Ennis tops Lone Peak on last second field goal

Senior kicker John Hostetler booted a 23 yard field goal as time expired to give the Ennis Mustangs a hard fought 37-34 win in their season opener at Ennis High School on Sept. 5. 

“We marched the ball down the field on that last drive. I hadn’t missed all night and I knew I had to make a play,” said Hostetler who was four for four on extra points, caught the first touchdown pass of the season for the Mustangs and had three tackles on defense. 

“I gotta shout out John Hostetler,” said Ennis’s senior quarterback Brandon Foss who logged 202 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the ground to go with 78 passing yards and a TD pass to Hostetler to start the scoring.  ‘He had to make the game-winning field goal and he did.” 

Wyatt Doty ran for 121 yards and a touchdown with mostly hard fought efforts up the middle that complemented Foss’s slashing runs to the outside. 

“Anytime we rush for 300 yards I’m a happy coach,” said head coach Mike Speck who admits that much of the team’s focus on the night was on their defense.

“I know they got 34 up on the board,” said Speck. “That's a crooked number, but to hold that team to 34, honestly we played dang good defense.” 

“I'll say our defense was all about surrounding number seven, Ebe Grabow. He is going to play at the next level and be a force,” he continued, describing the 6’3” 200lb. senior quarterback for the Bighorns. 

Grabow lit up the Ennis defense at times, looking nearly impossible for one man to stop. He opened the scoring for Lone Peak with a 38 yard touchdown run in the first quarter. In addition to the damage he did with his legs, Grabow was dangerous through the air connecting with junior receiver Lucas O’Connor including touchdown passes of 33, 31 and 16 yards in the second half. 

In the third quarter Ennis got a scare when Foss was carted off the field after Lone Peak had tied the game at 28 with an apparent knee injury. Hostetler stepped into the quarterback duties and Doty eluded defenders for a 34 yard touchdown run to give the Mustangs a 38-24 lead. 

Ennis defensive back Wyatt Williams broke up passes at the end of the third and early in the fourth to force a Lone Peak punt and preserve the Mustang’s lead. Despite the defensive pressure by Ennis, Grabow eventually found O’Connor in the endzone in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 34. 

The defensive units traded big stops and Ennis ended up with the ball on their own 15 yard line with one minute and thirty two seconds remaining. The Mustangs pounded the ball down the middle with Doty before Foss found an open Williams for 23 yards putting the ball into Lone Peak territory with 19 seconds left. 

Speck called Doty’s number up the middle again and he pushed the ball down to the five yard line with 10 seconds remaining. 

“Obviously we weren't forcing it,” explained Foss speaking about the two pass attempts with less than 10 seconds left. “If it was there, we were going to go ahead and take the touchdown. But if it wasn't there, we were just looking to get it out of bounds, throw it out of bounds. So we had time to kick the field goal.” 

“I said, don't throw that sucker to him unless he is wide open,” said Speck. “I said, ‘just air it out. Get six or seven seconds off the clock.’ John's (Hostetler) a dang good kicker.”

“They're a lot better than I thought, and coach Shipman did a dang good job,” concluded Speck after the win. 

Next up for the Mustangs is another home game against 2-0 Sheridan who have scored 38 points in each of their wins on Sept. 12. The Bighorns will host Drummond-Phillipsburg who smashed Park City 56-22 in their opener, on Sept. 12 also.