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1. Ronaldo Gomez, Rimrock

In his team's 64-32 win over Wilder/Greenleaf Friends, the junior jack-of-all-trades did a little bit of everything for the Raiders.  He passed for 195 yards and four scores, he ran for 278 yards and five scores, contributed to three, two-point conversions, had six tackles on defense and broke up two passes.

2. Josh Hardy, Valley

The junior quarterback led an explosive offensive attack as the Vikings downed 4th-ranked Lighthouse Christian, 66-34.  Hardy had a hand in seven touchdowns, four rushing and three passing, in the upset.  He was at the helm as Valley put up 36 points in the second quarter alone and rode the outburst to a key win.

3. Claytin Harper, Tri-Valley

In one of the evening's more entertaining games, the speedster helped his team outlast Lewis County, 62-56.  He carried the ball twelve times for 187 yards and four scores as part of a banner night of all-purpose yardage.  He also had eight tackles and an interception on defense as the Titans secured a good win.

Honorable Mention:

Keaton Archibald (Butte County)
Trevor Tews (Camas County)
Makay Mickelsen (Clark County)
Jake Fabbi (Clearwater Valley)
Dahlton Bingham (Council)
Tucker Ashmead (Deary)
Connor Perkins (Dietrich)
Trevor Corn (Garden Valley)
Teak Wareham (Genesee)
Carson Drake (Horseshoe Bend)
Ty Koepp (Kendrick)
Gage Crow (Lewis County)
Johnny Millenkamp (Lighthouse Christian)
Conner Lulis (Mullan/St. Regis)
Jr. Benites (Murtaugh)
Hayden Frandsen (North Gem)
Ben Johnson (Potlatch)
Dylan Uhlenkott (Prairie)
Eli Hendrickson (Rockland)
Henry Larson (Wallace)

A Game of Stars

It wouldn't have been hard to award all three stars this week to players from Friday's Lewis County/Tri-Valley game.  There's Harper, whose most impressive stat may have been the one interception - it was one of the only defensive stops in the entire game.  Gage Crow ran for 410 yards - FOUR HUNDRED AND TEN YARDS - and six touchdowns for Lewis County.  Aiden McLeod threw two touchdown passes to Noah Watson and also had a touchdown run for the Eagles.  And Tri-Valley sophomore Jace Waggoner threw for 101 yards and a score and also had 120 yards rushing and three scores, including the game-winning touchdown run on the game's final play in the wild, back-and-forth, 62-56 slugfest in Cambridge.

Don't Forget Us

Prairie, Valley, and Rimrock each picked up crucial wins last week to boost their playoff hopes.  In Valley's case, it has them momentarily off the at-large bubble and in the automatic-qualifier conversation.  The Vikings' (3-2 conference, 4-3 overall) win over Lighthouse Christian has moved them into third place in the Snake River Conference, which gets three automatic bids to the 1A Division 1 state playoffs.  However, with Oakley and Notus looming on the schedule, the door remains ajar for Lighthouse Christian or Carey to move past Valley as an automatic qualifier.

The Whitepine also gets three auto-bids and the win by Prairie (3-2 conference, 4-2 overall), keyed by 344 rushing yards from Dylan Uhlenkott, moves them into fourth place.  They've lost to two teams directly ahead of them, Potlatch and Kamiah, which makes a top-three finish unlikely for the Pirates, but defeating Lapwai gives their resume a key boost.

Meanwhile, Rimrock's win over Wilder/Greenleaf sets up its October 20th home game against Idaho City as a possible "winner qualifies" de-facto playoff game as the second automatic qualifier out of District 3's Western Idaho Conference.

Defense Earns Playoff Spots?

Last week, we mentioned possible mayhem in the 1A Division 2 Sawtooth Conference in determining its three playoff bids.  After Friday's action, the paths look a lot clearer thanks to defense.  Camas County (3-0 conference, 5-1 overall) shut out Shoshone, limiting the Indians to 17 yards of offense.  Hagerman (2-1 conference, 5-2 overall) shut out Castleford, limiting the Wolves to 84 yards of total offense.  Dietrich (2-1 conference, 4-2 overall) shut out Hansen, limiting the Huskies to 82 yards of total offense.  Nothing is set in stone yet - Camas County and Dietrich still have a head-to-head matchup to come - but the Musher, Pirates and Blue Devils have the inside track to the three playoff spots at this point.