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The leaves have changed and fallen and snow has come in bunches. With football still going on, that means that each game from here on out holds more significance.
That is the case in Class 2A, 1A and 8-Man this week as just six total teams remain in the three classifications. That means it's championship week. Three football games in three different towns Saturday will all end with one team hoisting a newly won state title trophy.
Limon and
Sedgwick County (Julesburg) are defending the titles they won last year, while
Sterling is looking to claim its first football championship. Regardless of the outcomes, championship level football comes just in time for some holiday festivities.
Class 2A // Bracket(4) Delta vs. (2) Sterling, 1 p.m. Neta and Eddie DeRose ThunderbowlThe first playoff meeting between Sterling and Delta comes with the highest of stakes. Delta is a more-polished team than it was a year ago when it suffered a 45-21 loss to Platte Valley (Kersey) in the first round of the 2A playoffs.
The Panthers' season got off to a solid start defensively as they didn't give up a point their first four games. On the other side of the ball, they had no problem putting up points. Quarterback
Nolan Bynum has been solid, throwing for 2,400 yards and 33 touchdowns. He also accounted for nine rushing touchdowns, but the overall ground game was paced by senior
Ku Moo who finished the year with 646 yards.
He was the perfect complement to Bynum and a couple of his talented receivers.
Hunter Hughes totaled 936 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns.
Nathan Workman also put up solid numbers as he had 747 receiving yards and picked up nine touchdowns of his own.
The lone loss on the season for Delta came against Rifle, which came into the 2A playoffs as the No. 1 overall seed. The Panthers beat Pagosa Springs, Faith Christian (Arvada) and Basalt to earn a trip to CSU-Pueblo for the championship game. The lone state championship for the program came in 1960 when Delta beat Canon City 12-7 to win the AA title.
For much of the year, Sterling has looked like one of the top two teams in all of 2A. The only loss for the Tigers came against an out-of-state team and they outscored their Colorado opponents 383-98.
Quarterback
Brock Shalla has shown the Tigers can produce through air after throwing for 1,765 yards and 19 touchdowns.
He doesn't like to key on just one receiver as
Tucker Myers,
Peyton Rose and
Jackson Keil have more than 300 receiving yards and at least four touchdown catches.
Conner Polenz comes into the state championship game as the Tigers leading rusher with 559 yards. He and Shalla each have six rushing touchdowns.
First advancing to the football playoffs in 1928, Sterling has never won a state championship and is hoping to bring home its first Saturday.
Class 1A // Bracket
(3) Limon at (1) Strasburg, 1 p.m.A rematch of last year's 1A title game, Strasburg is looking to win its third state championship in the past four years. The Badgers are looking to add to their state-record 17 football titles, but it will be tough considering they l
Trystan Graf, Strasburg
File photo by Geoffrey Sager
ost to Strasburg earlier this season. The two programs have combined to appear in 30 state championship games.
The Indians strength is in their ground game with running back
Trystan Graf accounting for 1,278 yards and 17 touchdowns. Quarterback
Collin Russell has also contributed to the ground game with 11 rushing touchdowns. He's been able to take to the air when he needs to with 1,176 passing yards and 17 touchdowns.
Russell throws for fewer than 100 yards a game, but they've been every bit as vital to Strasburg's 12-0 record. Defensively, the Indians have picked off nine passes, with
Jack Swanson getting four of them.
There won't be a lot of attacking through the air for the Badgers, however. Limon has been a force on the ground, rushing for almost 3,000 total yards as a team. Junior
Kory Tacha is responsible for 1,341 of those rushing yards, while sophomore
Jeremiah Leeper has 1,019.
Leeper is the more frequent of the two to get into the end zone as he's hit pay dirt 20 times to Tacha's 13.
It was Tacha who made the difference in last year's title game as he scored both touchdowns for Limon. He'll try to repeat that performance Saturday in what should be another memorable 1A championship game.
Class 8-Man // Bracket(1) Sedgwick County at (3) Fowler, 1 p.m.For the last five years, Sedgwick County has advanced to every 8-Man championship game. It has won the past four and looks to become the first team in state history to win five consecutive 8-Man titles.
Hugo won four straight from 1968-71 and Stratton won four in a row from 1992-95. A win Saturday would be a significant championship in terms of the state's history in the sport.
The Cougars have been nothing short of dominant in 2019. Their closest game was a 34-0 win over Hoehne on Sept. 6. They haven't given up a point since a 56-16 win over Dayspring Christian (Greeley) on Oct. 11. In the playoffs, they've outscored their opponents 162-0.
But Fowler has other plans in mind. The Grizzlies haven't won a football state championship since 1992 when they beat Caliche 32-14 in the 2A title game.
A pair of 1,000-yard rushers in
Joshua Daniels and
Jackson Bates pace an offense that runs for almost 350 yards per game. Fowler has scored a total of 62 touchdowns on the ground this year, solidifying itself as one of the most dominant running teams in the state. Maintaining possession and keeping the ball out of Sedgwick County's hands will be key.
The Grizzlies have won games in a variety of ways including high-scoring affairs (a 68-22 win over Holly on Sept. 27) or defensive battle in the playoffs (last week's 20-12 win over Pikes Peak Christian).
Dating back to Sedgwick County's time as Julesburg, these two teams have met three other times in the playoffs. Fowler came away with wins in 1990 and 1996, while Sedgwick County won 2017's showdown.
