7 hours Ago By JUSTIN FITZGERALD [email protected]
Another football season has come and gone in the Magic Valley. The Times-News got a head start on football coverage this year as it revived Magic Valley high school football media day. Fourteen schools visited our office in late July and our staff visited practices at another seven schools for preseason previews.
During the season, our sports editor and sports reporter tried to attend the top games in the region every week as they profiled profile the teams and players making the biggest impact. From Carey to Canyon Ridge, no story was too big or too small. The season culminated this past weekend as three teams played for state championships at the ICCU Dome in Pocatello.
Carey won the 1A crown. Winter sports coverage is coming. But before fully turning the page to basketball and wrestling, let’s look back at some of the top stories of the football season.
The Panthers wanted a fight all season. After returning to the Sawtooth Conference following two years in the 2A Snake River Conference, Carey entered the state championship as an eight-man football wrecking crew, outscoring opponents 596-74 in its nine non-forfeit wins. A young Carey squad developed through a 2023 season which quarterback Preston Wood called a “learning year.
” Expectations are different in 2024. That included a 54-6 win at Dietrich, its title game opponent, on Oct. 11.
The Blue Devils provided much more resistance in the rematch in a battle of two of 1A's top players, Carey's Preston Wood and Dietrich's Connor Perkins. Carey chants rang from the stands as the Panthers accepted the coveted blue state championship trophy and added another title, the program’s eighth, to the case. Fueled from the memory of late head coach Rick Astle, Perkins put Dietrich on his back yet again and the Blue Devils led 24-12 at halftime of the state final.
Perkins finished the night with five total touchdowns (three passing, two rushing) and was responsible for 65 touchdowns in Dietrich’s 12 games this season. Dietrich played for something bigger than football all fall. Head coach Garrett Astle’s father, Rick, who coached Dietrich to the 2020 state championship, died in April after numerous health complications.
Carey, with Wood and physical linemen, answered the bell in the second half. The Panthers scored 32 unanswered points in the second half as part of a 44-30 win to capture the program’s eighth state championship and first since 2018. Wood ran for 256 yards and two touchdowns as he passed for 91 yards with two touchdowns.
He finished the season with 51 total touchdowns (29 passing, 22 rushing). Carey's Preston Wood threw for 261 yards, two touchdowns as he ran for 179 yards and three more scores in the No. 2 Panthers' 54-6 win over the No.
1 Blue Devils. The Panthers, who finished 3-6 in 2023, graduate 11 seniors. That includes Wood and others like Luke Aquistapace, AJ Black, Eddie Gamino and Matthew Young who helped restore the program’s championship tradition.
After losing to West Side in the 2023 then-2A title game, Declo returned to the 3A title game, with West Side once again the obstacle in the way of the blue trophy. Declo beat West Side in the regular season, just like they did in 2023. But once again, the Pirates found another gear in the postseason, beating the Hornets 27-6 to win their second straight state championship and fifth in six years.
Silence filled one end of Idaho State's ICCU Dome as Declo relived the same feelings from a year ago. Declo graduates nine seniors, eight of whom were All-3A South East Idaho conference selections. Those who return will get back to work to see whether they could get over the hump, something no 11-man team could do against eastern Idaho’s best this fall.
Declo's Bode Brackenbury makes a catch against Westside during the 3A state football championship Friday evening, Nov. 22, 2024, at the ICCU Dome in Pocatello. District V and VI swept the four 11-man classification state titles.
Sugar-Salem remained the top dog in 4A, winning its third straight title and sixth in seven years. Hillcrest beat Skyline in an all-District VI 5A final. In 6A, Rigby won its fourth blue trophy in the past six years.
Sherm Blaser’s second year as Minico head coach could be called a revenge tour. Minico won at Twin Falls 7-6 in the regular season finale to win the Spartans third Great Basin Conference title in the last four years, avenging the loss in the same game in 2023. Senior linebacker Will Neilson’s 74-yard pick six in the fourth quarter became the difference.
Will Neilson’s fourth quarter pick six and a Minico extra point pushed the Spartans to a 7-6 Great Basin Conference title win over Twin Falls on Friday night. Minico then faced Emmett in the first round of the 5A state playoffs, the same team that eliminated the Spartans 34-33 on Bill Matthews Field in 2023. This time, Minico beat the Huskies 40-6 to advance to the quarterfinals.
There, it faced defending state champion Bishop Kelly, who handed the Spartans one of their two regular season losses. Minico jumped out to a 20-0 lead before the Knights tied the game, but Preston Sonner-Cranney’s touchdown in triple overtime sent the Spartans to the semifinals. Minico running back Preston Sonner-Cranney tries to juke as a Skyline defender grabs his facemask Friday, Nov.
15, 2024, during the 5A State football semifinals at the ICCU Dome in Pocatello. Skyline defeated Minico to advance to the championship game. Sonner-Cranney was Minico’s bellcow all year, including a seven touchdown performance against Burley that tied the program’s single game record.
