Broncos close regular season 9-0, Bucks can claim share of region title

by Scott Boyle

San Juan captured its first region championship since 2005 and 13th overall last Wednesday with a convincing 39-7 football win over second place South Sevier, coached by former Monticello assistant Travis McAllister.

San Juan has an 18-3 series edge over South Sevier and has won 16 straight since 1980. The closest SS came in that run was 20-13 in 2003 and 33-27 in 2004.

The San Juan win over South Sevier gave SJ its fourth undefeated regular season and first since 2005. The win gives the Broncos the top seed from 2A South in the state playoffs, but leaves the Broncos inactive until Halloween waiting for a quarterfinal opponent to be decided.

About the playoffs, head coach Monty Lee says, “From what I can figure and that is not always good to go on; we play the winner of Richfield – South Summit. Playoffs are always exciting, with it being a new season and all. I think every team has a chance if the stars are aligned just right; but with all the coverage the Northern teams are getting I guess they ought to flip a coin and give the trophy to one of them or just have a game between them for the championship. Some of these no name Southern Region teams haven’t put on their basketball or wrestling shoes just yet.

“As far as our kids are concerned health wise; we are not excited about the 17-day layoff. I think that is a real concern with our coaching staff. It is nice to heal a few bumps and bruises; but we will have to dig deep into our bag of tricks to come up with an appropriate practice schedule.”

Don’t you always love the Bronco bag of football tricks. Never a dull moment at a Bronco game.

Bob’s Big Boy

With a win over North Summit, Juab, coached by former San Juan star and Buckaroo head coach Mike Bowring, is 9-0 for the first time since starting 12-0 in 2005.

The victory also gave the Wasps their fourth undefeated regular season. Juab is already guaranteed a share of the 2A North region championship – its sixth overall and third in four years. As the stars now have it, if all goes as seeded, the San Juan Broncos will meet Juab for the state title at Timpview High School in Provo on November 15.

Bucks still in the hunt

The Bucks enjoyed a massive offensive day in Altamont, catapulting off the pasture with a rousing 46-8 milking of the Longhorns. Gabe Beh had three touchdown runs, Daniel Torres tossed three touchdown passes, and Connor Frost caught two touchdown passes. And word has it that Chase Randall and Jesse Barton made all but three tackles.

The Bucks hope to catch the Rich Rebels a little tired after their length of the state journey to Monticello on Friday to get a much needed victory.

A win would put the Bucks in a three way tie for first in 1A North.

Alaska travel woes

We complain about traveling a little down here in isolated San Juan County. Native Alaskan Greg Westphal recently spoke of the difficulty of travel to high school basketball games in Alaska due to the long winters, huge distances and isolated venues.

Westphal, whose hometown is on an island in southeast Alaska, said his high school team rides a one hour ferry to all away games and then drives to some after that.

Winter storms often force the cancellation of games, so they play two games in two days with the same team to help reduce travel. Not a bad idea, really. The long winters may explain the fact that Alaska high school football playoffs were already beginning in September when we were there last month.