Grizz Win Big On Homecoming

The Grace Grizzlies earned a big homecoming win last week when they took down the Murtaugh Red Devils 50-26.  It was a great team win with six different Grizzlies putting points on the board for the offense and some big plays on defense.  

The Red Devils started the game on offense and moved the ball up to midfield before getting stopped on fourth down and the Grizzlies took over.  It wouldn't take long for Grace to score.  On their first offensive play of the game Draper hit Hill on a quick pass that Hill took fifty three yards to the house.  Smith then ran over a defender to earn the two point conversion putting Grace up 8-0.  Murtaugh would make a good attempt at answering back, driving all the way to the twenty yard line of Grace.  The Grizzly defense held strong at that point again holding the Red Devils on fourth down and giving the ball back to the offense.  The first quarter came to a close with Grace holding the one score lead.

The Grizzlies struck fast again in the second quarter with Draper going back to Hill this time for a seventy-two yard touchdown catch and run.  That would be the first score for the Grizzlies in the second quarter in what would become their most productive of the game.  After the ensuing kickoff Balczeski caused a fumble when he ran down the quarterback knocking the ball lose before he could throw it.  Williams recovered the ball for Grace, setting the offense up in good field position.  Grace scored fast once again when they used Welch who typically plays offensive line to run in a twenty yard handoff.  Draper called his own number for the two point conversion and Grace pushed the lead to 22-0.  The Grizzlies were just getting started.  On the next defensive possession Cooper Andersen tipped then intercepted a pass returning twenty yards before getting tackled.  Grace once again had good field position.  Chase Smith earned the next score for Grace on a twenty yard run of his own followed by a two point conversion by Andersen.  The Grizzlies now led 30-0.  Murtaugh would finally be able to mount a drive of their own scoring on a one yard run putting the score at 30-6.  With the half winding down Hill struck one more time on yet another long catch and run this time going sixty-four yards for the score.  Smith added the two point conversion and the Grizzlies went into halftime leading 38-6.

At halftime the Homecoming Royalty was introduced to the crowd with King and Queen Brett Hobbs and Alex Andrus.  The rest of the royalty included Karlie Christensen, Landon Moss, Lilly Gilbert, Trevor Mathews, Josie Newby, Braden Kimball, Kenadi Anderson, and Derek Hill.

The Grizzlies made their first big mistake of the game on the opening possession of the third when the Red Devils stripped the ball earning themselves a short field to work with.  Murtaugh would capitalize on that opportunity and score.  The score would go to 38-14.  The rest of the quarter would go by fast with the teams battling back and forth.  As the quarter came to a close Welch ran in his second score of the night from ten yards out and the score was now 44-14.  

In the fourth quarter the Red Devils put together another long drive behind some big pass plays.  Murtaugh capped that drive off with a quarterback bootleg from two yards out.  Grace answered right back, finishing with an absolute laser pass from Draper to Bryant Moss in tight coverage from seventeen yards out.  That put the score at 50-20 with just a couple of minutes left in the game.  Coach Newby put in a primarily JV defense and Murtaugh marched down the field on them.  The Red Devils would end up having to use all of their timeouts in order to get one more score in on the younger squad with just six seconds left in the game.  Grace put the starting offense in for the victory formation and the Grizzlies finished with their traditional Grizzly Jacks in the center of the field.

The Grizzlies will play in a neutral site game this week when they travel to Twin Falls to play Adrian Oregon at Lighthouse Christian High School.  That game will be on Saturday with a 1 o’clock kickoff.