Hey, for more on Century's defense, click here for a great story written by my coworker, Josh Friesen.
On a main road near where I live someone ran over a squirrel last week. Poor guy was just laying there, and since no one moved him his carcass slowly became a flat, squashed mess as vehicle after vehicle applied tire to fur.
This week, that squirrel is nothing more a dark stain on the street. A gruesome story, I realize (especially for me considering how I’ve used this column in the past to write about how much I detest gory movies) but I bring up that four-legged furry animal to ask a question.
How in the world did the Century Diamondbacks not end up like that squirrel, a flattened pancake on the road to the 2013 high school playoffs?
Not to belabor the point, but remember where the D-backs stood four games into the year? They were 1-3 and any hopes to reach the postseason meant they needed to not only win the rest of their conference games, but they had to rely on outside help. September was a miserable month for the Diamondbacks.
After losing a heartbreaker to Rigby 21-19, Century had to rely on the Trojans to roll through the rest of their conference slate. Can you imagine rooting for your enemy? That’d be like an ant buying stock in Magnifying Glass Incorporated.
To make a long story short, Century did what it needed to do, and October and November have been magical months. The defense got nasty, giving 5.8 points a game in their final five games of the year (after allowing up 22.75 in the first four), and really made a statement against Pocatello with four defensive touchdowns.
They backed that effort up with two interceptions returned for points against Twin Falls. The D-backs smothered the Bruins star running back Jacob Johnson who entered that quarterfinal playoff game seeking his school’s all-time rushing record.
Since I moved to Pocatello in August of 2012, people told me Century's class of 2014 was the class, a group of young men with the talent to propel Century to a 4A playoff run.
Before 2013, Century hadn’t been in the playoffs since 2004. But this group of seniors, comprised of guys like Austin Ferguson, Shane Rominger, Scott Kuhn, Remy Lambson, Logan Fackrell, Mason Spillett, Reece Ravsten and others (I could go on and on with 31 seniors listed on the roster), had the goods (i.e. talent) to put the D-backs into the postseason.
And after Century nearly beat Highland in its opening game (a loss that's looked better and better considering what the Rams have done since), the possibilities seemed endless. But I keep coming back to September, the ugliest month of the year for Century football. Three losses in four weeks. Yet, with head coach David Spillett leading the way, the Diamondbacks stayed confident.
“That’s one thing that didn’t happen to this group of kids. They continued to believe in what we were trying to do, in what we were telling them,” Spillett said a few days before Century manhandled Twin Falls. “They never lost the faith.”
They never lost the faith and a cupcake game against a Burley squad — who the D-backs romped 49-0 — served as an adrenaline shot straight to Century’s beating heart. They’ve ripped off six-straight victories and now host Bishop Kelly in the state semifinals Friday night at Holt Arena.
In about a month and a half, they went from looking like road kill to standing on the precipice of a state championship. That’s an unreal turnaround. It’s too bad for D-back opponents everywhere that they didn’t take advantage of the time Century lay on the road lifeless and beaten to finish them off.
Maybe Century was only making like a possum and playing dead.
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