Grace ends regular season with win, advances to first round of state playoffs

- Idaho State Journal

Grace 56, Raft River 8

After allowing an early touchdown to Raft River, Grace came back to take complete control, scoring a 56-8 win and earning a postseason berth for the first time in eight years. The Grizzlies have won their last four games after beginning the season 0-5.

“I’m really proud of this team,” Grace coach Steve Millward said. “They came out at halftime with a lot of extra energy. They wanted to be in the state playoffs so bad they could taste it.”

Now his team will enter the playoffs with a game at Notus at 7 p.m on Friday.

Sophomore quarterback Josh Jensen threw for over 200 yards and four touchdowns, while junior running back Trevor Simonson and senior fullback Kendal Bitton scored two touchdowns each.

On the defensive side, the Grizzlies (4-5, 3-3 1A Division I District 4, 5, 6) did not allow the Trojans another point after that first quarter score. Instead, Grace’s defense stepped up with its strongest showing of the season.

“The defense was a little nervous at first, especially on defense, but once we started scoring, they settled down and played really good football.” Millward said.

Millward said he already has film on the Pirates, who won the Third District, and will begin watching as soon as possible.

“I feel like we can match up pretty well against them,” he said. “We’re confident going up against this team.”

Raft River game preview

 Tonight's game means everything for this years Grace High football team.  The Grizzlies (3-5) will host the Raft River Trojans (0-7) tonight at Roswell field in Grace. This is a must win for the Grizzlies who are looking to make the playoffs for the first time in 8 years.  It will be a true test of the composure and focus of a team that has never experienced what it's like to be in a "must win" situation.

 The Grizzlies are coming in as heavy favorites which could have an affect on how the players play.  In their last 3 wins they were coming in as slight underdogs and proved that they deserved some respect, but tonight will show how they respond when the roles are reversed.

 The Trojans are averaging just 14 ppg, while their opponents are averaging 47.  The grizzlies offense shouldn't have much trouble scoring on the Trojans, but they can't afford to give up anything on defense and let the Trojans stay in the game early.  The last 3 games the grizzlies have won because of their ability to score, but their defense has struggled to make stops at times.  Defensive coordinator Mike Coburn will be pushing for his defense to hold Raft River scoreless tonight to set the pace for what he wants to see in the playoffs next week.

 The Challis Vikings are hoping for an upset by Raft River tonight due to their Wednesday night win over Shoshone.  A Raft River win would put Challis into the playoffs at the #2 seed instead of Grace.

 It will be Senior Night for the Grizzlies and I expect they will come out fired up for the opportunity to play in such an important game. The weather looks relatively good for a night this late in October which will hopefully pull out all the Grace High Alums to come witness the Grizzlies earn a playoff berth.

Tonights Odds:     O/U - 61          Spread   Grace -40

Grace football team shows how quickly improvement can take place

- Idaho State Journal, Dan Angell

One of the most amazing phenomenons to me is how much players improve between seasons in high school sports.

In one season, a team is struggling to beat any of their opponents. They end up losing more games than they win and don't go to the playoffs. Then the calendar turns, and yesterday's juniors become today's seniors. Suddenly, the team that couldn't win games is thinking playoffs and more.

We've seen it this year from Pocatello, Preston, American Falls, Firth and Rockland. Four of those teams had a losing record last year, while Rockland was at .500. A year later, all of those teams are on their way to the playoffs.

Now we might be seeing it one more time with Grace.

Yes, Grace, one of the unlikeliest teams to pull off a turnaround, especially after the way the Grizzlies started the season. Last year and in years previous at the 2A level, Grace was known as the league doormat, a hopeless team that had no idea how to win.

This year, the Grizzlies moved down to 1A Division I, and coach Steve Millward entered the season optimistic about what his team could do. Then the games started, and before anyone could blink, Grace had lost to North Gem, Rockland, Mackay, Oakley and Hagerman.

Five games in, and the Grizzlies were 0-5. Of course, the thought around the area was, “Same old Grace.” In the community, people were openly questioning the direction of the team.

Lost was the fact the Grizzlies had played nothing but top opponents and they had been in almost every game. That was what Millward and his players focused on.

“The main thing we talked about was after the first three games, we felt we'd played tough teams and hung in there,” Millward said. “The kids hung in there knowing we could be a better team than we'd shown. Apart from the Oakley score, the kids knew we were in every game we'd played. They had the confidence to play a mistake-free football game.”

Their sixth game was against Hansen, a team that was nowhere near the level of any of their first five opponents. The Grizzlies finally played that mistake-free game and pasted the Huskies 52-22, earning confirmation that what they were doing was working.

