The transition to 1A has been overdue for many years at Grace High. But now that it's come, what can we expect from conference play and the conference tournament.
The conference is split up into two pods, north and south. The North pod includes Glenns Ferry, Hagerman, Challis and Shoshone. The South pod: Grace, Hansen, Oakley and Raft River. Come tournament time the #1 from each pod will be put up against the #4 from the opposite pod and 2 to 3 respectively.
The Grizzlies have started off the season well and have an unblemished conference record at 3 - 0. But only one of those games has come against a team in their pod, a 20 point win against Oakley.
Current Conference Standings
North Pod
Shoshone 6 - 0 2 - 0
Hagerman 3 - 3 2 - 0
Glenns Ferry 3 - 4 0 - 2
Challis 1 - 5 0 - 2
South Pod
Grace 4 - 2 1 - 0
Oakley 2 - 5 1 - 1
Raft River 1 - 5 1 - 1
Hansen 0 - 5 0 - 1
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Grace takes down 4th ranked Glenns Ferry
Grace 71, Glenns Ferry 47
Jordan Brady scored 24 and teammate Chase Ackerman added 20 as Grace defeated Glenns Ferry on Saturday night.
The Grizzlies’ (4-2, 3-0) defense was also in high gear, holding the Pilots to just five points in the opening quarter.
“The team came out really quick tonight and we were able to get ahead and stay ahead,” said Grace head coach Rory Lloyd. “All the kids had some really good playing minutes, too.”
Grace nexts host Soda Springs on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Boys and Girls hoops take down Oakley
Boys
Grace 60, Oakley 40
Grace traveled to Oakley on Tuesday night and came away with a victory over the Hornets.
The Grizzlies (3-2, 2-0) were led by Chase Ackerman with 19 points and Jordan Brady with 17, but the reall story was the defense, which held Oakley (1-5, 0-2) to just 16 points in the first half.
Chase and Jordan, two seniors, led our offense, but our defensive intensity was the key to our success tonight,” said Grizzlies head coach Rory Lloyd. “The whole team really stepped up and did a great job.”
Grace next plays at Glenns Ferry on Saturday at 7:30 p.m
Girls
Grace 55, Oakley 43
Led by Stephanie Lloyd’s 10 points and nine from Hannah Skinner, Grace (2-5, 1-1) defeated Oakley on Tuesday evening.
Down by four at the half, the Grizzlies’ defense took over and allowed their opponents just 12 points the rest of the contest.
“We really began picking up our defense in the middle of the second quarter,” said Grace head coach Kevin Smith. “We also stopped turning the ball over. The whole team worked their butts off and came away with a big win tonight.”
The Grizzlies next travel to Bear Lake to take on the Bears on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Grizzly Basketball off to good start
The Grizzlies have started off the basketball season pretty well this year. They played three games this week, one of which against a district team. They opened the season at home against in county rival North Gem. Jordan Brady led the Grizzlies with 30 points and they beatcthe cowboys handily, 69-32. Two days later the Challis Vikings made the trip to Grace, but they couldn't get anything going against a physical and quick Grizzly defense. Grace won their first district game 58-28 and were led by Chase Ackerman who scored 21 points. The next day the Grizzlies traveled to Bear Lake to face a much bigger 3A team. The tired Grizzlies couldn't keep up and fell 56-29.
A good 2-1 start to season for the Grizzlies and the team will be in even better shape when Josh Jenson recovers from a broken wrist sustained during the football season.
A good 2-1 start to season for the Grizzlies and the team will be in even better shape when Josh Jenson recovers from a broken wrist sustained during the football season.
Friday, November 19, 2010
The Unlikeliest of Things
Just six weeks ago, if you would have told me the Grizzly football
team would be making the 10 hour trip to Moscow, to play in the state
title game, I would have said you were off your rocker. At that point
the team was 0-5 and although all their losses had been close, with
the exception of Oakley, everyone had pretty much chalked the season
up to a year of rebuilding, the 7th one in a row.
But here we are, driving to Moscow to watch the boys play for a state
title. The past six weeks we have witnessed a turnaround of epic
proportions. A team that hasn't won more than a single game in the
past 4 seasons, has now rattled off six wins a row. It's easy to tell
that the mentality has changed for these players. They expect to win,
as opposed to hoping to win.
They now face the ultimate test. The Troy Trojans sit at 10-0 and
have ran all over their opponents in the northern part of the state.
