For the last few years, the Star Valley Braves haven’t had too many reasons to be excited about the football team.
Since losing the 2005 4A championship game to Buffalo, the traditional powerhouse from Afton has been more bothersome than fearsome. The Braves were a respectable 6-3 in 2006, a season that ended with a stunning first-round loss to Wheatland; after that, Star Valley was 4-7 in 2007 and 2-7 last season.
And, until Friday, 2009 was shaping up to be another forgettable season. The Braves entered their game against 4-1 Powell with a 1-4 record; all four losses had been by shutout.
Something got into the Braves on Friday, though. Maybe it was the desire to not let another season become forgettable. Maybe it was the passion to re-establish the program as one of Wyoming’s best. Maybe it was the level of the opponent that Star Valley simply just wanted to match on its home field.
The reasons, whatever they were, worked. Star Valley not only won, it dominated. The Braves scored twice on defense — once on a pick-six and another on a fumble recovery — to notch a 29-3 victory over the Panthers.
This might be what Star Valley needed to kick-start its season. The Braves, at 1-1 in conference play, are right back in the playoff hunt. A road trip to Cody precedes home games against Lander and Jackson to close out the season.
If the Braves play the way they did on Friday, this season will be one of the memorable ones — not one of the forgettable ones.
Second mad props to Pine Bluffs, which got just enough offense, and just enough defense, to beat Lusk 39-38 in double overtime. Historically, it’s a big win for the Hornets (as I mentioned last week, the Hornets had beaten the Tigers just once in the past 18 years). And logistically, as far as the 2009 playoffs go, it’s absolutely huge. Lingle leads the 1A-11 East at 4-0; Southeast is 3-1; and then four teams (Lusk, Pine Bluffs, Hulett and Sundance) are scrunched in the middle at 2-2. The chase for those final two spots will be interesting — and with the Hornets facing Hulett in Week 8, it’s a race that probably won’t be decided until the final moments of the final games of the final week. By the way, check out the box score from this game, then remind yourself how important the kicking game is in the high school ranks — the teams combined to miss nine extra point kicks on 12 touchdowns, Lusk five and Pine three. For those of you who were there: Is that accurate?
Third mad props to Pine Bluffs’ eastern Laramie County cousin, Burns, which proved me wrong for the fourth time in five weeks by beating Moorcroft 27-14, at Moorcroft no less. It looks like Burns has found a new weapon in its passing game, and after an 0-2 start the Broncs are catching teams off guard. Oddly enough, the Broncs won by the same score (27-14) they won with last week. Now, the Broncs’ challenge is maintaining that momentum — Thermopolis and Glenrock come to Burns the next two weeks.
Fourth mad props to another Laramie County squad, Cheyenne Central, which beat up on Gillette 48-14. The Indians clearly were a different team than the one that lost to East last week. The Jekyll-and-Hyde routine Central just pulled means one of two things: Either the Indians are refocused and set for a real run at a state championship, or they’re unpredictable and erratic. Which one is it? With road games against Green River and Sheridan the next two weeks, the Indians better hope for the former.
Fifth mad props to Worland, which scored all 17 of its points in the first half to spoil Lander’s homecoming and notch an important 17-14 3A West victory. The Warriors look like they’ve learned plenty of lessons from their o-3 start and have quietly crept into the ranks of 3A contenders. And at 2-0 in conference play, Worland shares first place with Cody. And who do you think Worland plays in the final week of the season? Yep…. Of course, angry Powell is next week, and hungry Jackson follows, so it’s no cakewalk for the Warriors… but at least they’re in the right spot to do some damage and maybe gain a home playoff game or two when it’s all said and done.
With props out of the way, let’s look at some of the other fallout from Week 5:
The 2A West mess got a little clearer as Greybull and Kemmerer sent Lovell and Big Piney to their first losses, respectively. Next week, the Buffs travel to K-Town in a Saturday matchup that might draw a big crowd, especially considering what’s on the line. Two teams will enter with unblemished 2A West Conference records, only one will leave that way….
Speaking of undefeated teams, only eight remain in the state (Douglas, Glenrock, Greybull, Lingle, Wind River, Cokeville, Guernsey and Midwest). Both the Wind River-Cokeville and Guernsey-Midwest games are scheduled for Week 7… and Burlington (Wind River), Dubois (Cokeville), Farson (Midwest) and Snake River (Guernsey) would love to be the spoilers next week….
Ten Sleep became the first conference champion of the 2009 season, wrapping up the 1A 6-man West Conference title with its 50-40 victory over Snake River. …
Lyman ended its losing streak at 15 games with a 37-36 victory over Wyoming Indian in Ethete. Don’t know any details about this game… but I do know that Lyman’s losing streak was the state’s longest active streak. Now, carrying that burden falls to Dubois and Tongue River, who have lost 14 consecutive games apiece. …
Oh by the way, Glenrock has the state’s longest active winning streak at 16 games; Douglas has won 14 consecutive games. (Edited to correct.) …
Mountain View beat Pinedale by the odd score of 9-5. I got to looking, and the final score of 5 is indeed rare — it’s happened only three times since 1951, according to the records available on this Web site. Even more odd is that all three have happened in the past 10 years (Southeast 14-5 over Cokeville on Oct. 28, 2000, in a 1A-D2 semifinal playoff game, Upton 25-5 over Sundance on Sept. 17, 2004 and Cheyenne East 5-3 over Natrona on Nov. 3, 2006, in a 5A semifinal playoff game). As you can see, the 9-5 final is the first of its kind in Wyoming in the last 59 years. Two NFL games have also finished 9-5 — Indianapolis-N.Y. Jets from 1984 and Washington-Dallas from 1978 on — GET THIS — Oct. 2, the same calendar date as Friday’s game between Mountain View and Pinedale.
So what was odd, fun, interesting or memorable about Week 5 to you? Post a comment below.
This week: 26-5 (84 percent). This season: 140-32 (81 percent).
Also, here’s this weekend’s Newsbreak:
4A is interesting (Casper Star-Tribune). … Central-Gillette (Wyoming Tribune Eagle). … Central-Gillette (Gillette News-Record). … Star Valley-Powell (Star Valley Independent). … Torrington-Rawlins (Scottsbluff Star-Herald). … Torrington-Rawlins, Wind River-Saratoga and Hanna-Kaycee (Rawlins Daily Times). … Star-Tribune roundup. … Scottsbluff Star-Herald roundup (includes Lingle-Sundance, Burns-Moorcroft). … Thermopolis-Big Horn and Worland-Lander (Northern Wyo Daily News, in short, click today).
–patrick
The PB-Lusk game was a good one. I think Pine was 1-2 on PAT attempts and Lusk was 0-0. The rest of the time, the teams went for two. Lusk converted their first try and failed on the rest of the 2 pt conversions. I think Pine made one 2 pt. conversions.
So 3-12 is pretty accurate