Plainsmen had their chances; fall to Sailors

Richard Anderson photos
Laramie junior Luke Knapton, 88, gives senior Coleton Wilson a congratulatory head bump after Wilson ran in a two-point conversion Friday against Steamboat Springs, Colo. At bottom, senior Nick Armijo, 77 and teammate Ben Farber sandwich Steamboat Springs quarterback Austin Hinder.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

When the Laramie Plainsmen left the field Friday night, there was a sense of frustration in their eyes.

A slow start spelled doom as Steamboat Springs, Colo., held off a couple of late rallies to stop Laramie 21-14 in the season opener at Deti Stadium.

It may have been “Zero Week” for the rest of the state, but there was zero consolation for Laramie, which gave up three big first-half plays before it got back in the game.

“It’s tough to go through two-a-days, all that hard work, and come out of here disappointed tonight,” Laramie junior tight end and linebacker Tyler English said. “It’s not a good feeling. We look to turn it around next week.”

Although it was the season-opener for Steamboat Springs as well, the Sailors were able to scrimmage another team to get a little more true feel and speed of the game.

It seemed like the Sailors were a step or two ahead of the Plainsmen early.

“It’s a little frustrating because it’s game time, you come out there and you expect to get going right away,” first-year Laramie head coach Bob Knapton said. “These guys came out and looked like game busters on us.”

Steamboat Springs took advantage of three big plays by junior quarterback Austin Hinder -- a 46-yard pass to Alex Wood, a 78-yard touchdown run by Hinder and a 64-yard pass form Hinder to Wood -- all in the first half.

Knapton said that as a coach, with the Plainsmen only scrimmaging themselves last week, he had a feeling something like this could happen.

“It did in the first quarter,” he said. “Then we settled down a little bit, and by the second half, we really came from starting to race like a turtle to turning into a rabbit, and we started coming back on them. I was glad to see that because they didn’t quit.”

Trailing 21-8 at halftime, the Plainsmen came out and made a game of it in the second half and had two golden opportunities in the final minutes to get the win.

“We started playing the football that we know how to play,” Laramie junior linebacker Luke Knapton said.

At first glance, you might say it was too little, too late for Laramie. On second glance, the Plainsmen had plenty of time to get back in the game.

“A few screw-ups here and there and we were right in that ballgame … we could have won it,” Laramie senior quarterback and free safety Coleton Wilson said.

The Plainsmen made a late push, taking advantage of a big interception by junior cornerback Kelby Wilkison, his second of the game. Wilkison grabbed Hinder’s errant throw on the Sailors’ 3-yard line and Laramie moved up the field late in the fourth quarter to get in scoring position. A 30-yard run by senior wingback Jon Sorenson and a 17-yard pass from Wilson to junior tight end Marshall Fisher gave the Plainsmen a first down on the Steamboat 22-yard line. Two runs by Sorenson gave Laramie a third and one opportunity, but Steamboat rose to the occasion and stopped Sorenson on two straight runs on the 13.

The Plainsmen got the ball right back on three nice defensive plays and good field position on the Steamboat 38, with 3:54 to play.

But Laramie couldn’t take advantage, despite a nice 5-yard run by Sorenson on fourth and 5. With just seconds remaining and no time outs, Steamboat Springs’ Wood sacked Wilson on consecutive plays to end the game.

“Whenever you get into a rush, I guess it is tough to get plays out,” Wilson said.

Despite Hinder’s ability to make the big play, he also threw two pass interceptions and lost two fumbles.

“They made a lot of mistakes and we should have capitalized on a lot of that, but we didn’t,” Wilson added. “I guess we’ll just learn from that and next week we’ll work hard in practice.”

Steamboat Springs rolled up 275 yards of total offensive in the first half, but just 64 in the final two quarters. It was a much better Laramie defense in the second half … almost like the Plainsmen were finally getting into the flow of the game and the season. Wilkison had 20 defensive points, with Knapton adding 19.

“We talked about it and we came out pumped up in warm-up and we were ready to drill some people,” Luke Knapton said.

Hinder was 6 of 17 passing and ran the ball eight times for 91 net yards.

Sorenson led Laramie with 90 yards on 17 carries, as the Plainsmen ran for 123 yards in the game. Wilson was 2 of 9 passing for 39 yards.

Laramie‘s first score came at the 3:57 mark of the second quarter, when Sorenson took it in from 5 yards out. Wilson ran in the two-point conversion. The play was set up on a Knapton fumble recovery. Ironically, Laramie appeared to have a touchdown on a short run by Sorenson on the series before, but he wasn’t given the score. Wilson then snuck it in from a yard, but a procedure penalty moved the Plainsmen back. On fourth down, Steamboat knocked away a Wilson pass at the goal line.

Laramie made it 21-14 on a 4-yard TD run by junior fullback Charles Swearingen with 3:31 left in the third quarter. That drive was set up on another Knapton fumble recovery on the 37-yard line.

“It just didn’t go our way tonight -- we had chances, though,” English said.

Laramie was one of two teams in the state (Saratoga) who played games that counted on Friday night. The rest of the state was in action, but those games were not official.

It showed early, Luke Knapton said.

“We had first-game jitters. This is only our second week of football. We got this out of the way and now we need to come back and play hard next week,” he said.

The Plainsmen look to bounce back Friday at Cheyenne East.