Cheyenne East-Evanston recap (Uinta County Herald). … Riverton-Powell recap (Powell Tribune).
–patrick
School: Big Piney
Nickname: Punchers
Colors: red and white
Stadium: Puncher Stadium
State championships: 1959, 1977, 1988, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2006
Times worth remembering: Even with all the tradition and success the 1990s and 2000s brought Big Piney, the Punchers’ best stretch still came in the five-year span under Otto Low from 1959-63. In those five years, Big Piney lost only three games, compiling a record of 34-3-1. The 1959 team won the state’s Class B title and the 1963 team finished a perfect 8-0.
Times worth forgetting: There isn’t much to frown on for Big Piney, but given the success and tradition the Punchers are used to, 1969 had to have been tough. The Punchers went 0-7 that year (and also had Cokeville on the schedule for that year, a game for which I have not been able to find a result) and never climbed out of single digits. Their closest game was a 24-8 loss to Pinedale.
Best team: The 2001 team was the favorite from the outset and didn’t disappoint. A 14-13 loss to Cokeville aside, the team buzzed through the regular season and the first round of the playoffs, topped Glenrock 34-33 in overtime in the playoff semifinals, then kayoed Mountain View 24-14 in the title game. Seven Punchers, including repeats Kyle Gerik and Jake Greenwood, were chosen all-state, more Big Piney players from one season than any other in school history.
Biggest win: Previous state titles in 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2004 were all unsurprising, if not expected, out of Big Piney. But not much was really expected out of the Punchers in 2006. After a less-than-stellar 4-4 regular season, the Punchers drew up-and-coming Newcastle in the opening round. The Punchers overcame the trek to Weston County and pulled off the 12-6 stunner, then beat Glenrock at home in the semis to set up another long trip, this one to northern Sheridan County and Dayton, home of favored and powerful Tongue River…. No problem for the Punchers, though, who pulled off the 21-18 upset on the Eagles’ home turf to win their fifth state title in nine years, and what ended up being the last title win for coach Joel Eskelsen.
Heartbreaker: Usually, in crunch time, the Punchers come through. In fact, in school history, they’re 8-2 in state championship games. And it could be argued that one of the school’s most crushing defeats — a 38-0 loss to Lusk in the 2A title game in 1986 — was only the first piece of the Punchers’ later success.
Cody-Wheatland recap (Cody Enterprise).
For those of you who wonder how I got started with this project, click here. Back when I was in high school, I started putting together a game-by-game record for my alma mater, Midwest. That project expanded in college to what I have now. Anyway, most of that project was built using yearbooks in the MHS library, and a while back I went back and compared the scores on that list to the scores I’ve compiled since. From that, I came up with one addition and one correction that I recently verified:
Corrected the score for Midwest’s 13-7 victory over Upton on Oct. 12, 1956 (I had the score transposed, Upton winning 13-7)
Added Midwest’s 26-7 victory over the Natrona JV on Sept. 17, 1954
I’m still working on a couple more for MHS that don’t quite match up….
Coaches project: Updates for Cowley, Cokeville and Deaver-Frannie. Click here to see what I still need; I now have every coach’s name for every team from 1971 to the present.
Streaks: Somehow I forgot Rock Springs’ 22-game winning streak from 2001-02 when I put together the streaks page. No longer; that has been added to the streaks page.
Update: Lusk’s 20-game win streak from 1999-2000 is now listed on the streaks page, too. Thanks to Jerry Fullmer for the catch!
–patrick
Natrona, Gillette set start time (Casper Star-Tribune).
Semifinal matchups:
Friday
Class 4A
(6) Cheyenne East at (2) Sheridan, 6 p.m.
Class 3A
(2E) Buffalo at (1W) Cody, 6 p.m.
(3E) Riverton at (1E) Douglas, 7 p.m.
Class 1A 11-man
(3E) Lingle at (1E) Lusk, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday
Class 4A
(4) Gillette at (1) Natrona, 1 p.m.
Class 2A
(2E) Thermopolis at (1W) Lovell, 1 p.m.
(2W) Greybull at (1E) Big Horn, 1 p.m.
Class 1A 11-man
(2E) Southeast at (1W) Cokeville, 1 p.m.
Class 1A six-man
(4) Kaycee at (1) Snake River, 1 p.m.
(3) Ten Sleep at (2) Hanna, 1 p.m.
–patrick
Kelly Walsh almost upsets Sheridan, and players of the week (Casper Star-Tribune). … Gillette-Cheyenne Central recap (Gillette News-Record). … Greybull-Newcastle, Ten Sleep-Meeteetse and Thermopolis-Lyman recaps (Northern Wyo Daily News, click today).
–patrick
The playoffs are a different time.
Everyone starts over. What you did in the regular season only matters for who you play first. It still takes three victories to win a state championship — the last three.
That sort of freedom can be incredibly freeing. Just ask Cheyenne East.
Just two weeks ago, the Thunderbirds journeyed to Evanston and lost 42-0. Faced with the prospect of seeing the Red Devils again in the playoffs, East wasn’t bothered by that score.
Instead, the T-Birds simply instigated a 52-point reversal.
The Thunderbirds’ 30-20 victory over the Red Devils was a seismic blow to the 4A hierarchy. Remember, East is not that far removed from a five-game losing streak and was part of a tense battle simply to make the playoffs up until the last week of the season.
That’s all forgotten now. The Thunderbirds simply ran at the Red Devils and Evanston couldn’t do much about it. Now, East has earned another trip — this one to Sheridan for the semifinals.
East’s big victory was pretty much the only true “upset” in any of the five brackets on Friday. Two other road teams — Lingle and Riverton — earned victories, but neither one of those teams came into the weekend as a true underdog.
A seasoned Lingle team made the long trip to Dubois and overcame some early jitters to beat the Cinderella Rams, while Riverton avenged an ealier 13-10 loss to Powell, getting exactly the same offensive effort but a little more out of the defense in a 10-7 victory.
The rest of the brackets went according to form. The home teams won every game in the 2A and the 1A six-man brackets. Only two of those games — Sheridan’s 10-3 victory over Kelly Walsh and Southeast’s 15-14 victory over Rocky Mountain — were decided by seven or fewer points.
The brevity of this post is in part because there were so few surprises in this first round. And, in part, because there were so few close games. So, my question: Is few surprises a surprise to you? Post a comment below and we’ll chat about it….
This week: 19-1 (95 percent). This season: 228-52 (81 percent).