By Greg Perkins Joseph City’s fourth quarter comeback win over Fort Thomas in last week’s opening round playoff game has advanced the Wildcats into the quarterfinal round where they will meet up with top ranked and No. 1 seeded Williams on Friday night. The Vikings have steam rolled all but one of their opponents this season on their way to an undefeated 8-0 record. One of those wins came against Joseph City on Sept. 14, when they handled the Cats 71-14. In their last three meetings the Vikings have lit up the scoreboard against Joseph City with at least 70 points scored in each win. This season the Vikings have outscored their opponents by an average of 43 points per game. That number would actually be much higher if not for Mogollon battling them to a two-point game earlier this season. Joseph City has to be playing with confidence after last week’s big win over No. 8 Fort Thomas, which came in the third overtime. On Friday night they will need to find a way to slow down a Vikings team which gained over 300 yards more than Joseph City in their last meeting. Williams was able to put the clamps on the Wildcat offense, holding them to just over 200 total yards. If Joseph City expects to upset the top ranked team they will need to play their best game of the season. Williams appears to be on a path to the state title game in the 1A level. Snowflake, ranked No. 2 in 3A will play at 15th ranked Winslow on Friday. The 6-3 Bulldogs are coming off a big win over Payson last week. That win has put them in a position where even a loss to the highly ranked Lobos may not drop them out of the top 16, meaning they could still qualify for the post season even if they fall to Snowflake. Snowflake was the class of the East Region and should have the upper hand against the Bulldogs. In the past six years this game has not been close. If Winslow could pull off the upset they would be in the playoffs for sure. If not they will have to await the release of the brackets on Saturday to see if their season continues. With 16th ranked Show Low expected to beat Holbrook, the Cougars will certainly make the playoffs. That leaves Sahuarita and Florence, teams ranked 17th and 18th respectively, as part of the overall playoff picture. If either one of those teams win and the Bulldogs lose, they may leap frog Winslow in the final standings. Winslow needs to win this game, however, Snowflake is the better team and should prevail. Holbrook has finally reached the end of the football season. Friday night’s season finale will have the Roadrunners playing in Show Low. The Cougars are 3-6 this season and are just a shell of the program they used to be. They are still good, but are definitely not the powerhouse program area fans have been accustomed to in recent years. Show Low was hammered by Snowflake last week and while they may be reeling a bit they need to beat Holbrook to make the post season. Holbrook kids have played hard down the stretch but they will be overmatched by a Show Low team on Friday. A Holbrook upset would bring Show Low’s season to an end as well. Either way Holbrook’s season will come to a close on Friday night. The final 3A football state brackets will be released on Saturday morning.
