Pine Bluffs Survives Rocky Mt. in 1A 9-Man Semi-finals

In one of the more entertaining games in the semi-final round of football, Pine Bluffs stayed undefeated with a 35-32 win over Rocky Mountain to secure a spot in Laramie this week. It was an eventful game from start to finish with Pine Bluffs jumping out to a 13-point lead thanks to a touchdown pass from Stu Lerwick to Dalton Schaefer that went for 5 yards and Schaefer had a TD run that went for a dozen yards. Rocky Mountain answered with a 7-yard run to the end zone from Maddox Ames to cut the lead to 13-7.

The Grizzlies' defense got into the act in the 2nd quarter with a fumble return for a touchdown from Mitchell Birkhofer to even the game at 13. Rocky went in front 20-13 on a 1-yard plunge into the end zone from Carsyn Weber. Pine Bluffs inched back into the game as Lerwick threw a touchdown pass to Ryan Fornstrom so the Hornets trailed 20-19 at the halftime break.

In quarter #3, Ames reeled off a 19-yard run for a score to give the Grizz a 26-19 advantage but Pine Bluffs responded with Schaefer scoring again on an 18-yard run to knot the game again at 26. In the 4th quarter, Jackson Hanusa gave Rocky Mountain the lead with a 5-yard run so it was 32-26. Once again, Pine Bluffs responded with a 16-yard scoring run from Schaefer, and with the successful 2-point try, the Hornets led 35-32. Schafer by the way had 187 yards rushing in the contest.

Pine Bluffs killed the clock on offense the rest of the way to get to 10-0 and earn a rematch with Shoshoni in the 9-Man championship game on Saturday at 1 pm at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie. Pine Bluffs beat Shoshoni in the season opener 34-26.

Rocky Mountain concludes the season with a mark of 7-3 and has made the playoffs in 15 of the last 16 years. We do have a few photos of the game from Ashley Jessen in our gallery below. Enjoy!