They come into this game as heavy favorites but its really difficult
to tell how they might match up because of the lack of any common
opponents this season.
From film on the Trojans it looks like they will try and pound it
down the field with their strong run game. Grace's defense will need
to step it up on the front line to stop them. The reason Notus was
able to jump out to such a big lead was because of graces inability to
stop the run. Let's hope they have ironed out those issues and are
ready to step up on defense.
The trojans might have difficulty adjusting to the Grace offense
though. The White Pine League doesn't often see a team come in and
try the spread offense on them, so the Grizzlies might find a slight
advantage in that aspect.
For the first time in school history Grace has a shot at the football
state title, will today be the day?
team would be making the 10 hour trip to Moscow, to play in the state
title game, I would have said you were off your rocker. At that point
the team was 0-5 and although all their losses had been close, with
the exception of Oakley, everyone had pretty much chalked the season
up to a year of rebuilding, the 7th one in a row.
But here we are, driving to Moscow to watch the boys play for a state
title. The past six weeks we have witnessed a turnaround of epic
proportions. A team that hasn't won more than a single game in the
past 4 seasons, has now rattled off six wins a row. It's easy to tell
that the mentality has changed for these players. They expect to win,
as opposed to hoping to win.
They now face the ultimate test. The Troy Trojans sit at 10-0 and
have ran all over their opponents in the northern part of the state.
They come into this game as heavy favorites but its really difficult
to tell how they might match up because of the lack of any common
opponents this season.
From film on the Trojans it looks like they will try and pound it
down the field with their strong run game. Grace's defense will need
to step it up on the front line to stop them. The reason Notus was
able to jump out to such a big lead was because of graces inability to
stop the run. Let's hope they have ironed out those issues and are
ready to step up on defense.
The trojans might have difficulty adjusting to the Grace offense
though. The White Pine League doesn't often see a team come in and
try the spread offense on them, so the Grizzlies might find a slight
advantage in that aspect.
For the first time in school history Grace has a shot at the football
state title, will today be the day?
--
Sent from my mobile device
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Dan Angell's Week 13 Power Rankings
1A D1
Troy 10-0 96.66
Prairie 8-2 91.56
Wallace 8-1 89.38
Grace 6-5 80.51
Notus 9-1 78.74
Challis 6-3 78.45
Oakley 5-3 77.32
Potlatch 4-4 76.99
Hagerman 8-2 75.41
Genesee 5-3 73.38
Grace’s Cinderella run has brought it to the big ball in Moscow, where the Grizzlies will meet Troy, which has dominated the panhandle all year long. But how good are the Trojans, really? They’ve been playing only teams up north, so it’s difficult to get a read on them. Grace has played against teams all over southern Idaho, so I’m a lot more confident in its computer rating.
However, Prairie and Wallace also call the north home, and Troy went 3-0 against them, beating Prairie twice. The computer says Troy is no Notus, a team that was merely good and looked great by beating up on weak squads before meeting a team in Grace that could play with them. It believes the Trojans are a great squad, and it likes Troy to beat Grace by 19 in the title game. But with the way Grace has played for the last two months, it wouldn’t shock me a bit if the Grizzlies write a dream ending to their season.
Troy 10-0 96.66
Prairie 8-2 91.56
Wallace 8-1 89.38
Grace 6-5 80.51
Notus 9-1 78.74
Challis 6-3 78.45
Oakley 5-3 77.32
Potlatch 4-4 76.99
Hagerman 8-2 75.41
Genesee 5-3 73.38
Grace’s Cinderella run has brought it to the big ball in Moscow, where the Grizzlies will meet Troy, which has dominated the panhandle all year long. But how good are the Trojans, really? They’ve been playing only teams up north, so it’s difficult to get a read on them. Grace has played against teams all over southern Idaho, so I’m a lot more confident in its computer rating.
However, Prairie and Wallace also call the north home, and Troy went 3-0 against them, beating Prairie twice. The computer says Troy is no Notus, a team that was merely good and looked great by beating up on weak squads before meeting a team in Grace that could play with them. It believes the Trojans are a great squad, and it likes Troy to beat Grace by 19 in the title game. But with the way Grace has played for the last two months, it wouldn’t shock me a bit if the Grizzlies write a dream ending to their season.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Grizzlies plunder another band of Pirates
Before you could even blink, the Hagerman Pirates had jumped out to a 14 - 0 lead against the Grizzlies last night at Holt Arena. The speedy spread offense of the Pirates looked great in that opening quarter. A 58 yard run and a 51 yard pass had the Grizzly defense wondering what had just happened.
