The Wellington Eagles have the monkey off their back.

In just their third year of varsity football, the Eagles under head coach Travis Peeples are in the books for recording a playoff win, and they upended the defending champions in order to get it.

Wellington cashed in with Cash Altschwager’s 220 rushing yards and two touchdowns, while Tanner Gray pitched in another 118 rushing yards and a score in a 27-23 win over Delta in the Class 2A bracket last weekend. Cyle Kisner ran in a score, and Altschwager also had two key interceptions on defense as WHS advanced to face No. 1 Strasburg on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles (8-2) will get to host the Indians (9-1), who beat Denver West in the opening round.

Peeples’ team entered last year’s playoffs 9-0 but lost to Berthoud in the first round. Now that one hurdle has been overcome, the Eagles are hoping to take out the top overall seed on the bracket. Strasburg is the No. 1 seed after finishing the 2023 season as the 1A runner-up to Limon.

Not all chalk

In the 1A bracket, 7 of 8 higher seeds prevailed, with Holyoke’s massive 33-30 victory against No. 4 seed Centauri the only upset of the opening round. The No. 13 Dragons have four wins on the season but now own three wins over playoff teams, having defeated Limon and Wiggins in the regular season before notching the upset of the Falcons.

The next task for Holyoke is to start its first winning streak of the year, and there’d be no better time to do that. The Dragons host 8-2 Buena Vista, who smacked Burlington 21-7 in the first round. The teams have not played each other in the MaxPreps era.

Can Limon make a run?

Since losing back-to-back games a month ago, Limon has put together three strong wins, and the Badgers are known to be tough outs come playoff time. Their most recent triumph came by way of a 20-10 score against Platte Valley in which junior Jacob Jaklich surpassed 100 rushing yards, scored twice and also had an interception. Zac Carr’s two sacks were big, as was Camdyn Tacha’s 93 rushing yards and Skylur McCready’s touchdown run.

Limon travels to Wiggins this week as one of several playoff games that offer rematches of in-season affairs. The Badgers beat the Tigers 21-19 back on Oct. 4 despite being out-gained in yardage 336-246. Wiggins had 406 rushing yards in last week’s lopsided win over Colorado Springs Christian, and Jayson Lousberg scored four times.

Not all chalk II

Sedgwick County did this year what it also did last year, ending West Grand’s season a lot earlier than the Mustangs would have liked. The No. 11 Cougars provided the only upset in the 8-man bracket with a 24-0 win and now will face No. 3 Akron trying to end a three-game losing streak in the series between the teams. In fact, only three weeks ago did the Rams shut down the Cougars’ offense for a 20-6 victory in Julesburg.

Scoring extravaganza

All of the top seeds cleaned up in 6-man with the average winning team posting 64.5 points (last year’s first round average was 50). While No. 1 Cheyenne Wells posted 76 points, there was perhaps no greater effort last week than that of No. 8 Arickaree. The Bison were down against Fleming, 46-20, at half before exploding for 61 points in the second half to pull off an amazing comeback. In the game: Arickaree scored three defensive touchdowns; the Bison got three TD receptions from Dillon Noletubby; and Austin Wright had 425 total yards, accounted for seven scores, blocked a kick, had a sack and recovered a fumble.

Arickaree gets Cheyenne Wells this week, and the teams have never played in the MaxPreps era.