Laramie Plainsmen hold off Rock Springs for First Win, 18-14

Thanks to a goal line stand with about two minutes left in the game, the Laramie Plainsmen won their first game in 2013 under new head coach Chuck Syverson with an 18-14 victory over the Rock Springs Tigers Friday night. It was Laramie's first win at Rock Springs in 13 years.

The Plainsmen barely had the ball in the second half, as Rock Springs held it for over 18 minutes in the final two quarters. The Tigers put together a 19 play touchdown drive that lasted nearly 10 minutes to open the second half. Then held the ball for over seven minutes of the fourth quarter before Laramie made a goal line stand with around 2:03 remaining.

On 4th and goal from the Plainsmen 9-yard line, Rock Springs QB Nick Blume went back to pass couldn't find an open receiver and started to scramble. He then lost the ball and the fumble was recovered by Laramie's Danny Bradfield at the 10-yard line.

Senior QB Drew Burman led LHS to the one first down they had to get. Joe Adams ran twice for seven yards. Then, Burman kept it on third down and three and gained five yards for only the third first down of the second half by the Plainsmen.

First-year Laramie Plainsmen head coach Chuck Syverson said, "It was just a total team effort tonight. We did great job moving the ball offensively. Still gotta work on finishing some of those drives, but we maintained some field position on 'em, and that really helped us. Defensively, we did kinda the bend, but don't break defense again. Still need to work on that, but they got the stop at the end when we needed it. Special teams were huge tonight. We make a big deal out of them every week. It really cam down to special teams. We made a field goal, got our 2-point conversion off of our gate formation, we had two kick-offs go into the end-zone, so you don't have to worry about the return on those and we had a couple of good punts. So, overall I think it was a pretty good overall team game today."

Laramie (1-1) got touchdown runs of 1-yard from Bridger Rardin and 11-yards from Burman in the first half, plus a Kyle Russell 27-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to account for their scoring.

Rock Springs (0-2) scored on a 39-yard t-d run by Blume and a 4-yard t-d pass from Blume to Koltin Legerski.

The Plainsmen finished with 296 yards in total offense, which included 144 yards rushing and 152 yards passing. Laramie did have two turnovers and eight penalties for 68 yards. Burman led the way with 67 yards and a score on the ground, while he went 9-of-16 for 152 yards. That included a pair of 39-yard completions.

The Tigers ended up with 127 yards on the ground and 129 yards passing for a total of 256 yards of offense in the game. Rock Springs fumbled three times and also had eight penalties for 78 yards.

Laramie snapped a three-game losing streak in the series and won at Rock Springs for the first time since the 2000 season (41-27).

The Plainsmen return home Friday night to face the defending 4A State Champion Natrona County Mustangs at Deti Stadium. Kick-off is set for 7 p.m.

You can listen to Laramie Plainsmen football coverage on KOWB (AM 1290) and online at www.kowb1290.com/listen-live/. Our broadcast begins at 5:30 p.m. with David Settle and VerDon Hoopes calling the action.