The 2020 season ended up not being as weird as we thought it could be.
At the end of it all, we saw five champions crowned on the second weekend of November, which is about as normal as we can get this year.
Cheyenne East, Cody, Lyman, Southeast and Farson finished as state champions, each coming about it in their own way but all five finishing at the same spot.
Southeast (1A nine-man) and Farson (1A six-man) both finished undefeated, wrapping up 11-0 campaigns.
Cheyenne East will also enter 2021 riding an 11-game winning streak, the longest in school history, after avenging a season-opening loss to Thunder Basin in the 4A title game.
Cody and Lyman both overcame midseason losses to teams that didn’t make it all that far — Cody lost to Star Valley, which didn’t make it out of the first round, while Lyman lost to Big Piney, which didn’t even qualify for the playoffs.
One trend that showed this weekend was the importance of the fourth quarter.
As I noted on Twitter, East, Lyman and Southeast were all behind starting the fourth quarter; they won by 14, 11 and 19, respectively.
Trailing 15-7 starting the final quarter, East ran off 22 consecutive fourth-quarter points to win 29-15. Lyman trailed 3-0 starting the fourth but scored twice to win 14-3. And Southeast was behind 28-27 to start the final quarter but outscored Lusk 20-0 over the final 12 minutes for a 47-28 victory.
Farson did the opposite. The Pronghorns led Meeteetse 42-8 entering the fourth quarter but gave up 22 points — enough to make a late onside kick a bit interesting, but not enough to keep Farson from winning 42-30.
The other game of the weekend, the 3A matchup between Jackson and Cody, didn’t have that late drama. Cody jumped out to a 26-0 halftime lead, and although Jackson climbed back to within 26-13, Cody chewed up clock late and emerged 34-13.
And the 2020 season ended as it should, on the field in the second week of November.
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The 2020 season is now part of the site, with results, champions, all-time standings, and everything else on wyoming-football.com now updated to be current through the end of the season. If anything looks weird, incorrect, or out of place, let me know.
My next project is publishing a second edition of my book, “A Century of Fridays,” as soon as I possibly can. Keep reading the blog for more on the book.
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Here are the results of my picks from last week, this season and all-time:
Last week: 5-0 (100 percent). This season: 240-62 (79 percent). 16-year overall mark: 3,824-949 (80 percent).
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–patrick
Patrick, the fourth quarter scoring binge by Cheyenne East was predictable as they finally had the wind with them. Finally we’re able to complete a medium distance pass and get some field position with The 50+ mph wind knocking down Gillette punts.
In the first half one of the longer pass attempts actually was blown over the receiver and landed on the track.
Bet it was the same in the other games.
Just saw a National Weather Bureau report putting gusts at 83 mph a half mile from the game yesterday but doesn’t give a time so don’t know whether during game.