ROCK SPRINGS — The Rock Springs Tigers knew they were facing perhaps the toughest possible test to open the 2026 season.
The Sheridan Broncs, the defending Class 4A state champions and owners of Wyoming’s longest winning streak in high school football history showed why Friday night, pulling away for a 54-10 victory at Tiger Stadium.
The win extended Sheridan’s historic winning streak to 56 games.
For Rock Springs, the final score did not tell the entire story of a night in which the Tigers struggled to get started but showed fight as the game progressed.
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The matchup was also a conference game despite being played in Week 0. Class 4A has 10 teams, and while the rest of Wyoming’s high school football teams play a Week 0 followed by eight weeks of football, the 4A schedule stretches across nine weeks so every team can play each conference opponent once.
Sheridan wasted little time establishing control.
On its opening drive, senior quarterback Dominic DeStefano found Colton Philipp on a slant over the middle. Philipp bobbled the pass but managed to secure it and take it 11 yards for the touchdown, giving the Broncs a 7-0 lead.
Sheridan struck again on its second possession. The Broncs drove inside the Rock Springs 5-yard line before Brayden Brutlag finished the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run on a jet sweep. Sheridan took a 14-0 lead into the second quarter.
The Tigers’ offense struggled to find its footing early. Rock Springs entered its third offensive possession without a first down and had run just six plays. The Tigers’ defense had forced a turnover on downs on Sheridan’s third drive, giving Rock Springs the ball at its own 37-yard line. Kaleb Praytor opened the drive with a positive run, but a miscommunication on the next play resulted in a fumble that Boston James recovered and advanced to the 43-yard line. The Tigers were unable to build on it.
A run on third down was stopped for a 7-yard loss, forcing Rock Springs to punt. The punt snap then bounced short of senior quarterback Kason Cahill, who handles the punting duties, forcing him to fall on the ball to prevent Sheridan from recovering it in the end zone. The Broncs took over at the Rock Springs 18. Two plays later, Sheridan found the end zone again on consecutive carries by Braxten Crow, with Crow finishing the second run for the touchdown to make it 21-0.
Through its first three offensive possessions, Rock Springs had yet to record a first down and had nearly turned the ball over twice. The Tigers had also already been forced to use two timeouts to avoid having only 10 players on the field. But the offense began to show signs of life on its fourth drive.
Cahill found Praytor for a 6-yard completion to pick up Rock Springs’ first first down of the game. On third-and-4 later in the drive, the Tigers lined up with trips to the left, a formation they had previously used for wide receiver screens. This time, however, Rock Springs direct-snapped the ball to senior fullback Jernee Padilla. The 5-foot-10, 220-pound Padilla powered forward for four yards and another first down. The momentum did not last.
Rock Springs attempted a speed option on the next play, but the pitch from Cahill did not reach Praytor cleanly. Sheridan recovered the fumble at the Tigers’ 21-yard line. Four plays later, Crow scored his second touchdown of the night. Sheridan missed the extra point, leaving the Broncs with a 27-0 lead.
Rock Springs appeared to be in danger of watching the game get away before halftime, but the Tigers put together their best drive of the first half with just more than five minutes remaining.
The drive began with Cahill connecting with James on a swing route. James picked up 11 yards before stepping out of bounds, giving Rock Springs its longest offensive play of the game to that point.
The Tigers continued to lean on the ground game. Facing fourth-and-1 from the 30-yard line, Rock Springs elected to go for it, and Padilla picked up five yards on a fullback dive to extend the drive. Three plays later, Cahill kept the ball on a speed option and raced 20 yards to the 50-yard line for another first down.
Rock Springs went back to the option on the next play, with Cahill pitching to James, who gained 14 yards and moved the Tigers into Sheridan territory for the first time. Padilla followed with a 16-yard run, putting Rock Springs at the Sheridan 20-yard line.
The Tigers had moved into the red zone, and Sheridan called timeout with less than two minutes remaining in the half. A touchdown would have cut the deficit to 20 points heading into halftime, but Sheridan’s defense responded after the timeout.
The Broncs stopped the first play for a 4-yard loss, but Cahill followed by finding Jaycen Willey for nine yards to set up third-and-5. Rock Springs tried another direct snap to Padilla, but the senior fullback gained only about two yards.
The Tigers let the clock run down to 13 seconds before calling timeout and sending Alex Galvan onto the field for a 29-yard field-goal attempt. Galvan converted, putting Rock Springs on the board at 27-3.
With nine seconds remaining, the Tigers kicked off to Sheridan, giving the Broncs one final opportunity before halftime.
Michael McMullen fielded the kick near the 10-yard line, moved across the field and appeared to fake a reverse to Brutlag. McMullen broke a tackle near the 17-yard line, found a hole along the sideline and, after making several players miss and getting strong blocks from his teammates, raced all the way to the end zone as time expired. The touchdown pushed Sheridan’s lead to 34-3 heading into halftime.
The Broncs continued to pull away after halftime.
About midway through the third quarter, Sheridan turned to its reserves after intercepting a Rock Springs pass. Sophomore quarterback Bryce Mowry entered the game and scored on his first play, breaking loose for a 50-yard touchdown run to make it 41-3. Sheridan added another touchdown to take a 48-3 lead before extending it to 54-3 in the fourth quarter. Still, Rock Springs did not stop fighting.
Following Sheridan’s final touchdown, the Tigers took over at their own 32-yard line. Praytor received the ball on a reverse and found an opening, racing 68 yards for Rock Springs’ first touchdown of the season.
Watch Praytor’s 68-yard touchdown run below:
The touchdown made it 54-10, which became the final score.
Praytor finished as Rock Springs’ leading rusher with 91 yards on six carries. James added 57 yards on 11 carries, while Padilla finished with 45 yards on 10 attempts. Praytor was named TRN Media’s Player of the Game after his strong rushing performance and defensive contributions, including a sack. He also nearly forced a fumble on a play near the goal line, arriving just a fraction too late as the play was ruled a Sheridan touchdown.
The Tigers finished with 236 total yards, including 198 on the ground while the defense recovered two Sheridan fumbles. Sheridan finished with 334 total yards, including 294 rushing yards on 41 carries for an average of 7.2 yards per carry. The Broncs also picked up 22 first downs.
The Tigers will now turn their attention to their first road game of the season. The team travels to Laramie next week to face the Plainsmen, who opened their season with a 34-13 loss to Natrona County.
The Tigers will look to build on the flashes of offensive improvement they showed Friday while trying to bounce back from the difficult opening assignment of facing the defending state champions.
Click here to see more photos of the Rock Springs Tigers hosting Sheridan.
