MEEKER — The Roaring Fork Rams and Meeker Cowboys renewed a six-year absence of play Friday night at Starbuck Stadium.
The Cowboys and Rams had not played each other on the gridiron since Meeker dropped down in classification to the 1A ranks.
In that 2001 game the Cowboys upended the top-ranked Rams in Meeker’s homecoming game. A Cowboy repeat was not to be the case Friday though as the 2A Rams soundly defeated the hometown Cowboys 34-8 before a sparse partisan Meeker crowd.
Roaring Fork turned its only possession of the first quarter into six points as they took over from Meeker on downs at the Meeker 47-yard line. A series of three- to eight-yard gains had the Rams’ Soren Phibbs scoring from eight yards out.
Meeker could only gather 26 yards in offense in the first quarter with all of that coming through the air.
The second quarter was a little more productive for the Cowboys offensively as they gained 58 total yards, 47 through the air. Meanwhile, the Rams took advantage of Meeker miscues and rolled up another 14 points for a 20-0 halftime lead.
The third period started where number two ended as Roaring Fork continued to score. This time Phibbs broke through the middle of the Cowboy defense for 42 yards to make the score 27-0 in favor of the visiting team from Carbondale. Meeker generated some offense on their first possession of the second half as Bubba Mazzola ground out 14 yards on three carries and quarterback Colton Brown connected with Trenton Schindler for 21 and then hit Dakota Rowlett from 10 yards out for the only Meeker touchdown of the evening. Brown then pushed across the two-point conversion to end Meeker’s scoring.
The fourth quarter was of little offensive production for the Cowboys, while the Rams found pay dirt for the final time with 6:07 left in the quarter to finish the scoring for the night at 8-34 in favor of the visiting Rams.
Meeker’s ground game was held in check for the second game in a row as the Cowboys were only able to generate 42 yards on 26 carries this week compared to 57 yards on 17 carries last week. However the passing game remained relatively the same with total passing yards of 135 on Friday compared to 149 a week ago.
Bubba Mazzola led the Cowboy rushers this week with 36 yards on 11 carries while Colton Brown was 10 for 19 passing for 135 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Trenton Schindler remained the favorite target for the second week in a row as he gathered in five catches for 95 yards.
Around the league
Basalt squeaked past Paonia 22-20 in overtime, Coal Ridge beat Rangely 41-14, Aspen upended unbeaten Hotchkiss 34-20, West Grand beat Buena Vista JV 27-6, and Hayden upended unbeaten 2A Grand Valley 28-7. This week Meeker travels to Olathe to play Mancos. Game time is scheduled for a 1 p.m. kickoff at Olathe High School field..
Roaring Fork 6 14 7 7 — 34
Meeker 0 0 8 0 — 08
