Big Horn Football Team Drawing Off Of Mountain View Experience To Prep For Lyman

The Big Horn Ram football team survived a scare last week in the first round of the 2A playoffs at home against Mountain View, but recovered to win 28-26.

BH would fumble on their opening drive and the Buffalos would cash in on the turnover, meaning the Rams had to fight an uphill battle for most of the game.

They finally got their first and only lead of the game in the middle of the 4th quarter and hung on from there.

Coach Kirk McLaughlin explains what happened.

“They came out, kind of punched us in the mouth, and we had to make some adjustments. What they ran offensively wasn’t anything we had seen on film, so they caught us off guard a little bit and we had to make some adjustments and we found a way. We were gritty, we were determined and we believed that whole game we could win it. We found a way. We made plays on defense when we needed to. The offense was really good all day.”

Special teams played a factor as well.

Big Horn would block a point after try in the 2nd quarter, Mountain View missed a field goal just before halftime, and then the Rams stopped MV short on a 2-point try.

“That blocked extra point, that had a trickle down effect, because later in the game they had to go for 2, and we made a play on that 2-point conversion and that missed field goal, that would have been the difference in the game too, so our special teams, we didn’t give up any big plays. We tried a fake punt, didn’t go our way, but in all aspects of the game, there’s so many little things that happened during that game that had a huge impact on the outcome of the game.”

Now the team gets another shot at the team that knocked them out of the first round of the playoffs in each of the past 2 years.

Lyman is the 2-time defending state champs, but this time the game is at Big Horn.

Stat-wise the Eagles have the 2nd best rushing attack, and the #1 run defense in 2A.

McLaughlin says in some ways, Mountain View helped BH last week get ready for this game.

“You look at what Mountain View did against us, and it’s kind of a little blessing, because we saw some areas we really need to improve, to get ready for a team like Lyman, so we kind of got a jump start on Lyman, just because of what Mountain View did against us, but they will run the ball at you. They’re disciplined and they’re persistent, so we got to be ready to fight for 4 quarters, that’s for sure.”

Coach adds Lyman doesn’t look the same as they have the past 2 years, but they’re finding ways to get the job done.

“They don’t seem like they’re as big a team as they were the last couple of years. They had some size up front, not that they’re small, but they’re just not as big as they’ve been, but for the most part they’re running a lot of the similar scheme, but I feel very confident we’re a better team this year, and we don’t have to make the trip, they do.”

Kickoff is scheduled for noon.

We will have the LIVE broadcast of that game on AM 1410 KWYO and 106.9FM.