WESTMINSTER — If his Legacy Lightning keep this up, Wayne Voorhees isn’t going to have much hair left.
“I’m going to be gray, bald and not have a voice,” Voorhees said.
His Lightning played their third consecutive one possession game on Thursday night at North Stadium, edging Rocky Mountain 31-28 to open the Front Range League portion of their schedule in style.
On a night when the Lobos tried everything in their defensive power to blitz and fluster Legacy senior quarterback Matt Lynch, nothing worked.
Lynch, especially in the second half, and running back Evan Baugh picked apart the Rocky defense slowly and methodically.
“That is something we have seen each of the last couple of weeks and how teams have gotten to us by blitzing,” said Lynch, who put his name at the top of the Legacy record books in career yards, completions and touchdowns on Thursday night. “We were focused on it, so we were able to adjust quickly and pick it up fast.”
Minus running back Ethan Simmons, who was on the bench in street clothes, the Lightning leaned heavily on Lynch and Baugh and the duo performed.
Clinging to a 17-14 lead in the fourth quarter, Legacy ran the read-option to perfection. Rocky appeared to bundle up Baugh in the backfield for a huge loss, but instead, Lynch pulled the ball out and went 22 yard to pay dirt to put the Lightning up 24-14.
The Legacy defense, which had to focus solely on the Lobos ground attack — notably Cade Hairgrove — buckled down and held Rocky on downs and then took over at the Lobos 39.
Nine plays later, Baugh went in from 1-yard out and the Lightning had what appeared to be a cozy 31-14 lead with 3:34 to play.
“Me and Evan have been working well together lately and I believed what we had game-planned,” Lynch said.
Rocky Mountain (2-1, 0-1), ranked No. 10 in the latest AP Media Poll, didn’t just roll over. Jordan Williams took the ensuing kickoff back 99 yards and just like that it was back to a 31-21 game.
Legacy recovered the onside kick, but was unable to move the ball and punted it back to Rocky. Lobos quarterback Tyler Hyland engineered a scoring drive under duress from the Lightning front seven and with 14 seconds left cut the lead to 31-28 on a 27-yard strike to Autry Baskin.
“Sometimes you let up a little bit thinking you’ve got the lead and they’ve got a long way to go and unfortunately we let them back in it,” said Voorhees, whose team will gear up for a big rivalry game next week against Horizon.
Legacy’s hands team again recovered an onside kick and the Lightning were able to kneel on the ball in the final seconds.
Lynch was just 10 of 21 for 118 yards through the air, but was more effective with his feet, rushing for 84 yards on 12 carries. Baugh finished with 78 yards on 24 carries.
Hairgrove was a workhorse for Rocky Mountain, finishing with 161 yards on 31 carries.
Jon Yunt: yuntj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/JonEYunt
Legacy 31, Rocky Mountain 28
At North Stadium
Rocky Mountain (2-1, 0-1)
7
7
0
14
—
28
Legacy (2-1, 1-0)
10
7
0
14
—
31
First quarter
Legacy — Matt Lynch 37 run (Kyle Freeburg kick).
Legacy — FG Freeburg 24.
Rocky Mountain — Cade Hairgrove 1 run (Williams Morgan kick).
Second quarter
Legacy — Jack Ruscher 4 pass from Lynch (Freeburg kick).
Rocky Mountain — Hairgrove 2 run (Morgan kick).
Fourth quarter
Legacy — Lynch 22 run (Freeburg kick).
Legacy — Evan Baugh 1 run (Freeburg kick).
Rocky Mountain — Jordan Williams 99 kickoff return (Morgan kick).
Rocky Mountain — Autry Baskin 27 pass from Tyler Hyland (Morgan kick).
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Rocky Mountain: Cade Hairgrove 31-161, Autry Baskin 13-91, Tyler Hyland 2-1. Legacy: Evan Baugh 24-78, Matt Lynch 12-84
PASSING — Rocky Mountain: Hyland 7-15-0-92. Legacy: Lynch 10-21-0-118.
RECEIVING — Rocky Mountain: Daniel Chavez 1-3, Jordan Williams 1-11, Hairgrove 2-30, Ryan Hutcheson 1-21, Baskin 1-27. Legacy: Baugh 2-23, Jack Ruscher 2-25, Derek Coleman 4-36, Dalton Royer 2-33.
