BILLINGS – Rocky Mountain College head coach Chris Stutzriem didn’t really know the score. But he knew he wanted to see one more play.
Stutzriem awarded the Gold team extra points for its final 4th-down stop late in Saturday morning’s spring football game, tying the score with the Green team. The first-year head coach then decided to run one final play to decide the winner. Green captain Ryder Rice chose to go on defense, so Gold handed it to Colton Williams, who ran away from Rice and dove over the goalline for the comeback win.
“I thought it was fun,” Stutzriem said afterwards. “Guys got after it, they competed to the last play. I have no idea who really won, but we had a lot of fun and it was a good way to end spring.”
Nate Dick ran the first team offense for the Green and grabbed an early lead with a touchdown run and a TD pass to Lucas Overton in the first half. Drew Korf and the Gold team offense struggled early, as Green took a double-digit lead, but Ty Reynolds intercepted two passes in the endzone to keep the Gold team close.
Korf found a rhythm to begin the second half of the scrimmage, as he connected with Josh Kraft for a TD pass to pull Gold back within striking distance. Both defenses dominated from there, as each QB threw another interception – Dick’s coming on a middle screen that was returned for a touchdown by Denton Wetherell.
Rice was a dominant force on the Green defensive line – no surprise for the two-time all-American, who also caught a pass after talking the coaches into letting him play offense for a snap.
“I think they try to incorporate as many fun things as they can,” Rice said of the coaches. “We do O-Line, D-Line pass 1-on-1’s where we throw the ball to each other, stuff we would never get to do that’s just funny to watch and fun to do.”
Rocky stuck with a lighthearted feeling throughout Saturday morning, as the coaches played 7-on-7 during a 10-minute halftime period.
The Bears open their season August 29 at Dickinson State.
