Shoshoni’s first-round playoff loss to Southeast last October came as a surprise to everyone but the Cyclones.
The Wranglers, after all, entered the Class 1A 11-man playoffs 8-0. They had won the West Conference with ease, giving up just six total points in six conference games (plus one forfeit victory), the closest game in conference play a 19-0 victory against perennial contender Cokeville. To top it off, Shoshoni’s closest victory — a 14-13 nailbiter against 2A Big Piney in the season opener — set the course for the season and, ultimately, allowed the Wranglers to start the playoffs unbeaten.
The Wranglers’ regular-season success, though, didn’t translate to the postseason. Southeast not only won, it controlled the game from kick to gun and ended the Wranglers’ dream season with a 21-3 thumping.
Shoshoni’s loss in the playoffs marked just the fifth time in an eight-team bracket that an undefeated team lost in the first round of the playoffs. The Wranglers joined Burns in 2013, Mountain View in 2006, Rocky Mountain in 2002 and Upton in 1992 on the list of teams with unbeaten regular seasons but no playoff wins in eight-team brackets.
Here’s a glance at the other teams who encountered the same problems Shoshoni did last year:
Burns 2013: The Broncs’ regular season wasn’t dominant — their biggest win was by 26, and only two of their seven on-field wins (plus a forfeit) came by more than 20 points. Still, Burns finished 8-0, only to fall to Thermopolis 20-12 in the first round of the 2A playoffs.
Mountain View 2006: The Buffalos won several close games, winning by scores of 8-0, 8-6, 22-16 and 12-9, on their way to an 8-0 regular season. But lightly heralded Glenrock, which had lost to Mountain View 41-7 in the season opener, surprised the Buffalos 7-0 in the first round of the 3A playoffs to end Mountain View’s season prematurely.
Rocky Mountain 2002: The Grizzlies were also a fortunate team, with victories of 14-6, 23-20 and 22-21 on their resume. That 23-20 victory came against Lovell, the team Rocky faced in the first round of the 3A playoffs. The second time around, the eight-seeded Bulldogs knocked out the second-seeded Grizzlies 18-15.
Upton 1992: The Bobcats swept through their regular season, winning seven straight games — a one-point victory against Bayard, Neb., and a two-point victory against the Gillette sophomores mixed into an otherwise impressive series of games — before the playoffs. However, 5-2 Riverside, whose two regular-season losses were by a total of six points, ended Upton’s season in the first round of the 2A playoffs with a 24-14 victory in Upton.
Oddly enough, beating an undefeated team in the first round has proven to be more of an upset anomaly than a predictor of future success: None of the teams that beat undefeated teams in the first round of the playoffs won their semifinal games.
Since the reinstitution of playoffs for all classes in 1975, 15 other teams had perfect regular seasons spoiled by a loss in the first round of four-team playoff brackets: Meeteetse in 1990, Greybull in 1989, Rock Springs and Lovell in 1988, Pinedale in 1987, Greybull again in 1986, Burlington in 1983, Moorcroft in 1982, Sundance and Byron in 1981, Midwest in 1980, Shoshoni and Big Horn in 1978, Guernsey-Sunrise in 1977 and Byron again in 1976. Seven other unbeaten seasons — Evanston in 1983 and 1979, Newcastle in 1981, Laramie in 1978, Cody in 1977, Buffalo in 1976 and Rock Springs in 1975 — also ended in the first game of the playoffs, but those losses came in state title games when playoffs were only the title games.
–patrick