Back to Laradise: Braves and Broncs to battle for the fifth straight season
With a 49-21 victory in Afton on Friday night, the Star Valley Braves earned the right to defend last year’s state title and try and add a fifth straight state championship to their ongoing run.
The Braves jumped out to a 35-0 lead over the visiting Lander Tigers and rolled to their 37th straight win over a Wyoming opponent and improved to (10-1) on the season.
Ross Hilton threw just four incomplete passes and finished with 250 yards and a pair of score for the Star Valley offense. Zach Delgado, Crew Lancaster, Bryce Erickson and Harvey Balls all collected rushing scores while Travis Thomson and Gabe Delgado caught the touchdowns from Hilton. Thomson also added a special teams touchdown on a 55-yard punt return.
The defense intercepted Finn McFadden four times in the contest. Landon Peterson had two of them while Kemen Filibi and Gabe Delgado collected the others.
The Tigers finally found the end zone in the second half and added a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter against the Star Valley reserves as McFadden threw them to Caleb Andrews, Emery Harris and Lachlan Gebhart.
The win sets up the fifth straight title game between Star Valley and Cody with the Braves winning the past four. The Broncs pulled away from the Riverton Wolverines in a a 35-7 game in Fremont County. It will mark the 12th straight season that either Cody or Star Valley will have won the 3A title.
In other playoff matchups, the Cokeville Panthers earned a trip back to the 2A state title game with a 31-3 win over Mountain View. They will go up against undefeated Big Horn at 12 noon on Friday, November 13. The Star Valley versus Cody game will follow with a start time of 3 p.m.
On Saturday, the 6-man championship will start at 10 a.m. between Burlington and Casper Christian. At 1 p.m. the 9-man game will match up Sundance and Pine Bluffs The final game of the weekend is the 4A championship which will feature the Natrona Mustangs and the Cheyenne East Thunderbirds.
SVI Media will be producing all five of the championship games under the umbrella of the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS). There will be a subscription fee to access the video streams but production will be done by the SVI Media crew.