Minico senior running back Preston Sonner-Cranney ran for 255 yards and seven touchdowns, tying the school record which Larry Vega set in 2017. The Spartans struggled in a 35-8 loss against Skyline in the semifinals, and will graduate 24 seniors. But given recent history, Minico should be in the thick of the conference title race again next fall.
A Great Basin Conference championship team ran into the kings of east Idaho, surrendered an offensive onslaught and ended their season one week away from a state championship appearance. Bulldogs head coach Joe Dille made this year’s schedule for a reason. He didn’t think his team was prepared enough for postseason play after the 2023 season ended in a quarterfinal loss to Weiser.
So he scheduled some of the toughest teams in the state so Kimberly could see what it takes to compete against the best. “It’s state championship in our eyes from the get-go,” senior running back/linebacker Damon Taylor told the Times-News . The Bulldogs took lumps early in a 1-3 start, with losses to Fruitland, Homedale and northern California power Sutter Union.
But they learned through failure, stunning Sugar-Salem 17-14 in Sugar City to start a six-game winning streak and roll to a second straight Sawtooth Central Idaho Conference title. The Bulldogs have outscored SCIC opponents 161-27 so far this season and are seeing contributions from a variety of weapons. Kimberly outscored its four conference opponents 210-27 as senior Damon Taylor won SCIC Offensive Player of the Year, senior AJ Walker won SCIC Offensive Player of the Year and Dille won SCIC Coach of the Year.
Fireworks pierced the dark sky and dozens of Kimberly teammates mobbed wide receiver Mason Jensen after his game-winning conversion reception. The Bulldogs got revenge against Fruitland in the state quarterfinals after Mason Jensen hauled in a two-point conversion pass in overtime, but came up short in a rematch against Sugar-Salem in the semifinals. Kimberly graduates 22 seniors, but has some talent returning that now knows exactly what it takes to compete against the best team in the state.
The Diggers came in with a plan and executed while Kimberly never got going in a 27-0 loss. The Vikings and Pirates met in Hagerman Sept. 13 in the first conference game for the teams in what later turned out to be the conference championship.
Josh Hardy, the 2023 Snake River Conference Offensive Player of the Year, shined with six touchdowns (four passing and two rushing) in Valley's 56-40 win over Hagerman. Valley beat Hagerman 56-40 thanks to a six touchdown performance from Josh Hardy and later won the Snake River Conference championship for the first time since 2018. It marked a return to form for the program in head coach Brian Ayers' second season of his second stint as Vikings head coach, as Valley won just six games combined from 2019-22 before winning 13 the past two seasons.
Valley’s goal this season was to be Snake River Conference champions. The Vikings checked the box with a 48-8 win over Raft River on Friday night. Valley did not lose again until a rematch with Hagerman in the 2A quarterfinals.
Neither did Hagerman. That set the stage for one of the top eight-man games in the state this season. Hardy and Hagerman quarterback Wyatt Mavencamp made play after play before Pirates senior Ky Kendall became the hero.
With Valley leading 52-48 and under two minutes remaining, Kendall intercepted a pass at the goal line and ran it back 100 yards for a touchdown. The Vikings drove down to the Hagerman five-yard line in the final minute before Kendall recovered a fumble in the end zone to seal the 56-52 win. Hagerman senior Ky Kendall knows any game could be his last and was a big reason why the Pirates kept their season alive Friday night.
The Pirates lost to Butte County in the semifinals the next week, but no one in Hagerman will forget the quarterfinal win for a long time. The Indians entered this season on a 15-game losing streak and hadn’t beaten a varsity opponent since 2016. That didn’t deter first-year head coach Mike Nunnelee, who has experience rebuilding programs.
Shoshone returned to the win column, finished 5-4 and advanced to the state playoffs for the first time since 2000. It marked the program’s first winning season since 2011. Shoshone head football coach Mike Nunnelee said people want to talk about Indians football anywhere in town.
The Indians put the work in during the offseason and it showed. They don’t plan to stop anytime soon. They graduate five seniors, but played a lot of underclassmen this fall.
Shoshone wasn’t the only Magic Valley team to snap a long playoff drought. Glenns Ferry returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Your story lives in the Magic Valley, and our new mobile app is designed to make sure you don’t miss breaking news, the latest scores, the weather forecast and more.
From easy navigation with the swipe of a finger to personalized content based on your preferences to customized text sizes, the Times-News app is built for you and your life. Don’t have the app? Download it today from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Justin Fitzgerald is the sports reporter for the Times-News.
Prior to coming to Twin Falls, he was the sports reporter at the Cherokee Scout in Murphy, North Carolina for 2.5 years. Despite growing up in Maryland and graduating from the state's flagship university, he thinks Old Bay is overrated.
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