Cowboys Have Senior Night Success

Last Friday North Gem honored their senior football players and were rewarded with a big win.  The Cowboys have five senior players this year which is half of their ten man roster.  The five seniors have had a big impact on the football program over the past few seasons and will continue to play crucial roles in the remaining football games as well as other sports throughout the rest of the school year.

This year's senior players are Kamaka Miller, Luke Rindlisbaker, Lukky Welker, Ryver Hayden, and Rusty Hatch.  All five are starters for the Cowboys and are proud to wear the Cowboy uniform.  

As for the game it featured a rematch with the combined Watersprings Christian and Clark County team.  In an unusual occurrence the Cowboys got to host the Watersprings team twice rather than play a home and away schedule with them.  The first meeting happened just three weeks prior and North Gem dominated that game winning 70-6.  This time Watersprings came a little more prepared and made things exciting early on.  Following the opening kickoff the Cowboy defense stood strong and forced a Watersprings punt.  The North Gem offense went right to work leaning on their power run game and marched right down to the five yard line.  After a hiccup in the drive with a fumble on first and goal that the Cowboys were able to cover up Hatch was able to score the games first touchdown with Yost punching in the two point conversion and the Cowboys led 8-0.

The defense once again made a big stand and forced the ball to go over on downs back to the Cowboys.  The Cowboys didn't waste any time adding to the point total this time with Yost getting the touchdown and North Gem jumped up to a 14-0 lead.  With the first quarter coming to a close Watersprings went to a hurry up offense and was able to move the ball down the field.  

On the first play of the second quarter Watersprings finally got on the board and the Cowboy lead was cut to 14-6.  Following the score Watersprings tried to catch the Cowboys off guard with an onside kick but North Gem recovered the ball and had a short field to work with.  The Cowboys capitalized off of that opportunity and extended the lead up to 22-6.  The cowboys were not done scoring in the quarter.  Hatch would have the next big play when Watersprings would make another special teams misstep.  Watersprings attempted a fake punt and threw a long pass that Hatch intercepted.  The big plays would continue for both teams and before the half came to an end Yost and Hatch would each have another score as well as Watersprings adding one more touchdown and the teams would go to the locker room with the Cowboys leading 36-14. 

The Cowboys started on offense in the third but some good defense by Watersprings and a penalty on the Cowboys forced the turnover on downs.  Watersprings threw a long pass to add to their total bringing the score to 36-22.  This brought some uneasiness to the North Gem fanbase as the previous week the Cowboys led at halftime 32-12 before a potent passing attack snatched that victory away from them.  The Cowboys were determined to not let that happen again.  The Cowboys held Watersprings scoreless for the rest of the quarter while Hatch and Yost each added to their totals with each player getting long runs of over sixty yards and the Cowboys led at the end of the third 50-22.  

The fourth quarter was all North Gem with Yost getting once more touchdown and Welker getting in on the action for the games final score.  The Cowboys rolled in this one to a 64-22 victory.  The Cowboys relied heavily on Yost with Hatch adding a handful of big plays of his own.  Haydn Frandsen also had a good day on both special teams where he recovered an onside kick and made several tackles as well as getting some tackles for loss on defense.

The Cowboys have another big road test this week when they travel to Mackay to take on the Miners in what is essentially a playoff game.  A win keeps them in the hunt for a playoff spot while a loss will make things very difficult on the Cowboys.