Saturday Morning Quarterback: The Starter Set

As we await the playoff pairings here some things about Week 8:

When I saw Wynot play at Hartington-Newcastle back in Week 1 the Blue Devils struggled, but won. When I saw Bloomfield play at Winside that same day the Bees also struggled, at least initially, but also won. And they both kept winning, except for Wynot’s loss to Howells-Dodge, and everybody’s doin’ that. Until last night.

On Thursday night Wynot capped off a great close stretch of regular season football with a 44-30 win over previously unbeaten Bloomfield, snapping up the district title in the process, helping the Blue Devils emerge as the No. 3 overall seed behind unbeatens Howells-Dodge (duh) and Hitchcock County (given the Dundy win, make that double duh). Not sure how many casual fans would peg the Blue Devils as the No. 3 but there they are, in living color. Blue, of course.

It took two last plays of the game for Elm Creek to defeat Central Valley back in Week 4, 52-48. Central Valley hasn’t lost since, last night knocking off Twin Loup in convincing fashion, keeping the Wolves from closing out a perfect district season and handing the district title to Elm Creek in a tie-breaker. That district, the D2-7, proved to be our most competitive and entertaining in eight-man football this season, with all three teams good enough to host playoff openers. Well done, boys.

In the D1-7, Riverside closed out a perfect district run by beating Ravenna, 28-6, giving the Chargers seven straight wins since an opening loss to No. 3 overall seed Stanton, which is unbeaten. Ravenna remains one of our best football stories of 2022 and gets back into the playoffs in the first time for a long time.

More on the eight-man playoffs, and the brackets, here in a bit, but here are some thoughts on other games from last night:

Ainsworth 50, Boyd 14. The Ravenna story is a really good one, so is Twin Loup, but nothing tops what’s going on at Ainsworth.

Ashland-Greenwood 13, Omaha Roncalli 9. Sometimes your short-handed team really can beat a great foe on spit and grit alone.

Bennington 21, Elkhorn North 7. Could be Elkhorn North is about to become big and bad.

Chase County 35, Wood River 29. Exhilarating rally win for the Longhorns, crushing defeat for Wood River, which will now need to beat a really good Fillmore team to get in.

Creighton Prep 24, Papillion-LaVista 20. After a week off Prep holds on but Papio showed some guts with a great effort.

Crofton 52, Wakefield 38. I still have it in my head Crofton is still going to be a tough out in the playoffs.

Grand Island 31, Omaha North 21. More on this later but for now just let me say, that is a great win for GI.

Hartington-Newcastle 45, Homer 24. Clutch win that might just have turned the trick.

Hastings St. Cecilia 35, Fillmore Central 14. Saw it with my own two eyes, St. Cecilia is fast.

Holdrege 34, Cozad 22. Sweet win snaps a six-game losing streak. Good for you guys.

Humphrey St. Francis 66, Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family 0. Point proven.

Lincoln Pius X 21, Beatrice 14. Anytime these two get together...

Loomis 42, Bertrand 12. In a must-win game, Loomis won.

McCook 28, Adams Central. More on this later, too, but know this, that McCook line is a thing of beauty.

Milford 27, Wilber-Clatonia 26. Consecutive wins for the Eagles after six straight losses, putting Wilber’s playoff chances in peril at the same time.

Mitchell 21, Valentine 20 (OT). Tigers remain unbeaten, the hard way.

North Platte 24, Norfolk 13. Bulldogs continue to build toward what could well be a fruitful postseason, though Papio waits.

Oakland-Craig 49, North Bend Central 12. Knights wrap up the district title, pass the cole slaw.

Ord 42, Broken 7. You were right all along.

Pierce 48, Boone Central 26. Big play offense, big play defense, big play win. Boone had allowed 13 points in its last four games.

Potter-Dix 55, Garden County 8. Guess Ricky Nelson will have to wait until next time.

Sidney 26, Ogallala 22. I’ll celebrate this one with a low sodium filled long john for breakfast.

South Loup 48, Anselmo-Merna 14. Couldn’t help but notice Cache Gracey was wearin’ Jack Rush’s old number...

Wahoo 24, Douglas County West 0. Nothing fancy but that kind of thing plays in the postseason.

Yutan 21, Aquinas 0. Based on that softball state final the football team might be the second hardest hitters on campus.

We’ll be back with more later in the morning, good luck to all the teams in the playoff draw...