MEEKER | The Cedaredge Bruins came to Meeker with a 3-1 record, one of the best starts for the Bruin program in years. They had shut out two of three of the teams they played and scored more than 110 points under the leadership of their new head coach.
Four plays into the game the Cowboys defined what the outcome of the game would be. Bruins took the first possession of the game to go four and out with tackles for loss by Judd Harvey and Brendan Clatterbaugh. Cedaredge punted only to have it run back by Wyatt Powers to put Meeker on the board early.
“Cedaredge is a good team, it is hard to get behind early and come back from it,” commented head coach Andy Coryell. “In the third quarter it wasn’t that we relaxed, it was that they were playing better, and that was very evident from our film.”
The matchup has some interesting history, since the Class of 2024 has been in high school Meeker has shut out the Bruins three of four meetings and only allowed six points.
The defense did its job keeping the Bruins scoreless and limiting first downs and it was done by a lot of contribution from the entire team. Led by Harvey, who currently is number two in the state for tackles, he added 16 tackles to make 63 for the year, and four of them were for a loss. Clatterbaugh, who is top five in the state, accounted for 15 tackles and also four for loss, and Cade Blunt also racked up double digit tackles with 12. Three Cowboys had eight tackles: Jace Mobley, Jake Blazon and Hayden Shults.
Powers had another interception to bring his total to four for the year and top for the Cowboys.
“We are a very unique 1A team,” said Coryell, “in that we have a lot of depth from our big guys up front and our running backs, we are able to keep them fresh.”
The offense was able to start from a good field position for the majority of the game due to the play of the special teams.
“I think our special team really shined this week,” commented Coryell. “Whenever you can begin the drive with great field position it is just that much easier to score. It wasn’t just our punt return that did great but our punt team was able to also get us great field position deep on the Cedaredge side.”
Powers had 178 yards on special teams between kick return and punt return, and one touchdown.
In total the Cowboys had 476 yards of offense. On the ground Clay Crawford led with 129 yards and receiving Jace Mobley had 49. Cade Blunt added 41 yards rushing and 30 yards receiving for a well rounded offense with many contributors.
“To be able to get that many yards against a team that had shut out two other teams, our offensive line is doing their job well,” said Coryell.
The Cowboys now look forward to preparing for Buena Vista, a game that will be played Saturday at 1 p.m. in Buena Vista.
“Coach Flavin has decades of experience and is very intelligent when it comes to getting ready to play each team every week,” commented Coryell. “We will be preparing for a defense that we have not seen since North Fork.”
Buena Vista is a team that is as equally dangerous on the ground as it is through the air. Lead receiver is Caleb Camp and lead running back is Eli Schuknecht.
The game will be available to watch via NFHS.
