JACKSON, Wyo. — The Broncs are feeling confident, riding a high off last week’s win against border rival Teton Timberwolves. Once again, the road warriors will venture into Idaho to tackle the Bear Lake Bears in Montpelier at 7 p.m. tonight.
First and foremost, Jackson will be looking for someone to replace the injured Nate Keipert (collarbone). The speedy wideout is the Bronc’s sole deep threat, allowing the offense to stretch the field and find plays underneath when they’re there.
Head coach David Joyce said last week’s dink-and-dunk stuff underneath allowed TE Colter Dawson to have a big first half as Teton played a conservation soft zone. Without the threat of Keipert, the Timberwolves went to a tighter man defense, not worried about anything over the top.
But Joyce said much of last week’s playbook was specifically designed around Keipert’s speed. This week, the plan will be to go more generic, more basic in the play-calling, and work in any of three different players at wide receiver.
“Steven Heffron, Sam Lopeman, Alexei Didonato—we have confidence in all three of them,” Joyce said. “Each brings their own skillset. Stephen’s probably our best blocker, Sam’s probably our fastest deep threat, and Alexi’s an all-around route runner with hands.”
Keipert’s injury required surgery and should keep him out for the majority of the season—or an estimated six weeks. He could return for the playoffs.
Bear Lake
Bear Lake was able to upset the Broncs last year at the Willie Mac in an ugly game. Joyce said his kids did not take the Bears seriously after rolling them in 2018.
“Our kids last year had a terrible week of practice and ended up overlooking them,” Joyce remembered. “You could see it start to shift when all of the sudden it was obvious Bear Lake came to play and we weren’t ready to play.”
Turnovers, inability to cash in in the red zone (twice stuffed at the 1-yard line), and a general lack of engagement hurt the Broncs as they lost 13-7 in front of their home crowd.
Joyce sees a different scenario this time around, especially on the road.
“This year I feel like our kids are taking them seriously. They know we are playing a good football team, and we are going to have to go down there and beat them. On their own field.”
The Bears will feature an experienced signal-caller in senior Owen Teuscher, a QB with size and patience to find the open receiver. Bear Lake ran it up on a team out of Randolph, Utah (Rich) last week for a 49-0 win. And they did it primarily in the passing game.
But Joyce feels confident his defense can pressure the quarterback after last week’s showing against the Wolves.
“We put Teton’s quarterback on the ground…I wanna say ten times in that game,” Joyce said.
Friday will be Bear Lake’s home opener. Jackson would love to play spoiler as Joyce’s squad sometimes plays looser away from the distractions of home.
“Teton had a really ruckus crowd. They wanted that game. And our kids fed off that energy,” Joyce said. “I know that Bear Lake is going to have a great home crowd and it’s going to be rowdy down there.”
Both teams come into the contest with 1-0 records. It is a non-conference game for both teams.
Game time 7 p.m. kickoff, Friday, September 4. Live coverage on KZ95 (95.3 FM and online at KZ95)
