dangell@journalnet.com

As he walked off the field following Highland's 34-28 loss to Timpview of Utah, linebacker Paul Baker couldn't help but feel responsible for the Rams' defeat. Highland had given up a late touchdown drive that allowed the Thunderbirds to seal the game Friday at Holt Arena, and Baker was convinced it shouldn't have happened.

"We've got to stop them," Baker yelled to his teammates. "That one's on us, defense."

Highland coach Gino Mariani couldn't have disagreed more with Baker. In fact, he praised his defense for keeping the Rams in the game in the first half. The Rams (0-1) allowed the Thunderbirds (1-1) into the red zone twice in the first five minutes of the game, but the visitors came away with no points.

"The defense didn't lose this game," he said. "We lost this game as a team. We gave up some big plays in the second half, but we played with them as physical as they played against us. You couldn't have asked for a better effort out of the defense than what they gave."

On the sidelines, linebacker Ryan Cox put the blame for Highland's loss elsewhere.

"We're good enough to compete with this team," Cox said. "It's just dumb mistakes."

That was a statement that Mariani agreed with. The Rams gave up two touchdowns on punts, spotting the Thunderbirds 13 points. Not coincidentally, Timpview led by 13 until junior quarterback Tanner Nielson connected with wide receiver Joey Rasmussen in the final seconds in a last-ditch Highland effort to steal the victory.

"I'm disappointed," Mariani said. "I thought it was a game that we could have won if we don't make mistakes, but we made too many mistakes. (We need to) understand you can't take plays off and understand the speed of the game. They're flat-out mistakes that we made, and they cost us the game. You take those two away, we win by a touchdown."

Unfortunately for Mariani and the Rams, those were far from the only mistakes Highland made. Nielson struggled in the first half, fumbling twice and leading Mariani to put him on the bench for the final few minutes of the second quarter. While Nielson was on the bench, replacement Kia Campbell tossed an interception.

"He was struggling, and in my opinion, he wasn't competing like he should have been or leading the team like he should have been," Mariani said. "Sometimes, it's best to watch and maybe learn a little bit and understand the speed of the game and how it needs to be played."

In the second half, Nielson showed that he did have the ability to compete at the level Highland expects from its quarterbacks. He tossed three touchdown passes in the second half, all in the final quarter.

"To his credit, he came back in the second half and showed a lot of courage," Mariani said. "He didn't mope around and played extremely hard and led us. He threw some touchdown passes and did a great job. That's what it takes, and that's what he should have done."

But although he fought the entire second half, it was too late for Nielson to dig the Rams out of the hole they had created with poor play on special teams.

"We made some mistakes in the special teams that killed us," Mariani said. "We'll take that as a team, and we'll go get better next week."

Highland players left immediately after the game and weren't available for comment.

Next week, the Rams travel south to Utah to face another power from the Beehive State, Judge Memorial of Salt Lake City. The Bulldogs were the 3A runners-up last year and are projected to be strong again.

"(They run) different schemes, but they're very good at what they do," Mariani said. "It's another quality Utah team. They're quality programs, and that's what we want to play, quality programs every game. That gets us ready for what we're going to face in our conference."