On the other side of the ball the Grace offense struggled to get into a rhythm. The running backs were getting stopped at the line of scrimmage and Jensen was struggling to hit his receivers.
The Grizzlies showed some life early in the second quarter when Jensen hit Ackerman for a 32 yard touchdown pass. The defense then settled down and was able to keep Hagerman out of the end zone for the remaining of the half, but the offense just couldn't quite get another score before the 2nd quarter ended and they went into the locker room down 8 - 14.
The Pirates got the ball at half but couldn't move down the field and were forced to punt. The Grizzlies stuck with their game plan and continued to run the ball right at the Pirates defense, except now they were finally creating holes and ripping off runs of 8-10 yards a play. They easily marched down the field and Kendal Bitton found the end zone on a 5 yard run. The conversion was missed giving us a tie game at 14 - 14.
Another stop by the Grizzly defense forced a punt, but the Hagerman kicker placed it well and the ball went out of bounds at Graces' 10 yard line. On first down the Grizzlies went deep and found Ackerman running a fly route right up the middle for a 90 yard touchdown.
Once again the defense gave up nothing and Hagerman was forced to punt. The Grizzlies turned to the wildcat offense and it paid off as Trevor Simonson found room around the edge and ran 65 yards for the TD.
The Grizzlies are now sitting pretty at 30 - 14 with just 7:30 left in the game. The defense continued to play hard but a few missed assignments by the secondary allowed the Pirates into the end zone on a 17 yard pass with 4 minutes left.
With the score at 30 - 22, the Grizzlies hope to run some time off the clock and need to get some crucial first downs to get to the point where they can run the coach's favorite offense, the victory formation. They did exactly that. The Pirate defense was no match for the upfront blocking of the Grace O-line and before you knew it, the clock had reached :00 and the Grizzlies were celebrating their first ever trip to the State Championship game.
Grace will now play the winner of the Prairie/Troy game which is taking place at the Kibbie Dome tomorrow at 6pm. Both Prairie and Troy have excellent records and are tough teams, but the Grizzlies will be ready to take advantage of the opportunity and would love nothing more than to bring home the 1A state title for the first time in school history.
On the other side of the ball the Grace offense struggled to get into a rhythm. The running backs were getting stopped at the line of scrimmage and Jensen was struggling to hit his receivers.
The Grizzlies showed some life early in the second quarter when Jensen hit Ackerman for a 32 yard touchdown pass. The defense then settled down and was able to keep Hagerman out of the end zone for the remaining of the half, but the offense just couldn't quite get another score before the 2nd quarter ended and they went into the locker room down 8 - 14.
The Pirates got the ball at half but couldn't move down the field and were forced to punt. The Grizzlies stuck with their game plan and continued to run the ball right at the Pirates defense, except now they were finally creating holes and ripping off runs of 8-10 yards a play. They easily marched down the field and Kendal Bitton found the end zone on a 5 yard run. The conversion was missed giving us a tie game at 14 - 14.
Another stop by the Grizzly defense forced a punt, but the Hagerman kicker placed it well and the ball went out of bounds at Graces' 10 yard line. On first down the Grizzlies went deep and found Ackerman running a fly route right up the middle for a 90 yard touchdown.
Once again the defense gave up nothing and Hagerman was forced to punt. The Grizzlies turned to the wildcat offense and it paid off as Trevor Simonson found room around the edge and ran 65 yards for the TD.
The Grizzlies are now sitting pretty at 30 - 14 with just 7:30 left in the game. The defense continued to play hard but a few missed assignments by the secondary allowed the Pirates into the end zone on a 17 yard pass with 4 minutes left.
With the score at 30 - 22, the Grizzlies hope to run some time off the clock and need to get some crucial first downs to get to the point where they can run the coach's favorite offense, the victory formation. They did exactly that. The Pirate defense was no match for the upfront blocking of the Grace O-line and before you knew it, the clock had reached :00 and the Grizzlies were celebrating their first ever trip to the State Championship game.
Grace will now play the winner of the Prairie/Troy game which is taking place at the Kibbie Dome tomorrow at 6pm. Both Prairie and Troy have excellent records and are tough teams, but the Grizzlies will be ready to take advantage of the opportunity and would love nothing more than to bring home the 1A state title for the first time in school history.
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