Since then, nobody's been able to stop them. Challis tried and couldn't, giving up 54 points in Grace's first home win of the season. Shoshone couldn't either. The Indians' defense was expected to be a challenge, since it had raised eyebrows around the state a month ago when it held defending state champion Oakley to 14 points.

It wasn't. Grace shredded Shoshone for 70 points, one point fewer than the Grizzlies scored in their last seven games of 2009. The people who'd complained just a month ago were now standing around Shoshone's field well after the Grizzlies had picked up their third straight win, not wanting to leave.

Grace has put itself in position to do the unthinkable. Four weeks ago, the Grizzlies were 0-5 and riding a 12-game losing streak. Now all they need to do is beat Raft River on Friday and the Grizzlies' playoff dream comes true.

“Now it's like everybody's unified,” Millward said. “We're trying to keep them focused on Raft River, but you can feel it in the air. There's a lot of excitement.”

The next-best thing about the Grizzlies' rise is that other struggling programs can watch and dream.

When I was at last week's Rockland-Castleford game, I ran into Sho-Ban coach Brandon Eskelsen, who brought his players to the game to show them what success looks like. Now he has another model to show his kids, one to which they can easily relate.

If Millward and Grace can overcome their past and win, why can't Eskelsen and Sho-Ban? Why can't Michael Curran at Bear Lake, or Dave Spillett at Century? These coaches can now tell their teams, “Look at what Grace is doing. There's no reason that can't be us next year.”

But for now, the moment belongs to Grace. That's pretty appropriate, since the school decided to make its 2010 slogan, “This is The Moment.” I'm not sure they even knew this is the way they'd finally succeed.

“This is surreal,” Millward said. “I'm having to pinch myself to make sure this is real.”

What a moment, indeed.

Playoffs

  At the 5A and 1A levels, where the playoffs don't begin until November, two teams are playing de facto playoff games this week. Though Highland and Grace are both 3-5, both teams only need to win their last game to reach the playoffs. Highland will visit Idaho Falls on Thursday, while Grace hosts Raft River on Friday. If those schools advance, they'll join Rockland in the playoffs.


Rest of the article - http://www.journalnet.com/sports/local/article_e414d828-dff9-11df-8b4f-001cc4c002e0.html 

Week 10 Power Rankings

1A D1
Prairie 7-0 99.12
Troy 7-0 93.58
Wallace 7-0 86.6
Notus 8-0 82.93
Hagerman 7-2 77.68
Oakley 4-3 75.88
Lakeside 6-2 75.2
Challis 5-3 74.92
Grace 3-5 74.53
Genesee 4-3 71.17
Potlatch 3-3 66.81
Shoshone 5-3 65.12
Kendrick 4-3 59.56
Lewis County 3-4 51.6
Deary 1-7 51.11
Raft River 1-7 46.59
Clearwater Val. 2-5 42.34
Rimrock 4-3 41.46
Idaho City 5-4 37.76
Wilder 3-3 37.46
Hansen 3-5 34.51
Lapwai 0-6 30.34
Cascade 2-4 25.39
Horseshoe Bend 1-7 18.93
Greenleaf Friends 0-6 10.99


In 1AD1, things are getting very repetitive. Prairie. Troy. Wallace. Notus. Repeat. It’s been that way week after week after week. Hagerman has finally passed Oakley, and Grace keeps climbing. It’ll be hard for the Grizzlies to climb this week against a poor Raft River team, but Grace has managed to improve its rating every week this season.


-Courtesy of Dan Angells (ISJ) Journal Sports Blog - http://www.pocatelloshops.com/new_blogs/sports/

Grace in the Postseason?

The stars may have aligned just right this year to allow the Grace Grizzlies to make a post season run for the first time since 2002. The grizzlies 70-50 win over 5th ranked Shoshone on Friday night puts them in excellent position to make the 1AD1 playoffs. Thanks to a win by Challis over Oakley, the Grizzlies are in a 3 way tie for 2nd place in the district. Shoshone and Challis are the two teams also vying for that #2 slot, but Grace has the head to head win over both, which will break the tie if all teams win out next week. Grace will host 0-6 Raft River this coming Friday and will need to win that in order for this to all come true, but the Trojans have yet to be in a game this year so it shouldn't be too much trouble for the Grizzlies. Since Challis will be hosting Shoshone this week it will end up being just a two way tie for that playoff spot and the Grizzlies will have done what no one expected.

After a very rough start to the season, Grace has finally found their offense and have put up some serious numbers in their past 3 games (176 pts). We all knew that the transition to 8-man would take some getting used to, and that it did. Grace suffered some heart breakers at the beginning of the season that can be mostly chalked up to inexperience in this style of play.

If all goes as planned the Grizzlies will play the district champion from the 3rd district which looks like that will be Notus, and that game will be played on Nov. 6.