Grace goes to work gashing North Gem in county rivalry game

BANCROFT — The Grace Grizzlies entered this week, their potato harvest break week, riding a three-game losing streak. But beating their county rival, the North Gem Cowboys, should help the Grace High School student-athletes through the coming long days of early morning practices and late evenings in the fields.

Behind a dominant effort from their offensive line, the Grizzlies (2-3, 0-0) rushed for 410 yards and reached the end zone on nine of 10 possessions en route to a 66-32 victory.

“That was fun,” Grace head coach Travis Draper told EastIdahoSports.com after the game. “We’re on potato harvest break, so we’ve been practicing at 6 a.m., and sometimes you never know how you’re going to come out with that — trying to stay focused all week but the routine’s off. … You just never know what you’ll have.”

Most of his players, Draper added, likely worked in the field six-plus hours before they showed up for the game.

North Gem (3-2, 1-0) was led in defeat by sophomore quarterback Clay Johnson, who finished the game with 40 carries for 318 yards and five touchdowns.

The juxtaposition of the two offenses was on full display in the first quarter, when the Cowboys received the opening kick off and chewed the first eight minutes of the game off the clock before finishing in the end zone. North Gem and its triple option offense ran the ball 13 times in a row, converting on two fourth downs before finishing the 58-yard drive on a Johnson touchdown run.

North Gem did not pass the ball one time the entire game.

The Grizzlies and their big play-driven offense scored on the very next play from scrimmage when junior wide receiver Carter Mecham took the reverse up the right sideline 68 yards to the house.

It was far from the last big play from the Grace offense, which produced six scoring plays of 20 yards or more.

Grace’s king of the big play on this day was sophomore tailback Tate Stoddard, who had scoring runs of 30, 29 and 87 yards. He finished with 233 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries. Mecham added touchdown catches from 27 and 23 yards out.

Stoddard, though, credited the work of his offensive line and its role in the big day Grace had running the ball.

“It’s pretty nice knowing that I’m going to get a hole with these guys in front of me,” he said. “I know that I don’t really have to juke and jag, it’s just one on one (in the hole), and I love it.”

Draper agreed with his running back.

“They did good,” the coach said of his offensive line. “They’re tough, North Gem is a good team, and they got through a few times, but our linemen did great. … They stepped up and did what we needed them to do.”

Draper singled out center Kai Medina, whose job as center, despite being a freshman, is to identify the opposing defense and call out blocking schemes. Draper said that Medina has done a great job of learning that role quickly. Medina, though, credited the elder statesmen, saying that they, especially senior guard Landry Crane, have helped him devlope early.

Stoddard went on to explain that after his twin brother, Boston, went down with an injury before the start of the season, several players were pushed into secondary positions.

“(Tight end) Luke (Moss) and (guard) Talyn (Boyd) have had to step up a lot, and I’ve been really pleased,” Stoddard said. “I was a little nervous, but they’ve proven themselves.”

Not to be outdone, Johnson engaged North Gem’s big play ability several times as well, with touchdown runs of 24, 61 and 55 yards.

His big plays were as much about deception as they were about good blocking up front and his own explosive speed. North Gem actually had what looked like a long touchdown run called back in the second quarter when one of the officials was fooled by Johnson’s fake handoff and blew the play dead as the running back, who did not have the ball, was tackled while Johnson, with the ball, galloped into the open field.

Draper called North Gem’s option attack “hard to stop” when defenses have to account for Johnson’s speed.

Draper said it was nice to finally see North Gem in a game. The two schools sit just 15 miles apart, but have met on the field only once in the past four years.

“It’s fun having the county rival game — there were a lot of people here, and it ended up being a great night,” he said.

Junior tight end Luke Moss spoke about facing kids he and his teammates have known all their lives.

“We know these kids, we know that they’ll hit us because we all have relationships with them,” he said. “And it’s nice to drive just 10 minutes and come play a game and put up a good score.”

Sophomore guard Talyn Boyd said that it was also nice facing the Cowboys in the middle of the potato harvest.

“It’s hard work, but it’s definitely good to come off a win — to be excited to practice and not be so sleepy, to have momentum to keep it going,” he said. “I’m glad we finally got a win — the hype feels good. If we can carry this mentality throughout the season, it will be great.”

Crane, the lone senior on the line and one of just three on the roster, said that the key word for Grace this season is “consistency.” And though they were once again unable to play a full four quarters with all their starters — losing quarterback Kade Kimball to injury late in the first half — this win was a step in the direction of being more consistent.

“Once we build up that consistency, where we can play four quarters, no one is stopping us,” he said.

The Grizzlies will use the upcoming bye week to heal up a bit before traveling to Utah to take on the reigning state champion, Rich County (UT).

North Gem will travel to Mackay next week for a conference showdown with the Miners (2-3, 0-0).