After 11 weeks of action, a new 6-man champion will be crowned on Saturday. Stratton/Liberty, the top overall seed in the playoffs, will host #3 Peetz at Liberty High School with a 1pm kick-off on the schedule.
Both programs are familiar with championship gold, with a combined 12 state titles between the three schools involved. Stratton laid claim to six championships in 8-man, including four straight between 1992 and 1995. Liberty won the six-man crown in 1999 with current head coach Toby Kechter leading the way as a player, and the two schools won the 2013 championship as a co-op squad.
Peetz won back-to-back Class C (8-man) championships in 1960 and 1961, and the Bulldogs picked up 6-man titles in 1995 and 2002. Stratton also finished second three times, all in eight-man, while Peetz has five runner-up finishes. Two were in the 1970’s in eight-man and the other three have been since 1997.
This game features the top two scoring teams in the classification. Peetz checks in with a scoring average of 54.4 points a game, while Stratton/Liberty enters at 54.36. The Bulldogs scored at least 48 points in all but three games and they tallied a season-high 74 against Weldon Valley. The only times they failed to reach that 48-point mark were in their lone loss (44-41 to Prairie) and two wins over Fleming (39-26, 40-28).
The Knighted Eagles also reached the 48-point plateau in all but three times. They recorded 47 in a win over Deer Trail, and then 40 and 46 in their last two playoff wins over Otis and Cheyenne Wells. Stratton/Liberty scored 53 against Cheyenne Wells in the regular season and 63 the following week against Otis. Their season-high was 68, scored against Idalia.
While both squads use high scoring offenses to put pressure on opponents, but have also paired that with strong defenses. The Knighted Eagles held seven opponents to a single score and two more foes only scored twice. Peetz started the season by holding its first three challengers to two touchdowns and the Bulldogs added two more contests where they only allowed a single touchdown.
These programs had quite a bit of history several years back, but this is just the second meeting between them with Stratton and Liberty in a co-op. The previous contest came back in 2014, a 79-32 victory by the Bulldogs. Tre Fehringer and Helmuth Wenneker saw action as freshmen for Peetz, while Phillip Pickard and Jacob McCormick were freshmen who saw the field for the Knighted Eagles.
PEETZ STATISTICAL LEADERS
| PASSING | RUSHING | RECEIVING |
| Tre Fehringer 751 yds — 23 TD | Long 832 yds — 14 TD | Logan Sircy 22-593-10 TD |
| Bryson Long 216 yds — 2 TD | Hunter White 410 yds — 7 TD | Wenneker 6-143-4TD |
| Helmuth Wenneker 230 yds — 3 TD | Long 8-116-5 TD | |
| Jake Curlee 207 yds — 6 TD |
| TACKLES | SACKS | INTERCEPTIONS | FUMBLE REC |
| White — 87 | A Curlee — 4 | Sircy — 8 | J Curlee – 4 |
| Wenneker — 70 | J Curlee — 2 | White — 3 | White 4 |
| Sircy — 69 | White — 2 | Long – 2 | |
| Long — 67 | Wenneker — 2 | ||
| J. Curlee — 58 | Gage Travis — 2 | ||
| Alex Curlee – 46 |
STRATTON/LIBERTY STATISICAL LEADERS
| PASSING | RUSHING | RECEIVING |
| Tyson Lichty 392 yds — 13 TD | Jacob McCormick 1,707 yds — 28 TD | J Lichty 12-244-7 TD |
| Phillip Packard 204 yds — 5 TD | Eltan Yarger 559 yds — 12 TD | Pickard 7-141-5 TD |
| Owen Clapper 463 yds — 8 TD | Yarger 8-115-2 TD | |
| Jaret Lichty 293 yds — 4 TD |
| TACKLES | SACKS | INTERCEPTIONS | FUMBLE REC |
| Yarger — 102 | Pickard – 12 | Clapper – 6 | Shean – 6 |
| Levi Shean — 96 | Richmond — 4 | J Lichty — 4 | J. Lichty — 2 |
| Pickard — 75 | Shean – 2 | T Lichty – 4 | Pickard – 2 |
| J Lichty — 69 | |||
| Ethan Richmond — 67 | |||
| T. Lichty – 64 |
NOTE: Colorado Preps will provide full coverage of the six man state finals. Cole Honstead will be on hand to provide post-game highlights and KC Holtman will be there to shoot as many photos as possible. The game can also be watched live in HD through a video stream at NFHSNetwork.com. Local radio coverage is provided by 94.5 the Ranch from Sterling.
