No. 1 Rock Springs keeps offense moving against East

Oct. 23—CHEYENNE — No. 1-ranked Rock Springs scored on all but one of its drives, and its defense stiffened during the second half of a 31-15 victory at third-ranked Cheyenne East on Friday night at Okie Blanchard Stadium.

The Tigers (8-1) led 14-7 at halftime.

"(East) plays at such a fast tempo that you can't really simulate it in practice," third-year Rock Springs coach Mark Lenhardt said. "We knew they were going to do it, and we have a hard time stopping it early.

"We kind of settled into the game and benefitted from a couple situations where they missed some fourth-and-short opportunities. That's a credit to our kids for staying strong in the red zone."

East (7-2) had two turnovers on downs in the first half. It faced fourth-and-7 at Rock Springs' 27-yard line on its opening drive. Sophomore quarterback Camden Hayes ducked out of a sack attempt by Tigers defensive end Isaac Schoenfeld and connected with junior receiver Garet Schlabs for a 6-yard gain.

The T-Birds threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-5 from the Tigers' 13 with 26 seconds remaining in the first half.

Trailing 21-7, East tried a fake punt on fourth-and-nine during its first drive of the third quarter. Schlabs found Hayden Pafford for a four-yard gain and a turnover on downs.

Running back Dylan Coburn scored from 6 yards out nine plays later to give Rock Springs a 28-7 lead.

"We didn't play mistake-free football," East coach Chad Goff said. "When you play a team as good as Rock Springs, you have to play mistake-free. We were driving on our first drive and had a false start.

"We committed penalties at the wrong times in drives, and didn't play the way you have to play against a team of that caliber. Rock Springs deserves a ton of credit. They ran the ball a bunch, and didn't really make any mental mistakes."

Rock Springs took a 7-0 lead when Coburn capped a nine-play, 79-yard drive by bulling his way in from a yard out.

East responded on the ensuing drive. Sophomore Drew Jackson returned the kickoff to the T-Birds' 46, and Hayes took a designed run 12 yards for a score.

Rock Springs answered with a long kickoff return of its own that set its offense up at its 49. They pushed the ball to East's 25 before a holding penalty — their first of the game — pushed them back to the East 37.

The Tigers attempted their first pass of the night on the next play, and Schlabs intercepted senior quarterback Brock Bider.

The T-Birds went three-and-out, and Rock Springs took the lead for good when Bider bounced a carry to the outside for a 21-yard touchdown.

Cadon Shaklee opened the second half with a 3-yard touchdown run and a 21-7 lead. Coburn's aforementioned 6-yard run made it 28-7. Left-footed kicker Jeff Hyatt nailed a 25-yarder for a 31-7 lead.

Rock Springs rushed for 337 yards and four touchdowns on 49 carries. The Tigers had 31 plays of 3-9 yards and seven of 10 or more. Their only plays that went for negative yards were three kneel-downs to run out the clock at the end of each half.

"We executed every play offensively, and got some big sacks defensively that got us amped up and got our adrenaline flowing," said Tigers senior Isaac Schoenfeld, who rushed for a game-high 134 yards on 12 carries. "Our scout team deserves a lot of credit because they have really been pushing us in practice."

Schoenfeld — who has verbally committed to the University of Wyoming as a tight end — gained 86 yards in the second half. Shaklee added 82 yards on 13 carries.

"Rock Springs is a really good team, and they're really fundamentally sound," said East junior linebacker Ethan Brinkman, who finished with 10 tackles. "They have a lot of different weapons and a lot of skill players who do a good job. They just got the best of us."

East gained 228 total yards, with 161 of those coming through the air.

"We were doing a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage and moving the ball down the field on our first possession, but (Rock Springs) tightened up and kept us from moving the ball like we were," Schlabs said. "We had confidence we could convert those fourth downs, but we didn't.

"Even though those were disappointing, we had to forget about them and try to convert the next one and battle back on defense."

The T-Birds had nine plays go for negative yards, with Rock Springs doing a good job of penetrating starting late in the second quarter.

"At halftime, we talked a lot about protection because I thought we had good protection for most of the first half," Goff said. "We'll have to watch film and see where the pressure started to come from and shore that up.

"We have to figure out what we were missing as coaches so we can give our guys a little more time to make plays."

Schlabs caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Hayes with 1:48 remaining in the game. Hayes rolled to his left before throwing back to the right side of the field, where Schlabs stood in the end zone. Hayes got off a two-point conversion pass as he was being dragged to the turf, and Pafford got his feet down in traffic to cut the lead to 31-15.

Rock Springs recovered the on-side kick and ran out the clock after a first down.

East will be the No. 3 seed in the Class 4A playoffs. They'll host sixth-seeded Campbell County (4-5) in the opening round.

Rock Springs is the No. 2 seed. Its only loss this season came to top-seeded Sheridan (8-1). Rock Springs hosts Kelly Walsh (3-6).

ROCK SPRINGS 31, EAST 15

Rock Springs...... 7 7 14 3 — 31

Cheyenne East...... 7 0 0 8 — 15

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

RS: Coburn 1 run (Hyatt kick), 3:30.

CE: Hayes 12 run (LaRue kick), 0:27.

Second Quarter

RS: Bider 21 run (Hyatt kick), 1:55.

Third Quarter

RS: Shaklee 3 run (Hyatt kick), 8:44.

RS: Coburn 6 run (Hyatt kick), 0:16.

Fourth Quarter

RS: Hyatt 25 field goal, 4:00.

CE: Schlabs 9 pass from Hayes (Pafford pass from Hayes), 1:48.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

Rock Springs: Skorcz 3-13, Bider 5-52, Coburn 13-59, Shaklee 13-82, Schoenfeld 12-134, Team 3-(minus-3). Cheyenne East: Cade Pugh 9-56, Schlabs 3-6, Hayes 11-5.

Passing

Rock Springs: Bider 3-6-1 32. Cheyenne East: Hayes 18-28-0 155; Schlabs 1-1-0 6.

Receiving

Rock Springs: Eddy 1-11, Shaklee 1-6, Schoenfeld 1-15. Cheyenne East: Jackson 4-28, Cade Pugh 2-12, Schlabs 7-58, J. Culver 3-49, Pafford 3-14.

Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at jjohnke@wyosports.net or 307-633-3137. Follow him on Twitter at @jjohnke.