Quarterback Kaden Dean threw two touchdown passes, on 114 passing yards, during last Friday’s game against the Cottonwood Colts.
Buffaloes junior Vaughn Gritzmacher, seen here running past a Colts defender, led his team in rushing with 114 yards.
Tooele’s defensive unit made several key stops during the team’s 52-27 win, including four sacks and two timely interceptions.
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Loading...When the smoke cleared from Tooele’s Friday night shootout against the Cottonwood Colts, the Buffaloes football team emerged with a 52-27 win to break their four-game-drought.
Tooele took a commanding 21-0 lead early on, thanks to three rushing touchdowns from Vaughn Gritzmacher (67-yard), Dustin Vanwagoner (16-yard-run) and Bram Gustin (51-yard-run). The trio combined for 134 yards in the first quarter alone and Gritzmacher finished with 114 total.
The Buffaloes nearly squandered that lead in the second quarter, allowing 14 unanswered points before responding with a touchdown to widen the gap. Kaden Dean found Britton Rosser for a 27-yard touchdown to round out the first half with a 28-14 lead.
In the second half, Tooele scored another 17 points to pad their lead in the third, with Gritzmacher and Barrett recording two touchdowns and Franklin Wilcox Cottonwood did not go away, however registering 13 points to trail 45-14 ahead of the final frame.
Despite allowing six more Cottonwood points, the Buffaloes dealt the Colts the final blow by scoring a final touchdown. Gritzmacher completed his team-leading, three-touchdown performance with a 5-yard run into the endzone to seal the 52-27 victory.
Turnovers proved costly for the visiting team, as a fumble in the second quarter and two interceptions — including one in the last three minutes of the game — enabled the Buffaloes to keep the Colts off the scoreboard. The team’s quarterback went down on four separate occasions for 24 total yards lost; John Leakehe and Gabe Cruz combined for 16 of them.
Defensively for Tooele, Gritzmacher and VanWagoner made 11 total tackles and three assisted takedowns.
In addition to Gritzmacher’s overall performance, Dean and Rosser also led the offensive calvary. Dean finished with 144 passing yards on two touchdown plays and Rosser accounted for 73 receiving yards on 12 carries.
With the win, Tooele’s record now sits at 1-4 ahead of a Sept. 15 road game against Hillcrest.
