed their necks. They bowed their necks and said, ‘It’s not going to happen.’ That’s the toughness that we’ve seen from them all year long.”

Aberdeen head coach Derek Jolley called for a timeout, with 1:01 left in the second, before the first-and-one play. And with senior star Lupe Ortiz limited and visibly hampered by a right shoulder injury, he stayed with junior Isaac Driscoll, who had guided what to that point had been a nine-minute, 13-play, 71-yard drive.

Ririe stopped Driscoll on a first-down quarterback power. Then they stopped sophomore Treyton Jenkins, again protecting the mere inches of room they had to call their own. Ortiz came back in for third down, after the Tigers spent their final timeout, and handed the ball to Jenkins, who was stuffed at the 4 yard-line for a three-yard loss.

Out of timeouts and with 16 seconds ticking off the clock, Ortiz and the Tigers quickly reset. The quarterback took the snap and sprinted for the right edge. He got back to the goal line but came up, again, inches short.

“It was nerve-wracking, watching,” said Ririe senior quarterback Breylon Moon of the goal-line stand. “We talked about, ‘this is probably the game right here, we have to get this stop.’ It’s such a momentum change. Big time plays.”

Aberdeen set themselves with a first and goal at the one. Ririe stuffs them on third and fourth to end the half. Bulldogs up 8-0 at recess. pic.twitter.com/WY0Yt5p4Nw

— Kalama Hines (@HINESight_2020) November 14, 2025

Long before the goal-line stand, the two offenses got off to a sluggish start.

Aberdeen took the opening kick and got one first down, but was forced to punt from near midfield.

Ririe’s first possession went similarly, with the Bulldogs going three and out and punting it right back to the Tigers. But Aberdeen chose to play it safe and keep everyone up in case Huntsman and the Bulldogs ran a fake punt.

The result was a punt that bounded for extra all-important yardage, and Aberdeen taking possession at their own 16-yard line.

Another three-and-out yielded a flat punt, one most return men would have elected to stay clear of and allow to bounce. Had Garrett Van Noy done so, the Bulldogs would have again started from deep in their own territory.

Instead, the senior caught the punt on the run and returned it 12 yards to the Aberdeen 40. And the Bulldogs turned the short field into the game’s first score two minutes into the second quarter.

Moon, who finished the scoring drive with a rare keeper run, called Van Noy steel-gutted return “everything.”

“That’s a massive play, especially with the offense we run — just hard-nose football, run the ball a lot — every yard counts,” Moon said. “A 20- 25-yard (change) like that, flipping the field, is giant. It’s a big play.”

Moon finished the game with that three-yard rushing touchdown, on his only carry of the game, as well as a passing touchdown, on his only throw of the game.

Normally asked to hand the ball to Kolter Lewis or Van Noy, Moon said it was nice to be the one making the plays.

“I love watching the other guys get in there, but it does feel good — it’s always nice to feel like I’m doing a little bit more,” he said.

Before the Tigers finally did get on the board, Moon and the Ririe offense gave themselves some breathing room near the midway point of the third quarter.

Moon was under quick pressure on the only called pass play of the night. And after evading the first wave of pass rushers, he pulled the ball down, apparently willing to explore a running lane. But at the last second, he saw an open man, Lewis, who snatched the ball and broke a tackle before scampering into the endzone.

“I was like, ‘Oh, he’s wide open, I’m going to give him a chance,'” Moon recalled. “I threw it up, then got hit. I didn’t really see the pass, but I heard everybody celebrating.”

The play went for 43 yards, the last 10 or so of those after Lewis pulled free from a pair of Tigers, and a touchdown.

“He’s the toughest kid we have. One of the smartest kids we have, too,” Huntsman said of Moon. “If you’re going to go to a state championship and you want a kid to put the ballgame on, that’s the kid you put it on.”

Aberdeen scored late in the third, on a four-yard touchdown run from Jenkins. They got just two possessions in the fourth, turning it over on downs both times — including the last with just 33 seconds left in the game.

“It feels great — team effort all the way around, on both sides of the football,” Moon said of the win. “It feels so good, first time in Ririe’s history out here with the brothers. It’s just awesome.”

All season long, Aberdeen’s offense hinged on the success Ortiz was able to create on the ground. After starting the game, though, he spent large portions of it on the sideline. When he was on the field, he ran with his heavily wrapped right shoulder pinned to his side.

Ortiz finished with 19 yards on nine carries — including an eight-yard loss when he dove onto a snap that sailed well over his head. He was able to contribute on defense, making numerous tackles for a Tiger defensive unit that once again stymied the high-flying Bulldogs and the superstar Lewis.

Ririe was held to 20 points or fewer just four times all season — twice by Aberdeen. And Lewis was held under 100 yards rushing just twice all season — both by the Tigers.

The state’s leading rusher finished the game with 75 yards on 14 carries.

Moon said that Aberdeen, schematically, had the same defensive approach as most of the teams they have faced this season.

“The difference is, the players out there on the field,” he said. “They wanted it. Just really tough guys playing with a lot of heart.”

Huntsman offered a similarly glowing review of his the opponent, noting that Driscoll filled in at quarterback despite having suffered a broken hand just over a month ago, showing the grit that makes Aberdeen the program it is.

“They’re such a great team,” he said. “And good kids, too. We love those guys, they’re a fun group to play against. … I wish that was the championship game. The way those guys play, they deserve to be there.”

But, like Huntsman said, only one team can win it all. And Ririe will have a chance to do so for the first time ever next week. They will face the winner of Friday’s West Side-Nampa Christian matchup.

No matter the opponent, Huntsman said, the Bulldogs will go on confident.

“I believe we’re the best team out there,” Moon said. “We’re the No. 1 seed for a reason. We’ve just got to go out there and, whoever our opponent is, just take it to them. We’ve earned this. We need to go and take our spot in the history books.”