CALDWELL, Idaho — The Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears might have saved their postseason aspirations in the final 6:30 of Saturday’s football game at the College of Idaho.
Trailing 41-28, Rocky stormed back with a wild sequence of events to claim a 42-41 win and move to 2-2 in the Frontier.
It began with a Jimmy Henderson interception of Darius Peterson in Yotes territory with 6:27 to play. Less than a minute later, Jacob Bakken threw a 46-yard touchdown pass to Lucas Overton to pull the Bears within 41-35. Rocky’s Isaiah Schlegel then recovered an onside kick, and Bakken connected with Max Gray two plays later for the go-ahead score, 42-41. It was Rocky’s first and only lead of the game.
The Yotes got the ball back with 4:48 on the clock and drove to the Bears’ 35-yard-line, but on 4th-and-5, Jefferson and Dallas Mack tackled Keenan Pattwell 3 yards short of the first down, giving Rocky the ball back and icing the game.
The two teams traded touchdowns in the first half, as the College of Idaho took a 20-14 lead into the break. The Yotes led by 13 three different times in the second half, before Rocky scored the final 14 points of the game.
Bakken played the best game of his collegiate career, throwing for 431 yards and five TDs. Gray had seven catches for 165 yards and two TDs, while tight end Darneail Jenkins caught five balls for 129 yards and two scores.
Rocky finished with 543 yards of total offense, while the Yotes finished with 451 yards.
Rocky heads into a bye week before returning home to face conference leader Southern Oregon on Saturday, Oct. 6 at 1 p.m.
