One of the goals the Cokeville Panthers set before the beginning of this season was to host a home playoff game in the 2A classification, something that haven’t been able to do. Trips to the northeast and far east edges of Wyoming have been their destination for their playoff games over the past half-dozen seasons. They can check off that box on Friday afternoon as they host the Glenrock Herders in the quarterfinals of the 2A playoffs.
“It’s pretty cool,” replied Coach Marty Linford. “It was one of our goals and if we keep winning, we’ll host two of them.”
Enhancing the cool factor for the Panthers is their opting into the 2A 11-man classification in the first place. With the dissolving of the 1A 11-man class, Cokeville joined the 2A ranks in 2020 where they’ve gone (31-24) overall, qualified for the playoffs in the previous six seasons and finished as the State Runner-up in 2024. They will get the home field against a Glenrock school with an average enrollment of 200 per the current Wyoming High School Activities Association (WHSAA) numbers.
“That’s pretty awesome [to be home],” Linford added. “We’re cruising here at 57 kids and to do that, it’s nice to not have to travel to Torrington or Newcastle.”
Linford’s Panthers, who went undefeated in 2A West play and finished (7-1) overall, will now be tasked with protecting that home field. Their lone defeat came to West Jefferson (ID) in a 21-20 nail biter in the second game of the season. Now their gaze is set to Glenrock.
“They’ve got three kids that are the main part of our focus,” Linford noted of the Herders. “Their QB and their two running backs; we’ve gotta stop them. We have to tackle well. They shift around a lot in their offense. Their’e going to split their linebackers a lot. In practice we have worked on them playing through those gaps and making the line calls and who to block.”
A three-headed attack led by Joel Williams, quarterback Kelton Stewart and Brody Allen take up the majority of the carries for Glenrock, accounting for over 1,200 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Fans should expect a lot of running plays between the two programs as both prefer the ground game to an aireal assault. For the Panthers, it’s the mentality of winning their matchups and executing with efficiency.
“Our offense is predicated on three to four plays,” Linford explained. That’s 80-percent of our offense. We run our dive play and our ‘wham’ play and our quick pitch and our sweeps; if we run those well and block those well we are awfully hard to stop.”
Cokeville will go to the air when it suits them.
“It’s not like we can’t throw,” Linford said. “We got a guy who can throw it a country mile. But we will throw the ball when we decide we want to throw the ball.”
That arm belongs to Kashton Walker who along with Flint Linford are more known for their legs this season, combining to run for more than 1,700 yards and 17 touchdowns between them. Through the air, Daxton Pope leads the team in receiving but it was Emmit Groll who had a huge 52- yard touchdown pass early against Kemmerer in last week’s regular season finale.
Defensively, Glenrock will have to contend with a Panther defense that is ranked third against the run and third overall. Walker, Linford, Groll and Pope lead the defense in defensive points.
“It’s what we’ve preached all season long,” Linford concluded. “Do the small and simple things and be efficient in the things you’re doing you’re going to give yourselves a great chance to win. We’re a team that has a tackling drill in practice and we hit each other every night. We drill that every night.”
In the end, getting to Cokeville and then outplaying a Panther team that prides itself on strength, execution and old-school football is the challenge. And this year that’s a steep hill for the visitors. And whoever is left in town will be at the game wearing their orange and black which is a common phrase among Wyoming high school football.
“Unless they are at regional volleyball the whole town will be there,” Linford noted. The cars lined around the field and the Walkers will have a cookout going and they pull a fifth-wheel trailer up and it’s always a good atmosphere.”
This year, it’s a playoff atmosphere, done Cokeville style.
Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Nate-Dayton Field. As a WHSAA post-season event, there is a charge for admission of $5. SVI Media will be streaming the game as well. Look for watch links at svinews.com, the SVI Media YouTube channel and find all SVI streams at svi.media. Games are also easily watchable using the SVI Media app which is free from Apple or Android.
News and Notes
Cokeville (#1W) went (7-1) overall and (6-0) in the 2A West. Glenrock (#4E) went (4-4) overall and (4-3) in the 2A East… To wrap the regular season, the Panthers defeated Kemmerer 57-12 last weekend. The Herders defeated Tongue River 52-28…The two programs did have a common opponent this season. The Herders lost to the Pinedale Wranglers 15-14 on September 4, while the Panthers defeated them 35-7 on September 25…After missing the playoffs for six seasons, this is the second straight trip to the post-season for Glenrock under Coach Heath Hayes. This is the 34th consecutive season the Panthers have made the post-season. Their last time missing out was 1992. (Numbers per wyoming-football.com)
2A Playoffs
(W4) Lovell @ (E1) Big Horn 6 p.m.
(E3) Torrington @ (W2) Thermopolis 6 p.m.
(W3) Mountain View @ (E2) Burns 6 p.m.
(E4) Glenrock @ (W1) Cokeville 1 p.m.
Stats provided by wyopreps.com (2A Rankings)
Team Rushing
Cokeville: 248 ypg (4th)
Glenrock: 181 ypg (8th)
Team Passing
Cokeville: 52 ypg (11th)
Glenrock: 44 ypg (13th)
Total Offense
Cokeville: 300 ypg (6th)
Glenrock: 225 ypg (11th)
Rush Defense
Cokeville: 117 yards allowed (3rd)
Glenrock 174 yards allowed (8th)
Pass Defense
Cokeville: 67 yards allowed (4th)
Glenrock: 145 yards allwoed (14th)
Total Defense
Cokeville: 184 yards allowed (3rd)
Glenrock: 319 yards allwoed (12th)
