High school football: Grantsville's Cowboys gunning to ride high in the saddle this season

GRANTSVILLE — With 18 starters are back for the Grantsville Cowboys this year, it's easy to see why coach Tony Cloward is so confident and optimistic about the upcoming season.

"We put all our eggs in one basket for this year. We've been preparing for this year, so hopefully it pans out for us," said Cloward, now in his fourth year at his alma mater.

Despite playing in what should be a much-improved Region 11 this year, the Cowboys appear to be good enough on offense and defense to make a run at the league title.

It all starts with experience.

Defensively, Grantsville struggled quite a bit last year.

"The youth really killed us defensively. I think we ran too complex of a scheme. Being inexperienced, it was like they were guessing their responsibility all the time. This year we return them all, so we should be equally as good as we're going to be offensively," said Cloward.

Austin Gumucio, the leading tackler a year ago, will anchor what should be a solid linebacking core. He'll be joined by Riley Bowman and cousins Kort and Ky Fonger. Max Bleazard, a starter since his sophomore year, is the heart of the defensive line at tackle.

The strength of the team should still be on offense, and it's because of the offseason development of Forrest Stephenson, who backed up Logan Paulich last year.

"He might be as good if not better than Paulich," said Cloward. "I may go as bold and say he even might compete with (Logan's Jeff) Manning for the best quarterback in the league. They're a different type of player, but I'm really that high on him just because of his summer."

Stephenson's really taken to running the spread offense, and throws even better when he's on the run.

He's got numerous weapons at his disposal, including Grantsville's version of Reggie Bush. Alex Childs led the Cowboys in rushing (700) and receiving yards (400) last year despite playing on a team that ran the more conservative Wing-T offense last year.

Cloward used the Wing-T early last year in an effort to shorten the game for his younger team. It worked in terms of time of possession, but not on the scoreboard. His defense was so bad they gave up a lot of quick scores, and his methodical offense never had an answer.