4A
Blackfoot vs Hillcrest – @ Holt Arena Friday 5:00pm
Watch the game live!
Blackfoot Broncos
Record – 10-0
Power Ranking – 124.17
Hillcrest Knights
Record – 8-3
Power Ranking – 73.67
Blackfoot
The Broncos come in to the state semi-finals as the only unbeaten team in 4A. After winning the championship in 2009 over Sandpoint at the Kibbie Dome, 29-23, the Broncos came up short in their title defense in 2010, losing to a very game Bishop Kelly team, 41-28 at BSU.
Blackfoot rolled over opponent after opponent, with their only close game a victory over Madison in week four, 29-22. The Broncos know how to win, and have proven that knowledge week after week.
There are a few players left over from the 2009 season who know what it feels like to win a championship and want to feel it again. There are other athletes on the roster that had brothers and friends on that team and want to hoist that blue trophy and hold the white Milk Bowl banner on the 50yd line for themselves. Then there are the members of last year’s team, back again this year who never want to be the ones holding the red trophy again.
Hillcrest
The Knights got an early start to the basketball season last year, but have managed to elongate this year’s campaign all the way to the semi-finals. Their 8-3 record was good enough to earn them the #2 spot coming out of the 4A High Country Conference, arguably the toughest conference in Idaho football.
While 8-3 is a very good record, it doesn’t instill fear in an opponent’s eye like an undefeated season, like Blackfoot. However, the schedule Hillcrest played showed they fear no one and are battle-tested by bigger, stronger, opponents. Want proof? Hillcrest’s three losses were to 5A power-house Highland (at Holt no less) 45-16, a loss to the always-talented Shelley Russets, 28-20, and their third loss coming at the hands of – you guessed it – Blackfoot, 38-22.
As talented as the Knights are, they picked a very bad year to be good. The Blackfoot state championship train left the station at the end of August and isn’t quite ready to stop quite yet.
Blackfoot over Hillcrest 28-20
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