Grantsville’s football team started off and finished the first half of their homecoming game on a high note. Unfortunately, it was Bear River that did much more in between to take a 27-14 lead into halftime Friday night at Cowboy Stadium.

The Cowboys started off the game with a spirited 60 yard drive that took 14 plays for Bryce Ekins to score from 11 yards out. They later finished the half on a bright note when Bridger Boman found Dalen Erickson in the end zone to cut Bear River’s lead to 27-14.

An inability to score in the second half did prove costly for Grantsville as the visiting Bears continued to roll with 20 second-half points to make the final score 47-14.

“Bear River ended up being a pretty good team that is senior loaded,” said Grantsville football coach Tony Cloward. “You never want to lose a game period, especially a homecoming game. Homecoming is a precarious thing because it can give a football team a lot of momentum but it can also take it away.”

Boman accounted for 143 of Grantsville’s 182 total yards with 84 and a touchdown coming through the air and 59 on the ground. He spread the ball around to four different receivers but Tyson Hutchins and Ekins each hauled in three passes and combined for 48 yards.

Grantsville was hurt most by the running game of Payton Wells and his 140 yards and two touchdowns for Bear River.

The Cowboys came out fired up as they hit the ground running with a 14-play opening drive full of run plays. Boman led the way with 27 yards rushing on six carries while Ekins ran the ball four times for 25 yards, including an 11-yard touchdown run for their only play to hit double digits in yards all drive.

With Grantsville grabbing a 7-0 lead after the positive drive their bubble was quickly burst when Dax Sederholm took the ensuing kickoff from inside his 10-yard line and ran it all the way back for a 91 yard kickoff return. With the surprising two-point conversion, Bear River took an 8-7 lead.

The Cowboy defense stepped up their first time on the field, forcing Bear River to punt but then disaster struck on offense when on the first Grantsville play they lost a fumble that was recovered by Bear River’s Brodee Nesson. It took three plays for Bear River to capitalize on the Grantsville mistake as Wells finished off the drive from 1 yard out for the 14-7 Bear lead.

Grantsville put together a strong drive that followed the Bear River score that was helped by a strong pass from Boman to Ekins for 15 yards. With the Cowboys having the ball on the Bear River 35, Grantsville tried a fake punt that was sniffed out by the Bears to turn the ball over.

Bear River turned around with a 51 yard run by Wells for a touchdown that gave the Bears a 20-7 lead. After forcing a Grantsville three-and-out, the Bears put together another score when quarterback James Taylor found Sederholm all alone in the end zone to build a 27-7 lead.

Trailing by 20 points, Grantsville took to the air as Boman found three different receivers for big plays. Hutchins hauled in one for 12 yards followed by a 21 yard reception by Derek Jensen. All the previous passes set up a nice catch by Erickson for a 15-yard touchdown to cut the Bear’s lead to 27-14.

With the late touchdown, it appeared that Grantsville was seizing a little momentum but then Bear River’s opening drive in the second half was guided by Wells running through arm tackles to help the Bears’ drive. Aaron Spencer capped the drive with a touchdown run from three yards out for a 34-14 lead.

Grantsville had trouble moving the ball in the second half. The Cowboys followed with a three-and-out and an interception in the third quarter. In fact, Grantsville only had the ball on offense for just over four minutes in the second half. Bear River tacked on another touchdown at the start of the fourth when Taylor plowed in from one yard out for a 41-14 lead.

With 6:14 left in the game Bear River put together another scoring drive with Raymond Rodriguez scoring from five yards out for the 47-14 lead.

“Bear River is becoming one of our main rivals here at Grantsville,” Cloward said. “Our kids don’t like them very much and they don’t like us much either but we just had some critical mistakes that hurt us.”

With the loss, Grantsville is now heading into almost a playoff play-in game against Ben Lomond. The winner of that game on Friday at 7 p.m. in Grantsville will earn a trip to the playoffs.

Jake Gordon: jgordon@tooeletranscript.com