CHEYENNE WELLS – On the surface, Cheyenne Wells is no different from any other small town in eastern Colorado.
Closer to the Kansas border than the Denver metro area, it could easily be confused for the likes of Eads, Kit Carson or even Hugo. With one slight exception. For now, Cheyenne Wells is the town of champions.
And the fans will flock out to see the champions.
Although the bleachers at Skoff Field could easily hold a couple hundred fans, they remain empty through the course of the game. Lawn chairs and blankets fill up the area near the south zone and that’s where the Tigers fans watch. That’s where the community watches.
They jump to their feet when Tyler Scheler connects with Carson Noe on the first play of the game, putting Cheyenne Wells up 6-0 over Stratton.
The matchup sounds familiar because it was the final 6-Man matchup of the 2021 season. The Tigers (0-1 overall) beat the Eagles to win their first title and the emotional high continued on that first score of the game.
But the Tigers were quickly reminded that Stratton is no slouch of a football team. Alex Cruz led the ground attack, scoring two rushing touchdowns as the Eagles scored 18 unanswered points to take an 18-6 lead at halftime. They then dominated the second half to get a 53-6 win, avenging their loss in the state championship game.
“It wasn’t so much about revenge or playing our style of football,” Stratton coach Jesse McConnell said. “It was about playing our style of football for a full game.”
This was always going to be a showdown worthy of state championship caliber teams. And in the confines of a home field, it still had that state championship feel. Maybe it’s because everyone has been waiting all summer to play football. Maybe it’s because small town football belongs in the small towns.
Either way, the Eagles (1-0) found their rhythm. Alex Cruz got the first rushing touchdown of the game for Stratton and the team never looked back after that. Crossing the goal line lifted a weight from the team’s shoulders that had been there since they left the CSU-Pueblo Thunderbowl last year.
“We’ve been thinking about this all summer, since the last time we saw these guys,” Cruz said. “It meant a lot.”
Junior Cyler Notter added a big boost in the scoring effort for the Eagles. He scored a rushing touchdown, a receiving touchdown and scooped up a fumble a returned it for a touchdown.
“It’s like Alex said, we thought about this game all season,” Notter said. “We just wanted to get the first win of the season.”
And they got it by a wide margin. But by no means should that mean anything when it comes to Cheyenne Wells’ chance to contend for a title. They lost a lot of seniors, but coach Myles Smith knows his players have the ability to learn from their mistakes and show everyone in the state that one game does not a football season make.
“We’re very excited,” he said. “We still have high hopes for the rest of the season. We’re not going to let this dictate how the rest of the season goes. Hats off to them. They played a heck of a game.”
