By Dan Wright

Starting the year with two losses in their first three games, the Wyoming Cowboys entered Friday night's clash with the Taylor Yellow Jackets at Bob Lewis Stadium with a sense of urgency to turn their season around.

With 5:40 remaining in the first half of their 53-14 victory, they discovered a different type of urgency. After what looked to be routine fourth-down stop of Ryan Hawk's two-yard run up the middle, junior defensive end Jeff King lay face down, motionless at the Wyoming 30-yard line.  King remained on the field for over a half-hour as paramedics, coaches, and tearful family members all converged on the field to look after the promising two-way player. 

King reportedly had suffered a lower back injury, and, although he did have feeling, was taken to the hospital for an MRI and a CAT Scan.  Wyoming head coach Bernie Barre brought his players together, saying, "We just got down and said a prayer of him," before the game was halted for the 20-minute halftime break, with the remainder of the second
quarter and the entire second half to be played afterwards.

The scary moment put a damper on what otherwise had been a celebratory evening for the Cowboys. With the home grandstands packed and the five newest inductees to their Hall of Fame on hand for a post-game ceremony, Wyoming racked up 40 points before
halftime, at one point opening up a 53-0 advantage. 

Having lost a key match up with Cincinnati Hills League rival Indian Hill last week, Barre said, "We knew we had to bounce back.  We were 1-2.  We knew we played three pretty good teams.  We just felt like this is a chance to get back on a winning note.  This
is exactly what we needed. We needed to score some points."

Scoring points was little problem on this night, especially with senior quarterback Chad Price leading an efficient, mistake-free effort.  Price missed on only one of seven passes, throwing for 157 yards. That played perfectly into Barre's game plan, with the coach noting, "With what they were doing- they were playing an eight man front up tight- we felt like we had to (pass) to loosen them up for the run."

While Price's marksmanship loosening up the Taylor defense, the senior duo of Andrew Tudor and Josh Brown-Smith tore right through it, combining for 232 yards on the ground. The Wyoming offense was putting up points so quickly in the opening 18 minutes that the blue-painted members of Wyoming's student section had to find alternatives to doing push ups for every point scored, once taking a lap around the track and later emulating popular NFL team celebration dances.

For Taylor, even taking a snap on the wet field seemed a challenge, as several center-quarterback exchanges were either bobbled or fumbled altogether. Even when things looked promising for Taylor, Murphy's Law would take over as it did two plays after Wyoming grabbed the initial 6-0 lead on Brown-Smith's 8-yard run to the end zone.

Starting quarterback Chase Dunnette found leading receiver Josh Schneider with a long 47-yard bomb, but defensive back Clayton Newberry managed to wedge himself between Schneider and the ball, prompting a fumble that the Cowboys recovered. Price followed with a pair of hitches to Caleb Vance that the senior receiver advanced 55 yards up field
before finding Steve Strom on a 16-yard pass over the middle for the second score of the night.

Tudor and Brown-Smith took over from there, hitting pay dirt four more times, with Price adding another 16-yard scoring strike to Strom one play after another Taylor fumble, also hitting Vance in perfect stride for a 63-yard score in the second half.