Senior lineman Parker VanBeekum, senior Kale Ha’o, and head coach Ty Smith were among many to either openly shed tears or choke up on the field after the game.

When senior running back Dashawn Gordon punched in an exclamation-point touchdown from 30 yards out with 1:37 left to seal Ben Lomond’s 17-0 win over visiting Moffat County of Colorado, he drew a celebration penalty flag “feeling all the emotions I couldn’t even feel,” he said, then “went to the sideline and felt like I had to throw up.”

“I can’t put it into words,” senior linebacker Diego Gomez said. “Three years in the making. We’ve worked hard.”

The Scots were one month shy of a three-year-long losing streak, which totaled 25 straight games. But they don’t have to think about that anymore.

BRETT HEIN, Standard-Examiner

“It feels great,” Gordon said. “We’ve worked really hard, put everything we could into it. I’m so happy we finally came together as a family and got this win.”

Smith, the second-year coach from Mississippi, told his team gathered on the field that he’s never had more fun coaching football. The Scots had 17 players report to summer workouts in 2025 and dressed 24 on last year’s opening day; Friday, Ben Lomond had 58 players dressed for the varsity game.

“Not one kid on our sideline had ever won a football game before tonight,” Smith said with the kind of wet-eyed smile that would remind a curmudgeon of the romance of sports. “I’ve been privileged to coach four-star athletes who are playing in the SEC on Saturdays now. It’s fun, don’t get me wrong. But to truly enjoy it and find the reasons you do it, take a group of kids like this and you teach the game from scratch — there’s nothing like it. I’ve never had this much fun.”

Smith said he knew his team was ready to win a ballgame after last week’s loss at American Leadership Academy. The Scots lost 17-13 last week, giving away three turnovers that included one near the goal line with 4 minutes left.

Ben Lomond played a clean game Friday, committing zero turnovers and checking all the boxes that lead to wins.

BRETT HEIN, Standard-Examiner

“You could tell, it crushed their souls and … all week long, I didn’t really have to say much. It was a different feeling,” Smith said. “It was player-led; it was a different atmosphere. They knew they had the opportunity and didn’t finish it.”

Senior Kru Boyle had the big plays in the first quarter, facing the 1A foe from Craig, Colorado. After Moffat County returned the opening kickoff to midfield, Boyle broke up a fourth-down pass near the BL 30 to stop the Bulldogs’ drive.

Later in the quarter, Moffat County had a third-and-short near midfield that the Scots pursued into the backfield and stripped the ball, which Boyle recovered.

Gordon rushed for about 27 of the needed 39 yards to score on the short field, finishing with a 3-yard plunge to put the home team up 7-0 with 2:57 left in the first.

The game’s main hero was Ha’o, who spent most of his reps at defensive end, punter and placekicker even after suffering a hand injury.

BRETT HEIN, Standard-Examiner

Ha’o recorded a tackle-for-loss in the second quarter that helped Ben Lomond negate a long Moffat punt return and sent the game to halftime with the score 7-0.

In what became a smashmouth chess match, Moffat appeared to put Ben Lomond into check with a fake-punt formation that drew the Scots’ punt returner up to play defense; the Bulldogs kicked it anyway, and the punted ball rolled to the BL 13 with 3:48 left in the third quarter.

The Scots only lost yards offensively from there, forcing Ha’o to punt while standing in the end zone paint. Any misplay from the snap or the kick could quickly result in a tie game. But Ha’o boomed his kick to the midfield stripe in the air, and it rolled 15 more yards — good for a 55-yard punt to the Moffat 35.

“I wouldn’t choose anyone else to have this ride with; he’s improved so much,” Gordon said about Ha’o.

Ha’o then recorded a sack on fourth down on Moffat’s resulting possession, a loss of 12 yards that set up the Scots at the visitors’ 26-yard line. The ensuing drive stalled at goal-to-go, but there was Ha’o to smoothly boot through a 22-yard field goal.

“He answered and played lights out,” Smith said about Ha’o.

Ha’o is in his second season on the team.

“This game shows a little bit that kickers can win the game; kickers can make or break the game,” Ha’o said. “Having that feeling of ‘I can help out this team’ just makes me so proud and confident.”

Up 10-0 with 8:47 left, Ben Lomond dared to think about the clock hitting zeroes.

Gordon’s cherry on top came after the Scots’ defense stacked up another run for a turnover on downs, stopping a fourth-and-1 at the Moffat 33 with 1:57 left. With the visitors using timeouts to no avail, Gordon was soon on his 30-yard touchdown dash.

Of note, Ben Lomond changed both its offensive and defensive schemes after getting “smacked,” Smith said, in a 46-12 loss to Evanston (Wyoming) two weeks ago. The Scots changed from a split-back offense to more of a flexbone rushing attack, and switched defenses to a 3-3 stack.

“We broke the cardinal rule of switching schemes during the season,” Smith said with a smile. “But I’ve been doing it long enough that … I just saw on offense and defense, we’ve got some of our better athletes standing on the sideline, so we needed to get our players on the field.”

And, Smith said, his offensive and defensive lines deserve tons of credit in the switch.

“You run dive, inside veer, outside veer, midline and trap 62 times, you’ve got to give them credit,” he said.

Players handled the switch because they’ve seen Smith’s foundational approach for 18 months.

“He knows what it takes to keep the program moving forward,” Gomez said about the head coach.

Ben Lomond got in the win column just before starting its five-game region schedule in 3A North. The Scots remain home for two more games but face Grantsville and Morgan, who are both 4-1 this season.