Gunnison homecoming brings sweet victory in 22-12 battle

By James Tilson 

Sports writer

9-19-2019

GUNNISON—The Gunnison Valley High School Football team broke through last Friday night for their first victory, defeating Rich 22-12.

Three different Bulldogs scored touchdowns in the game, including an electrifying 96-yard fumble return by Zach Stewart to put the Bulldogs up 8-6 early in the second quarter. But the absolute star of the game for the Bulldogs was Brandon Tucker.

“Tucker had an excellent game,” said Coach Patrick King. “He had 176 yards on the ground, and 192 yards of total offense. Zach Stewart and Dylan Anderson’s play to force the fumble and score turned the game in our favor.”

The Rich Rebels took the early advantage in a mistake and turnover plagued game, scoring first to go up 6-0. Rich was looking to score their second touchdown and was deep in Bulldog territory when Anderson forced the Rebel running back to fumble, and Stewart scooped it up and scampered 96 yards for the score.

A second touchdown in the quarter gave the advantage to Gunnison, 14-6, before Rich came back in the end of the quarter to make it 14-12 at the half.

The teams battled back and forth in the third quarter with no score, until mid-way through the fourth when Gunnison put it away with the final score of the game to make it 22-12.

“We won the turnover battle against Rich, and will need to do the same to compete with the North Summit Braves this week,” said King. “They have a lot of ability, and we need to control the ball.”

Gunnison Valley at 1-3 will host the North Summit Braves (2-3) this week in the Bulldogs’ second region contest. In the first set of UHSAA RPI rankings that came out this week, the Bulldogs came in as the No. 11 ranked team in 2A, at 0.436896, and North Summit is ranked No. 10 at 0.452529. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.