1AD2
Carey vs Castleford – @ Holt Arena Saturday 12:00pm
Watch the game live!

Carey Panthers
Record – 10-0
Power Ranking – 125.00

Castleford Wolves
Record – 9-2
Power Ranking – 92.83

Carey

From 2006 to 2010 Carey and Salmon River alternated state championships. Last November, Carey defeated Garden Valley 62-36 at Eagle HS to win their 3rd state title in 5 years. With Salmon River losing in the quarter-finals to Lighthouse Christian 48-0 last week, that takes at least one thing off the table for the Panthers.

According to the schedule, Carey has only played one complete game all season, due to the mercy rule in 8-man football. They only beat Raft River 20-0, not quite reaching the required number to end the game in the 2nd half. Consider this – Carey has out-scored their opponents 442-42 in games that mostly ended at halftime. Six of those games were shut-outs and in two of those games the Panther defense only gave up 6 points. These kids are scary-good.

Castleford

Aside from two miscues early in the season where the Wolves lost to undefeated Hagerman (34-30) and 8-2 Oakley (56-24), Castleford has been a force to be reckoned with in District 4. The Wolves are similar to Carey in that they have the ability to score lots of points (they dropped 86 points on Rockland) while keeping the opposing offense in check (shut-out Sho-Ban and Jackpot).

Castleford won the 8-man championship back in 2002 under Shawn Scow, but have not brought home the hardware since then. If there was ever a year since 2002 that Castleford had a chance to do it, it is this year.

Like the 2A bracket though, we are looking at another #1 vs #2 matchup in the semi-finals.

I see Carey’s offense being too dominating for anyone to handle.

Carey defeats Castleford 60-45