These teams are so good, they’re scary
Post Independent
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
What a Friday Halloween is shaping up to be. In the world of high school football, anyway.
Up in Steamboat Springs, we have a 3A Western Slope League showdown between No. 1 Glenwood Springs and the No. 4 Sailors.
Over in Parachute, we have a 2A WSL battle pitting No. 5 Olathe against No. 7 Grand Valley. (All referenced rankings are as of last week’s RockyPreps’ poll.)
Strip away the classifications and you have mirror-image matchups. Not in terms of style of play, but in the strikingly similar bounties up for grabs.
League titles are at stake for all involved.
Wins for Glenwood, Olathe or Grand Valley mean they’re champs. A win for Steamboat would create a three-way tie atop the 3A WSL (between Glenwood, Palisade and the Sailors) and leave the championship to be decided by tiebreakers.
Playoff positioning is also up for grabs.
Wins would go a long way toward landing the highest possible seeds. This is, in particular, of importance to Glenwood Springs, which could very well hammer down Class 3A’s No. 1 seed with a win.
Depending on how all plays out, things could grow mighty interesting.
All the variables aside, players and coaches have to like that they’re getting a heck of a test to finish out the regular season.
All play in top-heavy divisions in which blowouts and easy wins have flavored their respective marches to this point. Each team is outscoring its opponents by an average of 20 points a contest. Most weeks, they’re winning by even larger margins.
Twenty points!
As a sports reporter covering some of these blowouts on a weekly basis, I know I’m welcoming a close one.
I can count on one hand the number of games I’ve seen this year that weren’t decided by halftime.
Think of the benefits of a close game for teams that aren’t all that accustomed to playing in them.
A Halloween win over a high-caliber squad could do wonders in boosting a squad’s collective confidence, just as a loss could deliver that needed, late-season wakeup call that drives a team to a big playoff run.
Whatever winds up happening, local fans will get a couple of gridiron treats on Halloween night.
And that’s never a bad thing.
Contact Jeff Caspersen: 384-9123
jcaspersen@postindependent.com
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