After their dismantling of Omaha Skutt Catholic last week at Bearcat Stadium in the state quarterfinals the Scottsbluff football has already headed out of town for their Friday semifinal in Omaha against Gross Catholic.
The big game is coming up on Friday night at Bryan Stadium and we’ll have coverage on the RRN-Scottsbluff on 107.3 The Trail & KHYYfm.com starting at 5:30 pm MT with kickoff at 6 pm.
Scottsbluff heads in at 10-1 and the No. 3 seed in the Class B bracket and they’re coming off a 33-0 win at home over Skutt last week.
In that win senior quarterback Braeden Stull rushed for 211 yards and five touchdowns. The Scottsbluff defense pitched the shutout and is playing with some major confidence after picking up shutouts in three of their last five games.
Junior running back Sebastien Boyle exited after one play last week with a bum ankle but he came back in for the 2nd half and rushed for over 70 yards on the night, he should be good to go for this one.
Gross could be a different animal, though. The Cougars are 11-0 and the No. 2 seed and they got a 42-6 quarterfinal home win over York last week, which featured a six touchdown effort from their stud senior running back, Jake Garcia.
On the season Garcia has nearly 1,800 yards rushing to go along with 27 rushing touchdowns.
They start a junior at quarterback. Colby Duncan has a 18 to 2 TD to interception ratio and when they throw he can spread it around to about four different guys.
Who can win the line of scrimmage will be telling for the outcome. We know Scottsbluff’s goal is to use their big line to wear down opponents offensively and their number one goal defensively is to shut down the opponents running game.
Gross also has some big boys up front. Their starting offensive line features four seniors and one junior, and they average 250 pounds.
With game time temperatures expected to be in the high teens or low 20’s, controlling the line of scrimmage will be key.
Gross opted up to stay in Class B this year knowing they had a big and talented senior class; the roster features 25 seniors.
The winner tomorrow night will advance to the State Championship game on Tuesday, November 22nd to play either Bennington or Waverly.
