Week eight of the high school football season has arrived and the Joseph City Wildcats are in need of a big win in their regular season finale. The Wildcats head into tonight’s (Oct. 17) contest ranked 15th in the Division VI power rankings. In this division, only the top 12 teams advance to the state tournament bracket. Tonight’s opponent for the Cats is Mayer, which currently holds that final 12th position in the rankings.
The Mayer Wildcats come to Joseph City with a season mark of 4-3, while the hometown Cats sit at 3-4. Last season this game was a shootout, with Joseph City prevailing 56-50. Joseph City has won two straight and will need to make it three in a row to have any shot at a post-season bid. A loss in this game will bring the home team’s season to a close.
Winslow, ranked eighth in Division IV, travels to Ganado to take on the 24th ranked Hornets. Both teams have 4-3 marks, but the Hornets are long shots to make the post-season.
Winslow has a favorable end of the season schedule, with games against just Ganado, Chinle and Page left on the docket. Winning at least two of those three will get the Bulldogs to the state tournament. If they can finish in the top eight, they would host a first round game.
The Bulldogs have won the past two meetings with the Hornets by a combined 100-0 score. The Hornets are better than they were a season ago, but the Bulldogs should still return home with a fairly easy win and move closer to hosting that first round playoff game.
The Holbrook Roadrunners’ loss to Alchesay last week pretty much put an end to their post-season hopes. The Birds head to tonight’s game in St. Johns ranked 27th and will face the 21st ranked Redskins.
St. Johns survived an emotional week last week, finally securing Coach Mike Morgan’s 300th career win with a 13-12 victory over a poor Miami team and breaking their four-game losing streak in the process. The Redskins barely resemble St. Johns teams of recent history. They have low numbers and, like Holbrook, they have lost key players to injury.
This game should actually be fairly close. St. Johns has never had a problem with Holbrook in the past, but this season both teams are limping into the matchup. If Holbrook can get the upper hand early, the Redskins may get down on themselves and Holbrook could come away with the win. If the Redskins get rolling early, they may take some late season frustrations out on the Roadrunners. The winner of this game would still have a slight chance to make the post-season, although the Redskins chances are better than Holbrook’s. St. Johns finishes with Alchesay and Valley Sanders, two games the Redskins could win. Holbrook has to travel to powerful Round Valley next week and finishes with a home contest against Miami. The Roadrunners need to win two of their final three games to finish .500 on the season.
Snowflake is the best of the area teams by a wide margin. The Lobos have just one loss on the season, and that was to top ranked Seton Catholic. Snowflake heads into this week’s game at Payson as the number three team in Division IV. The Longhorns come in ranked 10th in the division with a 5-2 overall mark.
Snowflake won last year’s match up by five touchdowns. Unless the Lobos get caught looking ahead to next week’s showdown with Show Low, they should easily advance their record to 7-1 and remain in the top three in the standings. The Longhorns come into this game on a four-game winning streak, but you can expect the Lobos to put an end to that in a lopsided manner.
