Quick, guess what this signifies: Star Valley, Star Valley, Cody, Cody, Star Valley, Star Valley, Cody, Star Valley, Star Valley, Cody.
Why, yes! That IS the list of the last 10 Class 3A football champions!
It’s also the mental soundtrack for anyone excited about Class 3A football this week.
Cody’s trip to Afton to play Star Valley on Friday is more than just a meeting of two undefeated teams trying to stay that way and gain the upper hand in the 3A West title chase. It’s a meeting of the classification’s two most dominant programs over the past decade, and certainly over the past two-plus seasons.
Since 2014, the Broncs and Braves have played each other 15 times. Star Valley has had the edge, winning 10 of those. In playoff matchups — there have been five, including the past two Class 3A title games — Star Valley has a small, but significant, 3-2 edge.
And over the past two years, Star Valley has a 3-1 edge in games and a 2-0 edge in championships won.
This year? Star Valley started 6-0. Cody started 5-0. Every other Class 3A team at this point has at least two losses. And it hasn’t even been close — no other Wyoming teams have even been within shouting distance of these two. The Braves have won their two conference games so far by a combined 97-14. Cody has won its two conference games by a combined 105-17. Oh by the way, Star Valley’s Bryson Nield set Wyoming’s all-time single-game receiving record last week with 291 receiving yards (on 18 catches, too, just one short of the state record), topping the old record by 10 yards.
I don’t know how a regular-season game gets much bigger than this.
At least after Friday’s done, we’ll be able to get that darn soundtrack out of our heads. I mean, it’ll probably return in mid-November, but…
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Other action that deserves more than just a double-take this week:
Rivalry week in 4A? Rivalry week in 4A. We get three intra-city matchups this week, with Campbell County meeting Thunder Basin for the Razor City’s bragging rights (Coal Bowl, yes?); Cheyenne Central and Cheyenne East staging the old Capitol Bowl; and Natrona County and Kelly Walsh facing off in Casper’s Oil Bowl. At this point, the most interesting of the three is the Oil Bowl, with both KW and NC at 3-3 and fighting with also 3-3 Rock Springs and 2-4 but lurking Thunder Basin for a potential home playoff game. What’s weird is that the winner might host the loser in the first round, an extra layer of intrigue on an already interesting matchup. Kelly Walsh, in particular, has been one of the more surprising teams of 2024. With new coach Randy Roden leading the way, the Trojans have been one of the state’s more resurgent teams and almost upset East last week. …
Pine Bluffs and Saratoga, both 5-0, meet in the only other game this week that will put two undefeated teams against each other. Just as intriguing is the Goshen County rivalry game between 5-0 Lingle and 4-1 Southeast, which will be on Thursday this week. Go watch both. …
While Pine Bluffs and Saratoga are sorting out their differences, just down the road in Burns, the Broncs and Upton-Sundance will meet in a game that is a hidden gem. The 2A East playoff chase has evolved into one of the most interesting in the state, and Burns and Upton-Sundance are right in the middle of it all. The 2A East has been a haven for close games, including Burns’ 15-7 victory against Wheatland last week that (I believe) was the first overtime game of the season statewide. …
We also get one of the rarer regular-season phenomena this week — a rematch. Greybull and Rocky Mountain met three weeks ago in a non-conference affair necessitated by wonky scheduling and a lack of available opponents. Greybull won 18-14 at home; this time, though, Cowley is the host, and this one counts for the conference standings in the 1A nine-man West. …
Some of the luster of this week’s 2A West game between Worland and Mountain View down in the Bridger Valley was lost when the Warriors lost to Lovell last week. Still, it’ll be interesting to see how they match up, especially as the race in that league tightens as the season draws to a close. …
A quick note from last week: Midwest’s 94-93 victory against Hulett absolutely obliterated the state record for combined points in a game with 187. The former record was 162 points, set in Dubois’ 102-60 victory against Ten Sleep in 2015. Also of note in Saturday’s game: (1) Combined, the teams had 21 players in uniform. (2) Hulett led 19-0 in the first quarter and 59-36 in the second quarter, officially making this a 23-point comeback for the Oilers in their homecoming victory. Twitter (I refuse to call it X) user Sykotyk, who criss-crosses the country for high school football games, was there and documented it extremely well. … And in case you’re counting, that’s Midwest’s second comeback victory from at least three possessions down this year, as they rallied to beat Kaycee a couple weeks ago after being down by 17 in the fourth quarter.
Another quick note from last week: Five games that were scheduled to be played were not. Cheyenne South’s forfeit to Campbell County out of a concern for player safety was noted last week, as was Guernsey’s forfeit to Southeast as the Vikings have decided not to play the remainder of their nine-man schedule. However, two 2A East games were also lost to forfeit. Tongue River forfeited its game to Upton-Sundance due to TRHS’s temporary closure due to the Elk Fire. Meanwhile, Moorcroft forfeited its game to Big Horn for reasons that are still unclear. Kaycee and the Buffalo JV also did not play their game that was scheduled for Saturday. It’s not unusual to have a few of these during a season, but to have five in one week? Super odd. Here’s hoping all of this week’s games actually get played, including TR’s home game against Wheatland in which contingency plans are already in place in case the smoke is too bad or too close.
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Some picks. Here they are. Teams in bold I think will win. Teams not in bold will (hopefully) still show up. After last week, I’m not sure.
Thursday
Class 1A nine-man
Lingle at Southeast
Wyoming Indian at Shoshoni
Interclass
Natrona sophs at Lusk
Friday
Class 4A
Campbell County at Thunder Basin
Cheyenne Central at Cheyenne East
Laramie at Cheyenne South
Natrona at Kelly Walsh
Rock Springs at Sheridan
Class 3A
Buffalo at Torrington
Cody at Star Valley
Evanston at Jackson
Lander at Riverton
Powell at Green River
Rawlins at Douglas
Class 2A
Big Horn at Glenrock
Cokeville at Kemmerer
Moorcroft at Newcastle
Pinedale at Lovell
Thermopolis at Lyman
Upton-Sundance at Burns
Wheatland at Tongue River
Worland at Mountain View
Class 1A nine-man
Greybull at Rocky Mountain
Saratoga at Pine Bluffs
Class 1A six-man
Dubois at Encampment
Meeteetse at Kaycee
Midwest at Riverside
Saturday
Class 1A nine-man
Wind River at Big Piney
Class 1A six-man
Farson at Casper Christian
Hanna at Snake River
Ten Sleep at Hulett
Wright will pick up a forfeit victory from Guernsey this week. Burlington is off. For a full schedule including kickoff times, click here.
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Here are the results of my picks from last week and this season:
Last week: 23-5 (82 percent). This season: 130-40 (76 percent).
Well, here we are. This week: What records will fall? What teams will still be undefeated? How many games won’t be played? Leave a comment here, or hit me up on the Facebook page or on Twitter.
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–patrick