Emmylou Harmon/Courtesy Photo
West Grand’s football team went to Vail and came away with an impressive win over the Vail Christian/Battle Mountain High School team Oct. 20. The Mustangs’ record is now 8-0, with a final away game this Saturday against Plateau Valley (3-5). Against the Saints the Mustangs won the toss, deferred and stopped them in five plays. The offense couldn’t gain any yardage and punter Killian Roche had a nice 35 yarder.
After eight plays the Mustangs held and took over on downs at their own 45. The offense this time went on a eight-play drive capped off with a Blake Terryberry 19-yard touchdown pass to a diving Joe Probst. They added a conversion pass to running back Evan Crandall and led 8-0 with 2:11 left in the opening quarter.
A good kick return put the Saints in great field position but the defense stopped them in four downs taking over on the West Grand 40. Vail does not punt and onsides almost all kickoffs, so fourth down stops are critical. The Mustang defense had seven stops on the fourth down to go along with three turnovers, interceptions by Roche and Probst and a fumble recovery by Lawson Landress after a big hit by linebacker Crandall.
The offense would score three touchdowns in the second quarter, a Terryberry 3 yard run set up by a 31 yard pass to tight end Jackson Steinle and two short runs by Terryberry. The Saints scored on a 48 yard pass to end the half down 28-8.
The Mustangs started the second half recovering the attempted onside kick and going off on a beautiful 13 play, clock chewing 50 yard drive ending with Terryberry hitting a wide open Steinle for a 15-yard touchdown pass. It took 6:30 off the clock and put the team ahead 36-8.
The following kickoff had freshmen Walker Howell hit a spinning, bouncing kick which proved hard to handle, recovered finally by the Saints on their own three. True to form they went for it on fourth and two, which the Mustangs stuffed. Taking this gift, the offense scored in five plays with Terryberry adding his fourth short touchdown run.
The Saints put together their only drive of the game and went 80 yards in five pass plays to score with 1:08 left. Defensively, it was a great team effort . Seven stops on fourth down, three turnovers, and solid pursuit and excellent tackling kept the high scoring Saint offense to their lowest total for the season. As usual, linebackers Crandall and Steinle were the leading tacklers with 10 each. Ryan VanOosten had seven tackles, countless near sacks and quarterback hurries, while ATH John Butler had a sack.
Besides Terryberry’s four rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns, he completed 11 passes in a row to Steinle, Probst and Kai Edson.
The Mustangs will play their last regular game of the season Oct. 28, then playoffs will begin with the first round game being held in Mustang territory.