Malad’s opener against Lyman was a long slog, and a low-scoring affair.  Luckily, the low score came out on the Dragons’ side of the ledger, as they took down the Eagles of Lyman, Wyoming.  While not an offensive explosion, the defensive showing was impressive, and a win is a win is a win.  

Coach Price said, “Our first game of the year was a very hard defensive game. Both teams had a hard time moving the ball. Both teams really wanted to establish the run, but were unable to. Lyman made a late drive towards the end of the first half but our defense was able to hold and at halftime the score was still 0-0. The third quarter was more of the same, both teams traded turnovers and not too much had changed. In the 4th quarter, Malad was able to score on a 17 yard touchdown pass from Easton Green to Dawson Peterson. We were unable to get the 2 pt conversion but now held the lead at 6-0. As time ran down Lyman made one last attempt to move the ball through the air. Our defense came up big and Malad was able to kneel the ball to get our first victory of the season.”

In last year’s contest, the Dragons ended up on the losing side of a 36-14 relatively high scoring game, sandwiched between wins over American Falls and Ririe.

As Coach Price said, “I thought the defense played amazing. Last year Lyman had almost 300 yards of rushing, this year we held them to under 120. Offensively we need to continue to get better. Where it was the first game we are still figuring some stuff out and the 2nd half looked a
little better.” 

Special teams stayed busy with frequent changes of possession throughout the game after 3 and outs, and clearly did well preventing any success for Lyman on the reception.  “I thought our special teams did great, no big returns for Lyman and we moved the ball pretty well. Chase Martin on punt return and Brady Showell on Kickoff helped put the team in good positions,” Price said. 

While it was just the first game of the season, there is a lot to build on, especially with regard to the defensive toughness displayed by the Dragons.  

“Really proud of the boys and how they played. This is a tough mindset team that physically wants to control their opponents. I felt our team matched that physicality. Our D-Line did its job and took on the blocks to free up our backers to make the tackles, really was a great team win,” Price concluded.

Over the course of the game, Lyman put down 117 yards of rushing, and 22 yards of passing.  Malad totaled 68 rushing yeards, and 34 yards passing, including the sole touchdown of the game.

The leading rusher of the game was Ryan Jensen, with a total of 26 yards.  The leading passer was Easton Green with 22 yards.  Dawson Peterson led receivers with 17 yards, and Holdan Tubbs led tacklers with 6.5 tackles.

Coming up, Malad looks forward to a game at Ririe on September 6, American Falls on September 13, and its first conference game, against Soda Springs, on Sept 24.  The other conference matchups include Aberdeen on October 11, Declo on October 18, and West Side on October 25.