Game two for the Dragon football team might not have gone as they would have hoped for as they fell to Ririe 46-14, but despite the loss, Head Coach Brady Price is looking at the game as a great learning opportunity.  He shared, “We played a very tough team, one of the top teams for district 6 that will be playing at the state tournament.  This game showed us some things we need to work on as well as some things that we are doing right.”

Playing against the Bulldogs in Ririe Friday, September 6, the Dragons began the game with an excellent kickoff, forcing a long drive for the Bulldogs.  Unfortunately, field positioning did little to hamper the Ririe offense as they found success with both their running and passing games to convert their drive into a scoring run.

The Dragons attempted to battle back on their first drive of the game, but they gained little ground on account of the Bulldog defense.   Forced to punt on their fourth down, Brady Showell kicked the ball into Ririe territory.  The football took a lucky bounce as the Bulldog punt returner went to catch it, ricocheting off his chest and to the ground where Malad was able to secure the ball and take back possession of it.  

On their second chance of a drive, the Dragons began to make small incremental progress towards the end zone but didn’t move the chains enough before the ball was turned over to the Bulldogs.

Malad’s defense took the field again and, despite their efforts, couldn’t hold back Ririe’s offense.  Coach Price commented about his defense saying, “We really struggled in the 1st half defensively. We struggled to stop the run and allowed for the first time this season longer runs on defense.  Defensively, I think I as a coach tried to do too much and we switched back to more of our base stuff in the 2nd half and we played much better.”

While the Dragon defense struggled to contain Bulldogs, the offense did find an opportunity to put points up on the scoreboard before the conclusion of the first half.  Beginning at the 30 yard line, quarterback Easton Green handed off the ball to Showell, following behind his blockers up the middle for a gain of 4 yards.  On the second down, Green pitched the ball to Showell on his right, who moved down the sideline, dancing around several defenders before getting tackled just short of the 50 yard line.

Green attempted a pass on the next down, failing to connect with his receiver.  The following play, the freshman quarterback sent the short pass to Brycen Howe who secured the catch for a 5 yard gain.  Finding some momentum with the passing game, Green attempted a third pass to Showell down the field.  Showell not only scooped up the well placed pass, but marched down the field an additional 15 yards before the defense could stop him.

At the 15 yard line, Green called for the snap.  He dropped a step back to fake the handoff to Ryan Jensen as Dawsyn Peterson slipped behind the defense.  Finding his open receiver, Green didn’t hesitate to throw the ball down field.  Making the catch, Peterson burned past multiple defenders the final 10 yards before scoring the first Dragon touchdown of the game.

Returning to the field following half time, the Malad defense made adjustments to slow the Ririe drive.  Although much improved, the defense couldn’t keep the Bulldogs scoreless as they punched in a final touchdown in the third quarter.  Continuing to tighten up their play, the defense put a stop to the Ririe offense and gave their own just enough time on the field for one last score before the final buzzer rang.

Once again, Green found receiver Peterson open for the short pass to move the chains of their first down of the drive.  The next play featured a successful carry by Showell up the middle for significant gain.  Holden Tubbs took a turn to push the ball through the pack for another 5 yards.  The Dragons found themselves in scoring position when Green threw a deep pitch to Showell to his right.  Swinging out beyond the defense, Showell found just enough room to beat the defense to the end zone for another Dragon touchdown.  Showell scored again on the PAT, punching the ball across the line as he drove up the middle.

“Our offense made a big improvement this week, creating three drives and scoring on two of them,” shared Coach Price.

The Dragons tallied 126 rushing yards with one 1 touchdown, Showell leading with 60 yards.   In addition, the offense had 53 passing yards, also including 1 touchdown with Green leading with a total of 53 yards.  Peterson was the leading receiver of the game with 31.  Defensively, Showell led as the leading tackler with 6.