Familiar teams, and some new faces, advance to state football semifinals
Defending state champions Sheridan, Star Valley, Big Piney and Burlington are in position to make a return trip to the Wyoming State High School Football Championshis after quarterfinal wins over the weekend.
Torrington, last year's Class 2A winner, saw its chances of going back-to-back end with a 63-6 loss at Cody in the 3A quarterfinals.
Overall, the first week of the postseason almost went chalk, with the higher-seeded home teams winning 17 of the 20 games. The party crashers were Cokeville in 2A, Saratoga in 1A/9-man and Dubois in 1A/6-man.
Ahead of a game-by-game breakdown later this week, here's a quick look at this week's semifinal games. (As always, a shoutout to wyoming-football.com .)
Class 4A
Natrona County is in the semifinals for the fourth year in a row after a convincing 28-10 victory over crosstown rival Kelly Walsh.
"I'm really appreciative of our seniors, they've come a long way," NC head coach Steve Harshman said after Friday's game. "We're starting to build a real solid team and we're playing at an all-star level, and that's the key."
The Mustangs will have to be at their best in the semifinals against Sheridan. The three-time defending state champs defeated Laramie in the quarterfinals for their 41st consecutive win.
Sheridan also kept another streak alive, having advanced to the semifinals every year since 2008. Saturday's game will be the 17th postseason meeting between the Broncs and the Mustangs, with each team winning eight times.
The Broncs have won four of the past five, including a 38-24 victory in the 2021 semifinals.
"Sheridan is a good team," NC senior linebacker/tight end Tucker Sides said. "They're not going to beat themselves, so we just have to go after them."
The other semifinal has Cheyenne East traveling to Gillette to take on the Camels in a rematch of their Week 8 game. Gillette, which is in the semis for the first time since 2016, scored a late touchdown to pull out a 29-26 victory.
Class 3A
The top seeds — Star Valley and Cody from the West and Douglas and Riverton from the East — all advanced.
The two-time defending state champion Braves pitched a 52-0 shutout against Lander to give head coach McKay Young his 85th victory on the Star Valley sideline. Young, who is 85-18 overall, is now the winningest coach in the program's long and storied history, passing Robert Linford, who went 83-24 from 1988-98 at Star Valley.
The Braves host Riverton, which defeated Powell 36-35 in a double-overtime thriller to advance to the semifinals for the first time in 10 years.
The other semifinal has Cody traveling to Douglas.
The Broncs, who lost to Star Valley in the past two state championship games, are in the semis for the eighth year in a row. Douglas was here in 2022 but hasn't advanced to the state title game since 2014.
Class 2A
Both games are rematches of tight battles earlier this season.
Cokeville, which won 28-20 at Newcastle, takes on West top seed Mountain View, which shut out Wheatland. Back in Week 3, the Buffalos held on for a 14-6 victory over the Panthers.
Since opening the season with losses to Big Horn (28-24) and Mountain View (42-35), Lovell has won seven in a row, capped by a 54-6 rout of Burns in the quarterfinals.
The Bulldogs get another shot at Big Horn on Friday. The last time the two teams met in the postseason, the Rams got a last-minute touchdown and two-point conversion for an 8-7 victory in the state championship game.
Class 1A/9-man
Undefeated Lingle-Fort Laramie hosts defending state champ Big Piney in a rematch of their semifinal game last year, which the Punchers won 51-27.
While Big Piney is looking for a return trip to the Gem City of the Plains, the Doggers are hoping to make it back to Laramie for the first time since the state championships were moved to the University of Wyoming's War Memorial Stadium in 2009.
In the other semifinal, Saratoga plays at Pine Bluffs in a rematch of a game played in Week 6 in which the host Hornets defeated the Panthers 63-7.
Saratoga pulled off the biggest upset of the quarterfinals with a 22-20 road win over West No. 1 seed Shoshoni to reach the semifinals for the first time since 2007.
Class 1A/6-man
Both semifinal games are rematches of last year, with Encampment playing at defending state champ Burlington and Dubois traveling to Baggs to take on Snake River.
As expected, Burlington (92-16 victory over Farson), Snake River (71-8 victory over Meeteetse in a game that was called at halftime) and Encampment (64-19 victory over Kaycee) all advanced; Dubois pulled off a minor upset with a 42-14 win at Riverside.
PHOTOS: NC defeats KW in quarterfinalsNatrona County advances to the Class 4A semifinal round of the playoffs with a 28-10 win over Kelly Walsh on Friday, Nov. 1.
Quarterfinals results, semifinals schedule. Page B2
