Rebel gridders suffer heartbreaking loss at home

Coming off a win over St. Stephens the previous weekend, the Riverside Rebels football squad worked on building off that momentum as they hosted the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies Friday in Basin. 

The Rebels fought hard but fell to the Grizzlies 19-12. 

The Rebels jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first quarter on a 27-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Trenton Coronel to Garret Ellis-Rudd on a fourth and 12. 

Riverside converted another fourth down in the second quarter 15 as El - lis-Rudd took it in from 15 yards out to help the Rebels grab a 12-0 lead. 

Rocky scored late in the quarter on a 23-yard quarterback keeper from Kend rick Beckman to help Rocky get within five at 12-7. 

The Rebels never scored in the second half but had their chances. Rocky took the lead in the second half on two touchdown runs by Collin Haslem as the Grizzlies went on to win by seven. 

Ty Strohschein led the team with 100 yards on 15 carries. Garret Ellis-Rudd added 39 rushing yards and a score and 39 receiving yards and a score. 

"Defensively, we had three players (Strohschein, Dylan Alexander and Porter Duncan) all in double figures in defensive points, with Alexander adding a fumble recovery and Josh Wildman adding an inter - ception," Mitchell said.

"It was a tough one to lose. We started out well. We took advantage of a couple breaks and we played solid defensively. We had some small breakdowns in some big solutions that ended up being the difference.

"Our kids fought right down to the last possession, but we just couldn't make that one additional play to get us over the hump. I'm encouraged by the growth that I've seen each week from our kids, and I expect us to be a tough team to deal with down the stretch of the season."

Next up for the Rebels will be a road game against the Wyoming Indian Chiefs today (Thursday) at 5 p.m. in Ethete.

This is Wyoming Indian's first season in 1A nine-man after cancelling the season last year due to COVID.

The Chiefs are looking for their first win of the season, suffering a 62-8 loss to the Saratoga Panthers in week one, a 53-0 loss to the Wright Panthers in week two and a 50-0 loss to Greybull Buffs in week three.

A scheduled JV game against Wind River Monday was cancelled due to lack of available players.