- Grantsville Cowboys won their homecoming game against Ben Lomond 59-0 on Friday.
- Quarterback Dallan Van Vliet threw three touchdowns and rushed for another score.
- Grantsville's defense dominated recovering three fumbles and preventing Ben Lomond's advance.
GRANTSVILLE — Tailgates, fireworks, and a whole lot of touchdowns. That is how the Grantsville Cowboys celebrated homecoming.
Grantsville defended its home field Friday night with a 59-0 win over Ben Lomond.
It was an exciting homecoming celebration for the Cowboys and their faithful. The school introduced a new touchdown celebration and broke out their cow bell, built by their very own welding class.
The bell was rung many times as Grantsville scored five first-half touchdowns.
"I think it's awesome," Grantsville head coach David Millward said. "I wish it was louder, I really do. But our community is so awesome; and our school, they just embrace the football team, and I'm just honored to be part of it."
The fireworks got started early for the Cowboys as quarterback Dallan Van Vliet connected with wide receiver Jaxxon Jensen twice in the first half, including a 55-yard strike on the team's first offensive play of the game.
Van Vliet diced up the Ben Lomond defense all game, throwing three passing touchdowns and rushing for a fourth score.
"We trust our offense, we trust our coach, trust the scheme, and we just delivered," Van Vliet said. "That's what we do."
While the offense was firing on all cylinders, so was the defense. Grantsville swarmed all game, which was too much for the Scots' offense to handle. The Cowboys recovered three fumbles, with Owen Sweet recovering an errant snap in the end zone.
Senior Jake Chidester recovered another fumble while also forcing the Ben Lomond punter out of the back of the end zone to put a safety on the board. The defensive effort was suffocating, as the defense prevented the Scots from passing the 50-yard line once.
"We came in just trying to work and get better at the things that we need to be good at, and I feel like we were able to do that," Millward said.
Grantsville unloaded the bench in the second half but their younger players still put up points and held strong on defense.
"That's how you build a program, how you build a team," Millward said. "It's getting those younger guys experience, letting them experience under the lights. It's different than anything they've ever experienced, so it's huge to be able to do that and give them some meaningful time."
Crew Allred took over at quarterback for the Cowboys and led two scoring drives. Carter Bell punched in a 2-yard rushing touchdown. Allred later unloaded a deep bomb, finding Jet Fossen for a 45-yard TD, which was the exclamation point on Grantsville's win.
Millward and his team celebrated the win but knows they still have much to improve on as they continue on in region play.
"We have a lot of talent," Millward said. "We just have to be consistent at what we do. We've got to just execute consistently. I mean, that's what football is all about."
The Cowboys secured their first region win of the season and will look to improve to 2-0 in region play when they travel to Ogden to take on the Tigers (4-2). Ben Lomond is still searching for its first win and will travel to take on the Morgan Trojans (5-1) next Friday.
