Frankly, it’s a testament to the depth of quality at the top of Class B football for 2017. That it could be some sort of surprise that two proven powerhouse programs like York and Omaha Skutt are in the state final, I mean.

For much of the season, especially the last month or so, it seemed to many neither team would be here. (Or there. It’s there since we’re not here yet, right?) York couldn’t find a way to hang with Elkhorn South for four quarters - the Storm WAS the two-time defending state champ, ya know - and Skutt, well, Skutt got blasted by Elkhorn South and lost by nearly three touchdowns to Gretna.

Good teams, both of them, really good teams. Not gonna make the final, though.

Wrong.

On a frigid night when defense ruled the roost, both York and Omaha Skutt played like champions last Friday to reach next week’s Class B final. York not only found a way to “hang” with Elkhorn South, the Dukes shut out the defending champions 14-0. Skutt played like a team that will be in its fourth state final in the past five years, parlaying strong defense with some good fortune to claim a 10-9 win over hard-luck Gretna.

Kickoff for the Class B state final at Memorial Stadium will be next Monday at 7:15 p.m.

* Honestly, it’s hard to view Skutt as some sort of football underdog, not after all the SkyHawks have accomplished over the years, especially the past five years, but there they sat, 3-2 and coming off a 17-point loss to Gretna. Next up for the three-time state champions was unbeaten Columbus, a fresh face to the Class B top ten that was feeling its oats. An upset? Would it be an upset of Columbus won the game?

Turns out the answer was yes. Emphatically yes, as Skutt bullied the Discoverers into a 39-9 defeat that reestablished, or just reminded you, of Skutt’s place as a dominant football program. Skutt hasn’t lost since.

Not to be overly dramatic - why, @HuskerlandBob, when have you ever been overly dramatic? - but it could be Skutt’s championship drive revolves around on single special teams play. I’m telling you, that quarterfinal night against McCook, the Bison were feeling it, a championship program that was brimming with confidence, ready to put the Skyhawks away early.

Never happened. Never happened because my boy JD Daro burst through the line to block a McCook punt for a safety and after that moment the momentum swung into Skutt’s favor and never left. Skutt won, turned around and won again in the semifinal by one point on a missed extra point, and, voilà!, here we are, state finals.

For all the greatness of the Skutt program, and this team in particularly, this isn’t a squad filled with stars. No, it’s filled with a bunch of really good football players who just go about their job and when it matters most finding a way to win. That is a tough combination to beat, especially when you have a coaching staff, led by three-time champion Matt Turman, who knows how to win on the big stage.

* My mind is foggy these days but I remember that day in HD. It was a crystal clear October afternoon at York, the stands were full, hopes were high and York football was on top of the world, at least relatively speaking.

The year was 2003 and while to that point York had been far from a football power - only two playoff wins in 27 years - but the Dukes had completely whiffed on the playoffs the previous six seasons and that was particularly galling. So simply qualifying was the reason for such joy on this crystal clear October afternoon - the Dukes were back, baby!

I’d chosen to attend that game for two reasons in particular:

1. To watch York senior linebacker Levi Rath in person. Rath was a broad shouldered 235 pounds and played linebacker as the late, great Deacon Jones once said, arriving with bad intentions.

2. His quarry for that day would be Joe McLain, the oldest of football playing McLains from Chadron. Watching Joe play was appealing in a couple of different ways, partly because he was a dynamic and elusive dual threat QB who figured to be headline news that day, and partly because, as always, the chance to get to watch a Panhandle team in action always makes my list.

It wasn’t close, the game I mean. Big ol’ Levi Rath and his crew put a hurting to Joe and the Cardinals, 40-17. The next week, all pumped up, the Dukes played one of the greatest Class B teams of all time, 2003 McCook, to a 9-0 final decision before seeing the season close with York winning eight of its 11 games. Pretty darn good, if you ask me.

As for what happened next, see that cliff over there? York football fell of it. Over the next seven seasons the Dukes won a total of eight games, enduring back-to-back winless seasons in 2009-10 and a losing streak that reached 21 games before ending in Week 2 of the 2011 season. That 2011 team was led by a new head coach, Glen Snodgrass, who in a move that shocked the Nebraska high school football world, had left his three-time state finals program at Class D-1 Overton to play with the big boys.

That team finished 2-7. The next one 5-4. Right direction, no doubt, but where do the Dukes go from there? Turns out to the state final, as in one of the greatest turnarounds in Nebraska high school football history the Dukes wound up making the 2013 Class B state championship game. Time for another unforgettable York football game.

The bad kind.

The foe that night in Lincoln was another rising power, Omaha Skutt, and when the night was over the SkyHawks had put the Dukes in their place, 30-0, and won the first of back-to-back state titles.

Those teams meet again in the 2017 Class B state final and this time York comes into the game with a foundation of winning and expecting to win instead of looking around and basically say, what the heck, we’re in a state final? Guys like NU recruit Masry Mapieu, Simon Otte and Garrett Snodgrass, they will be coming to town to win, not just look good on TV. It will make for another memorable night of York football, which kind TBD.