Oakley and Declo fall in respective Milk Bowl games
No Magic Valley teams will walk away with hardware this season.
POCATELLO, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — The Magic Valley will have no state football champions in 2023 as the Declo and Oakley Hornets were defeated by the West Side and Butte County Pirates, 41-13, and 58-44 respectively, on Friday night at Holt Arena.
In 1A-D1, Oakley was unable to capture their fourth consecutive state title against a very tough Butte County team, who, like Oakley, had only lost to Kendrick this season. The Hornets fought hard until the very end even putting up their final touchdown with 33 seconds to play. Bry Severe, Kooper Beck and Briggs Mitchell each caught touchdowns from Kyler Robinson.
“They’ve been apart of something really special, you know, when they were young it wasn’t them, the last couple of years it’s totally been them. They’re just fantastic young people and they fought, that’s all you can ask for, a chance to get out of bed, a chance to put on your pants and fight,” Oakley head coach Brennan Jones said.
In 2A, Declo squared off with West Side in a rematch of both teams closest game of the season, a one point Declo victory. The Hornets struggled to get much going offensively outside of a fourth-down touchdown late in the second quarter on a trick play dialed up by head coach Josh Stewart to cut the Pirates lead to 14-7.
In the second half, Hornets starting quarterback Will Garrard suffered an injury which greatly hampered Declo’s ability to pass the ball in the second half of a game in which they trailed, however Garrard did add a score with his legs. Unfortunately for the Hornets though, the Pirates managed to four more touchdowns in the second half to comfortably win their fourth state title in the last five years.
Congratulations to all our Magic Valley teams on a great football season!
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