Saratoga gridders fall to Cokeville

Coming off a week one loss to Mountain View, the Cokeville Panthers did not hold back against the Saratoga football squad.

The final score of the game was Cokeville 55, Saratoga 0. Cokeville scored 35 points in the first quarter and ended the first half up by 42. After a scoreless third quarter the Cokeville Panthers put up two more unanswered touchdowns in the fourth.

The game started out rough for Saratoga after Cokeville sophomore Rick Nate took an outside run almost 80 yards for the touchdown on the first offensive play of the game. Cokeville did not ease up after that.

The Saratoga Panthers managed several highlights during the game against the much larger Cokeville team, which also has a deeper bench. Saratoga Head Coach Scott Bokelman pointed out that the team was able to get some first downs, including one on their first set of downs, against Cokeville's first string.

Saratoga's Thatcher Spiering averaged 8.7 yards on his 10 carries from the backfield and Ben Fairbanks caught three Rodrigo Escobedo passes for a total of 60 yards. Bokelman said he was happy with Fairbank's performance. The fact that Fairbanks has gained the confidence to catch some balls should allow Saratoga to use the offensive backfield more in passing plays and keep the defense guessing. "It will loosen (the opposing defense) up a little and keep them from putting eight or nine guys on the line," Bokelman said.

Escobedo had success with his passing game, completing three of eight passing attempts.

Spiering was the preeminent player on the Saratoga defense coming up with 11 tackles and assisting on seven tackles. This was quite a feat considering he was often matched up against Cokeville's 6'5", 265 pound Jordan Clements. Spiering weighs in at 155 pounds and is 5'8" tall.

Bokelman said the defensive line needs to work on getting off their blocks and getting to to the ball quicker.

Matt Lincoln, Morgan Rempel and Cameron Travis managed to stop Cokeville runners behind the line of scrimmage and Rempel came up with Saratoga's only fumble recovery.

Although Saratoga allowed their first punt of the game to be blocked special teams had a good performance overall. Escobedo averaged 33 yards per punt in the three he got away. The kick returners averaged 13.25 yards on kickoff returns. Bokelman said he is pleased with the special teams performance because they won't have to spend as much time working special teams drills during practice, leaving more time for offense and defense.

The Saratoga Panthers next game is 6 p.m., Sept. 18 at the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies in Cowley, Wyo. Bokelman said Rocky Mountain will be a tough game, but his Panthers will have more practice, conditioning and wrinkles in the offense and defense to bring to Cowley.