Colorado Preps Weekly

This week sees everyone joining the party, as the final fall sports get their seasons underway. Football champions will be looking to get their title defenses off on the right foot, while volleyball really gets rolling. Golf, cross country, softball and soccer all continue to progress through their respective slates.

The easy highlight of the week one schedule in 6-man football is a rematch of last season's title game, as Cheyenne Wells hosts Stratton on Friday night. The Tigers, who lost six senior starters, will try to make it three straight wins over Stratton, after having dropped the previous four meetings in the series.

To do so, Cheyenne Wells will need big performances out of Blake Gilmore and Ty Scheler, the two most experienced returnees. Stratton brings back four starters on both sides of the ball, including QB/S Charlie Tagtmeyer and RB/DE Alex Cruz. Stratton is aiming to make the title game for a sixth consecutive season.

A couple of other enticing week one matchups in the classification have playoff qualifiers Mountain Valley and Hanover squaring off, and a rematch of a postseason contest with Briggsdale visiting Idalia. Eads visiting Genoa-Hugo is another intriguing game on Friday, while the Saturday slate has North Park at Fleming, Granada visiting Branson/Kim and Cheraw at Prairie.

In the 8-man ranks, defending champion Haxtun has to wait until next week to get its campaign underway, but that doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of other great viewing options this week. Byers hosts Akron on Friday in a rematch of a playoff game from last year that the Rams won handily. A pair of playoff teams from last season and former league rivals, meet in Fowler as the Grizzlies host Swink. Simla at Hoehne and Las Animas at Calhan also happen on Friday.

Saturday also has a couple of really nice matchups on tap. Merino visiting Pikes Peak Christian is a clash of two programs that have made a habit of playing entertaining games. The Rams won last year's contest 26-0, the largest margin of victory in the series. They're 3-0, with the other two games being decided by a total of 28 points. And, don't sleep on Crowley County at McClave. That's a fun non-league contest that could help the winner reach the postseason.

As we move into Class 1A, Limon finds itself in an odd position beginning a new season, the Badgers aren't the defending champs. However, the 2021 runners-up still have a target on their backs and they will be tested right out of the chutes by Florence on Friday. The Huskies have moved up to 2A after finishing 9-2 and losing to Wray in the second round of the 1A playoffs last season. A quick glance shows this as being the first meeting between the two programs in the MaxPreps era.

Yuma and Sterling are set to square off in another cross-classification fight on Thursday. Yuma has to find a replacement for Clay Robinson, who graduated this spring and took his more than 4,000 career total yards with him. Burlington travels to La Junta for another game between teams in different classifications, while Wiggins hosts Brush in a similar contest. That's a big one in Morgan County, as Brush is the defending runner-up in 2A, and Wiggins has high expectations this season in 1A.

The lone 2A game in the area, outside of those mentioned above, has Lamar traveling to face 1A Trinidad. The Thunder played a lot of young players last year and will be hoping that all of that game experience will lead to better results this season. Conversely, the Miners, who have dropped 15 straight and 30 of their last 31, will just be looking to get a taste of victory to purge those evil spirits.

Fort Morgan is the defending 3A champs and the Mustangs will jump right into the fire when they host Conifer on Thursday. The Mustangs won last year's contest by a lopsided tally of 42-7. That snapped a two-game skid against the Lobos. With the big in-county game against Brush on the horizon, Fort Morgan will have to fight the urge to look ahead.

There was a smattering of volleyball contests across the landscape, with most of the action happening in tournaments. Several area teams were part of the 10-team field in Hanover on Saturday, with everyone playing five matches. Arickaree had one of the best days, going 5-0 in the event, including a 2-1 victory over Lone Star. Those two will meet in YWKC play later this season. Another league team, Bethune, went 4-1 with their lone loss coming to Nucla. How big is that start? Well, the Bobcats won a total of five matches over the two previous season and have not won more than nine during the MaxPreps era.

Sticking with the YWKC theme, Idalia broke in a new rotation on Friday and defeated both Holyoke and Prairie, each in five thrilling sets. The Wolves graduated the core of last year's squad but return a number of younger players who also contributed a season ago.

Springfield was one of a handful of 1A teams in the southeastern part of the state to see live action last week and the Longhorns, who narrowly missed out on a wild card berth to State last season, came out with a tough 3-2 win at Eads. The Longhorns won by scores of 26-24, 14-25, 25-15, 24-26, 15-13. That result also puts the area on notice that the Eagles are going to be tough to deal with this season.

Sedgwick County opened defense of its 2A crown by sweeping Haxtun, Briggsdale and Flatirons Academy. The Cougars host Weldon Valley and Burlington this week. Their fellow LPAA rival, Wiggins, also got off to a 3-0 start, beating Kit Carson, Yuma and Wiley to win the Kit Carson tournament. The Tigers dropped just one set on the day. After a home date with Byers on Tuesday, the Tigers travel to Stratton on Saturday.

Lamar and Sterling both won their openers in 3A, with the Thunder sweeping Pueblo Central and Sterling making quick work of Highland. Brush and La Junta both suffered losses to begin the year. The Beetdiggers fell to Fort Morgan in three, while the Tigers dropped a sweep to Centauri.

The Lamar boys soccer team is off to a 2-0 start, downing Pueblo Central 5-1 and Bennett 4-0. The Thunder are at Alamosa on Friday and Pagosa Springs on Saturday. Sterling fell 4-2 to Bennett last week and won't play again until next Tuesday when they host Fort Morgan. Those Mustangs got started on Tuesday at Liberty Common and will be at Valley on Thursday.

Most of the area softball teams participated in tournaments at Eaton and Valley/Platte Valley. Limon and Lamar both had strong showings in Eaton. Lamar dropped a pair of one-run decision the first day to Strasburg and Eaton, before beating Fort Lupton and University on day two. Limon struggled in losses to Fort Lupton and Eaton, losing 9-3 and 12-8, respectively, but beating Delta and Weld Central.

The best weekend belonged to Sterling, who went 4-0 in the Les Schwab Invitational in Loveland. The Tigers won their games by a collective score of 34-3. Reagan Fehringer got the win in all four games, allowing one earned run on 11 hits. She struck out 38 and walked seven in a total of 24 innings.

Next week, we'll take a look at cross country and golf, as those seasons start to heat up.