LARAMIE – Cheyenne East’s offense was able to gain roughly the same yards in the first and second halves of the Wyoming Class 4A state championship game.
However, Sheridan’s defense stiffened at the right times during the second half to rally for a 34-23 victory Saturday night at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie.
“Coach (Marshall) McEwen and the defensive staff had a great game plan,” Broncs coach Jeff Mowry said. “We changed to a three-man front and moved people into a lot of different coverages to try to confuse (East), and then they rattled off a 17-play drive to open the game.
“We felt good about making an offense do that. You don’t execute 17 times in a row very often. There eventually was going to be a hole or a mess-up we had to take advantage of.”
The Thunderbirds (10-2) finished with 383 yards of offense, 209 of which came during the opening half.
Sheridan’s first stop came on the Thunderbirds’ first drive of the second half.
East started on its own 10 after a deep kickoff and a holding penalty, but it was able to get to the Broncs’ 30 in just nine plays. The drive stalled when junior quarterback Cam Hayes was sacked for a 12-yard loss on third-and-2.
East punted, but Sheridan went 90 yards in just six plays to take a 17-14 lead on senior running back Colson Coon’s 15-yard touchdown run. Coon got the Broncs deep in East territory with a 51-yard run on third-and-4.
Sheridan (12-0) never trailed after that.
“Our first drive of that second half was really good, but they got a stop and then some points,” East coach Chad Goff said. “Sheridan is a good football team that made plays; you can’t take anything away from them. Both teams battled hard.
“They’re a great football squad. We had a great team this year, too. But things didn’t go our way. Credit to Sheridan, their program and their kids and what they’ve done.”
Sheridan repeated as 4A champions, winning the 29th title in program history and the sixth in the past eight seasons.
The T-Birds only got into Sheridan territory three times in the second half. They had first-and-goal from the Broncs’ 8-yard line early in the fourth, but had to settle for a 25-yard Brenden Bohlmann field goal.
The last came late in the fourth quarter on a 29-yard reception by senior Jakob Culver. He capped the drive with East’s final touchdown, a 7-yarder with 4 minutes, 5 seconds remaining.
Sheridan used Coon as a quarterback with great success throughout the night. He capped an eight-play, 69-yard opening drive with a 16-yard touchdown run.
East answered back with an 18-play, 82-yard march down the field. Drew Jackson’s second effort helped him get into the end zone from two yards out to tie the score 7-7 with 2:44 remaining in the first quarter.
The T-Birds ate 5:07 off the clock on that drive. Their second scoring drive covered 81 yards in 15 plays and took 3:49 off the clock. While the drives were time-consuming, East was still hurrying to the line and pushing the tempo by snapping plays quickly, just as it had all season.
Garet Schlabs put the T-Birds up 14-7 with a three-yard touchdown reception.
Schlabs finished with 11 catches for 79 yards. Culver hauled in eight passes for a game-high 111 yards and a touchdown. Junior Nathan Mirich added seven catches for 65 yards.
East junior quarterback Cam Hayes completed 30 of 41 attempts for 278 yards and two scores.
“We were taking what they gave us early,” Schlabs said. “Their corners were sagging a lot, so we hit quite a few hitches and took what they gave us.
“We tried to battle back and string some things together, but sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”
Coon did a little bit of everything for Sheridan. He trimmed East’s lead to 14-10 with a 41-yard field goal late in the first half. He added a 44-yard field goal to put Sheridan ahead 20-10 during the third quarter.
He also put the game out of reach by snaring a pass that went off an East receiver and returning it 27 yards for a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. That pick-six put Sheridan up 34-14.
Coon rushed for 248 yards and three touchdowns on 41 carries. Most of those came with him lined up at quarterback, something Sheridan used sparingly throughout the regular season but leaned on heavily in its final two games.
“East stopped us a couple times, but we went into halftime, and the coaches came up with a new little scheme,” Coon said. “We figured out what worked and what didn’t. … We had a different blocking scheme up front because (East was) pinching pretty hard and getting into the backfield pretty fast.
“We had to correct and adjust, and it worked out.”
SHERIDAN 34, EAST 23
Cheyenne East…… 7 7 0 9 – 23
Sheridan…… 7 3 10 14 – 34
SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter
S: C. Coon 16 run (C. Coon kick), 7:51.
CE: Jackson 2 run (Br. Bohlmann kick), 2:44.
Second Quarter
CE: G. Schlabs 3 pass from C. Hayes (Br. Bohlmann kick), 6:39.
S: C. Coon 41 field goal, 1:14.
Third Quarter
S: C. Coon 15 run (C. Coon kick), 5:57.
S: C. Coon 44 field goal, 1:02.
Fourth Quarter
CE: Br. Bohlmann 25 field goal, 9:48.
S: C. Coon 1 run (C. Coon kick), 5:30
S: C. Coon 27 interception return (C. Coon kick), 5:20.
CE: Ja. Culver 7 pass from C. Hayes (C. Hayes pass failed), 4:05.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Cheyenne East: Jackson 15-62, C. Hayes 15-35, G. Schlabs 1-8. Sheridan: C. Coon 41-248, Grooms 4-46, D. Steel 1-5, Ketner 1-2, Team 1-(minus-2).
Passing
Cheyenne East: C. Hayes 30-41-1 278. Sheridan: C. Gilbertson 2-5-0 13, C. Coon 1-1-0 16.
Receiving
Cheyenne East: G. Schlabs 11-79, Ja. Culver 8-111, Na. Mirich 7-65, Jackson 3-12, Kaszas 1-11. Sheridan: D. Steel 1-16, Ketner 1-13, Berrettini 1-10.
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