On Thursday, it was 10 years to the day since Steamboat Springs football had defeated Moffat County in the annual rivalry game, but after Friday night, it is the Sailors who held bragging rights. 

Pinned against a strong Bulldog team that dominated the Sailors in their own house a year ago, Steamboat Springs flipped the script and earned a 40-6 victory in Craig on Friday. 

Steamboat head coach Scott Przymus said the Sailors played complementary football across all three phases of the game. He is hopeful this win proved to his players that they can go toe-to-toe against even the most physical of teams. 

Przymus took note of Moffat County’s dominant rushing attack following the Bulldogs’ season-opening victory over Kennedy last week. He made that a focus for his defense this week in practice. 

“Defensively, we honed on being physical and aggressive to a point and trying to create muddles in their offensive line where it forces the ball carrier to jump outside and then we allowed our fast guys to run it down,” he said.

The defense earned a handful of takeaways in the game, helping hold Moffat to just six points in the contest. The offense took care of the rest with big gains on the ground from Thomas Krupp and strong leadership from junior quarterback Tanner Cobb. 

“It was huge for the guys, huge for the coaches and huge for the student body,” Przymus said. “We had a huge turnout of high school and middle school families on our sideline and it was amazing. They ended up rushing the field after we all did our handshake and respected the game so it means a lot.”

The coaches recognize that this group of players are not overly familiar with big wins and are often considered the underdog. Przymus said he is focused in the coming days on educating his players on how to approach the week and “move forward with intentionality and focus.” 

Now 2-0 on the season, Steamboat has another road game with Middle Park scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday.