The Tooele Buffaloes will go for their second consecutive win of the season Friday when they travel to Ogden to face Ben Lomond. Both teams are 1-1 so far and Tooele could have easily been 2-0 after losing a heartbreaker in the final minutes to Cyprus to start the season.

Ben Lomond was pounded in the opener 65-14 by Woods Cross, but dropped back down to a team its own size last week and defeated North Sanpete 24-14 while Tooele bounced back to even its record with a 15-10 victory over West.

The Scots did not win a game last year until they defeated cross-town rival Ogden 35-14 in their 10th game of the season. They then smacked Bear River 49-19 to reach the first round of the 3A playoffs where they lost to Juan Diego 48-13.

The Buffaloes have a strong running game with Jordan Clemente, Milo Leakheke and Jordan Biorge. The trio combined for 179 yards last week in the victory over West. Quarterback Chris Iorg can also go to the air if needed. In the opener he threw for 115 yards.

Tooele’s defense rose to the occasion in the fourth quarter against West last week and shut them down when a letdown could have cost them the game.

Tooele starts region play on Sept. 12 when it hosts Orem.

Grantsville

The Cowboys continue a pre-season filled with formidable opponents when Delta comes to town on Friday. The Rabbits almost made the 3A state semi-finals last year when they led at Logan in the quarterfinals with only 1:04 minutes left in the contest. But a botched snap on a punt led to a fumble recovery for the Grizzlies giving Logan a 21-20 victory.

Delta shut out Grantsville 19-0 last year at Delta. The Rabbits beat Hurricane 6-0 in the first round of the playoffs and then came the late-game debacle at Logan.

So far this season, Delta has shut out Union, a team Grantsville will play on Sept. 19, 24-0 in the opener and downed Globe, Ariz. 31-12 last Friday.

Delta is not an easy opponent to get better on after suffering a big loss to Juan Diego, but coach Tony Cloward likes to schedule top competition to get his teams ready for region action.

He said his players were just not prepared to play a top 3A team like Juan Diego last week.

“I told our players that we would use the game as a measuring stick. I told them they have now seen how things are done from a top-tier team and that we need to get to that level. We need to play with that same kind of intensity and energy,” the coach said. “I’m really confident that we’ll bounce back. It seems that Juan Diego peaks early and that we’re a team that peaks later in the year. I would rather peak later on during region,” he said.

Juan Diego did lose to Union in the second round of the playoffs last year 33-27.

The Cowboys get a team with a few struggles of their own next week when they host Carbon.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com