Grangeville Bulldogs (7-3) vs Nampa Christian Trojans (8-2)
11/13/15 @ Nampa Christian 7:00pm - Watch it live here
In Grangeville, when this year's crop of seniors were in 8th grade, they saw their heros win a state championship over Firth 36-6 in the Kibbie Dome. Since 2011, the Bulldogs have bean tossed from the quarter-finals twice and semi-finals one. Each time to the eventual state champions. Their schedule this year has bounced around like a lot of north Idaho teams do. A couple of Washington teams, a couple of 4A teams and a few out of conference 2A teams thrown in for good measure. It makes it tough to really know how good a team is. Grangeville sits at a very respectable 7-3 with notable wins over two very good 2A teams St Maries (October 9th 27-12) and Melba (last week in the quarter-finals 41-6).
Nampa Christian opened their season up with two straight losses to Gooding and Parma, both 3A teams. Since then, the Trojans have won 8 straight by an average of 29-10. Nampa Christian has some recent history with Grangeville in the playoffs. Last year they lost to Grangeville in the opening round of the playoffs 47-13. The year before that they lost to Grangeville in the opening round of the playoffs 38-18. The year before that they lost to Grangeville in the opening round of the playoffs 42-6.See where I'm going with this? This Nampa Christian team is wanting some payback for the last three years.
Nampa Christian is a very tough team to beat at home. They have won their last 6 straight games there and I have a feeling this week will make it 7.
Nampa Christian over Grangeville 18-14.
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Aberdeen Tigers (10-0) vs Declo Hornets (9-1)
11/13/15 @ Nampa Christian 8:45pm - Watch it live here
Declo won back to back championships in 2012 and 2013 but came up short in their bid for a 3-peat last year losing to Aberdeen 17-15 in the quarter-finals. The Hornets are back though, and after an opening loss to Sugar-Salem back in August, they have been absolutely sting-crazy beating everyone they played. Declo has no trouble putting points on the board, averaging over 50 points in each of their wins this season. Their defense isn't too shabby either, only allowing an average of 18 points in those same wins.
Aberdeen started out on top and stayed there the entire year. The Tigers are one of only six teams in the entire state to be unbeaten at this point. Their last loss was to West Side last November in the state championship game 16-6. Abderdeen exorcised that demon on October 16th, crushing West Side in the regular season 41-14.
However, they were victim to a pretty weak schedule overall that has some people questioning just how tough this Tiger team really is. The overall record of their regular season opponents was 30-50. Their wins over West Side (who was 7-0 before that loss) and a 17-0 win last week over an 8-1 St Maries team in the quarter-finals might be the proof the Aberdeen fans need to show the nay-sayers they are for real this year.
Aberdeen rolls on to the championship game against Nampa Christian in Boise next weekend beating Declo 38-28.
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