All’s well in a 6-man football championship win for Cheyenne Wells

PUEBLO – All is well in the ending for Cheyenne Wells.

In an 11-second span at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Trey Scheler ran for a 40-yard touchdown, recovered a fumble and ran for a 19-yard touchdown to solidify a second state championship for his Tigers.

Cheyenne Wells beat Stratton 50-27 to win the 6-man football title at Dutch Clark Stadium. Although the Tigers had won the regular season meeting between the two teams, it was that 11-second window wiped away the memory of Stratton’s dominant performance in last year’s title game.

“That had a huge part to do with it,” Scheler said. “It gave us all the more motivation to come out here and beat them.”

It was that win back on Aug. 30 that really planted the seed for what would be the Tigers’ state championship push. The two teams routinely play each other early in the year knowing that there is a good chance that they’ll face off again in the postseason.

“That’s why we like to play these guys early in the season,” coach Myles Smith said. “It sets a tone for early in the season and lets us know where we’re at and what we need to work on.”

Both teams failed to score on their opening drive, but then a classic 6-man scoring race showed up. Zach Dickey found Chason Turner for the first touchdown of the game for Cheyenne Wells and Stratton answered with the first of two 1-yard touchdown runs by Brody Wells.

In the second quarter, Dickey found Scheler for a 9-yard touchdown pass and Scheler later ran for the first of his three rushing scores – the last two of which came in that crucial fourth quarter stretch.

With each punch that the Tigers (13-0 overall) delivered, the Eagles handed one right back for the majority of the game. Penalties kept a Stratton drive in the second quarter and the Eagles (12-2) capitalized with an 18-yard rushing score by Von Isenbart.

Isenbart also threw for a touchdown late in the third quarter to make it a one-score game heading to the final 10 minutes.

And that’s when Scheler hit his game-sealing trifecta. He broke for a 40-yard score, recovered a Stratton fumble and ran for his third touchdown of the game all in a span of 11 seconds.

“It gave us momentum,” Scheler said. “It gave us the energy to know that we needed to win.”

He ended the day with 22 rushes for 214 yards and three touchdowns. He had 59 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns on top of all that. Defensively, he ended the day with 18 tackles and a fumble recovery. He was named the National Football Foundation’s Most Outstanding Player, an honor he quickly credited the entire roster for.

“Everyone did a good job,” Scheler said. “I wouldn’t have scored that many touchdowns if I didn’t have a good line. It was a team effort.”

This was Cheyenne Wells’ third trip to the state championship game in the last four years and the second title in program history.

“Im so proud of them and the effort they put in week in and week out,” Smith said. “It’s a grind and it’s hard to put into words right now, but I’m proud of the way they responded to everything this year.”