Buffs drop finale to Riverside, finish 3-5

By: 
Nathan Oster

Whatever could go wrong, did go wrong for the Greybull Buffs in their 2022 season finale.

Already eliminated from the playoffs, a year’s worth of bragging rights was the only thing on the line for the Buffs Friday night in Basin.  For the next calendar year — just like they have for the past one — they will belong to Riverside, which pasted the Buffs 48-8.

The Buffs will finish the season with a 3-5 overall record and 2-5 mark in conference play after they are credited with a win by forfeit over St. Stephens, which cancelled its season (including its week eight game against the Buffs) due to a lack of players.

“The kids put in work, but it just didn’t work out in our favor,” Coach Jeremy Pouska said of his team’s disappointing outing in Basin.  “I can’t speak for everyone, but I don’t know that they all came out wanting to play to their full potential, wanting to compete — and I don’t know why.  Maybe it was because our playoff hopes pretty much ended with the Rocky Mountain game.”

Mistakes killed the Buffs.  As lopsided as the 48-8 final score was, the Rebels outgained the Buffs by a smaller margin this year (283-196) than they did in last year’s game, which they needed overtime to win, 14-12, snapping an eight-game losing streak in the process.

This time, Buffs turned the ball over six times, throwing five interceptions and losing a fumble, and saw two other drives stall on downs.  The first of those came on Greybull’s first possession, when the Buffs went for it on fourth-and-short at their own 15-yard line, but were stuffed.  

Riverside scored three plays later on a run by Ty Strohschein.

“We had the bigger team and I fully believed we’d be able to run the ball effortlessly, just because our size matched up so well with theirs,” Pouska said. “We challenged them (on that first drive), saying we’re going to run it down your throat … try to stop us.  Give them credit.  They welcomed the challenge.”

The Buffs mounted a nice drive on their second possession, using a nice mix of run and pass to reach the Riverside red zone, but it ended on an interception.  That turned out to be Greybull’s best scoring chance until the final minutes of the fourth, when Caden Hunt scored on a short touchdown run and then hit Lucas Bolzer for the two-point conversion to account for the 48-8 final.

“Turnovers were huge — and a quite a few of them were pick sixes (or returned deep into Greybull territory, leading to scores), said Pouska.  “It’s really hard for us to generate momentum when that is happening.”

The Buffs generated 135 yards on 40 carries and Joel Miller, Caden Hunt and Jake Schlattmann combined to go 6-of-17 passing for 61 yards.  Many of the breakdowns in the passing game were total system failures – from inconsistent blocking to passers and receivers not being on the same page.

To their credit, the Rebels played nearly mistake free, losing just one fumble on a muffed punt. Strohschein, a junior, had a monster game, rushing for 96 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries, catching a 60-yard touchdown pass and returning an interception for a score.  He was also Riverside’s defensive leader with 34 points.

When asked what he’ll take away from the year, Pouska said, “I’m going to remember a good group of guys who came out every day, put in effort to get better, to compete every week and just have fun.”

 

Playoffs

While Greybull’s season has come to an end, the rest of the conference will be in action later this week. The matchup with the most playoff implications is in Big Piney, where the Punchers will host the Rebels for the final postseason berth from the West.  

Shoshoni, Wind River and Rocky Mountain have already punched their tickets.

 

Finale

The game marked the end of the playing careers of 10 seniors: Cannon Cook, Bryan Galvez, Aidan Farrow, Chase Oster, Jake Schlattmann, Aiden Reece, Beto Diaz-Rios, Rodrigo Rios, John Haley and Josh Lopez.

“We’re going to miss all 10 of those guys tremendously,” said Pouska. “A lot them were leaders on the team; linemen who were starting on both sides of the ball.  We’ll definitely be losing a lot of experience when those guys graduate out.  They’ll be big shoes to fill moving forward.”

While they’ll be missed, Pouska is optimistic about the future of Greybull football.  The JV team won several times this season and the three GMS teams combined to go 10-3.  Participation was particularly strong at the sixth and eighth grade levels.

“We’ve got some young talent coming up, so it’ll be our job on all levels to develop those skills so we can continue to be successful.  What they do in the offeseason will be key.  We’ll encourage them to lift and play other sports as a way of staying in shape and becoming better athletes.”

 

Greybull         0   0   0 8 — 8

Riverside      12 20 16 0 — 48

R — Ty Strohschein 6 yard run.

R — Strohschein 15 yard run.

R — Trenton Coronel 1 yard run.

R — Strohschein 53-yard interception return  (Dylan Alexander run).

R — Strohschein 60-yard pass from Coronel.

R — Alexander 2-yard run (Strohschein run).

R — Alexander 55-yard pass from Coronel (Alexander pass from Coronel).

G — Caden Hunt 3-yard run (Lucas Bolzer pass from Hunt).

RUSHING — Greybull 40-135 (Lucas Bolzer 11-49, Jake Schlattmann 11-45, Aiden Reece 4-21, Yandel Hernandez 4-12, Beto Diaz-Rios 1-9, Joel Miller 5-3, Jesus Rodriguez 1-(-3), Caden Hunt 3-(-3); Riverside 33-123 (Ty Strohschein 18-96).

PASSING — Greybull 6-of-17 for 61 yards; Riverside 7-of-10 for 160 yards.

RECEIVING — Aiden Reece 4-41, Lucas Bolzer 1-14, Jesus Rodriguez 1-6.

DEFENSIVE STANDOUTS — 

 

Category: