Cowboys Suffer Heartbreaking Loss
Oct 02, 2024 10:53AM ● By Jody Reeves
The North Gem Cowboys suffered their third loss of the season in dramatic fashion last Friday in Challis. The loss puts the Cowboys in a precarious position in the district standings. North Gem had hoped to come away with the win and put themselves in a potential winner-take-all situation in their final game of the season at Rockland. With the loss, the Cowboys’ remaining district matchups are all must-wins if they want to force a tiebreaker for the district title.
In Friday’s game at Challis, the Cowboys showed up to play. North Gem controlled the line of scrimmage for the majority of the game. The Cowboys’ three headed running attack of Hatch, Yost and Welker seemed to have plenty of holes to hit to gain yardage. The Cowboys started off on offense after a short opening kickoff by the Vikings. North Gem ground the ball down the field, striking first with a short run from Yost followed by a two point conversion by Hatch. The Vikings answered back on their opening drive but failed on their conversion and the quarter ended with the score at 8-6.
The Cowboys then replicated their opening drive with another push down the field capped off with another short Yost run and successful conversion. The Cowboy defense then stepped up to the challenge and forced a turnover on downs. The Cowboy run offense continued to move the ball with ease as Hatch got into the scoring action running in a touchdown followed by a two point conversion and North Gem stretched the lead to 24-6. The Cowboy defense started to show some weaknesses on the next drive. A combination of penalties and big pass plays by the Vikings saw Challis get their second score of the game cutting the lead to 24-12 with just one and a half minutes left in the first half. With the time getting short Challis took the risk of kicking an onside kick. The kick rolled along the ground and bounced into Ryver Hayden’s arms, after which he took the ball all the way in for another Cowboy score and the half ended with North Gem leading 32-12.
After a strong first quarter, the Cowboy secondary began to falter in the second and Challis took notice. Challis began an aerial attack and scored on their opening drive of the second half. The ensuing kickoff was a high shot kick that the Cowboys failed to cover and Challis immediately got the ball back with a short field. The North Gem defense was able to make another stand, however, and the ball went back to the Cowboys. North Gem began to move the ball down the field once again before the quarter came to an end with the Cowboys now
leading 32-18.
Less than a minute into the fourth, the Cowboys struck again and increased the lead to 38-18. The failed two point conversion would prove costly at the end of the game. Challis went back to their passing attack on the next drive and were able to score and get their two point conversion cutting the lead to 38-26. On the kickoff the Vikings once again attempted an onside kick. This time the Vikings were successful in recovering the ball. Hatch was injured on the play and had to leave the game for the next play. With Hatch sidelined, the Vikings took advantage of the depleted secondary on their very first play of the drive, scoring on a deep pass and suddenly the score stood at 38-32. Challis once again attempted the onside kick, but this time Haydn Frandsen gathered the ball in and earned some return yards setting the Cowboys up in good field position with 6:49 left in the game. The methodical Cowboy run game took control of the game once again, eventually getting down to the seven yard line facing a third and six to go for a first down. On the next play Yost took the hand off down inside the one yard line to what appeared to be a Cowboy first and goal. However, a flag was thrown on the play and the Cowboys were called for unsportsmanlike conduct. There was some debate about where and when the penalty occurred, but the end result was the Cowboys getting marched back to the sixteen yard line facing a third and fifteen. Two plays later the Cowboys came up short of a first down or touchdown and turned the ball over on downs. With just 1:42 left in the game Challis drove the length of the field using their devastating pass attack and scored a touchdown with just twenty-five seconds left in the game. The Viking quarterback ran a sweep on the two point conversion and the Vikings took their first lead of the game. North Gem made a valiant attempt to answer back but ultimately ran out of clock losing the game 40-38.
The Cowboys, now with a record of 2-3, will face the co-op of Watersprings Christian and Clark County this week. This is a game they should win and will need to win to stay in the hunt for a
district title.