BK’s shared the SIC crown that season with Nampa’s Skyview High School, a team that was not on the Knight’s schedule due to conference scheduling rotation.  The Oct. 26th  win over Kuna came on the final night of regular season play, and secured a share of the conference championship.  BK then “earned” the District III #1 seed in the state playoffs — by winning a coin flip — and hosted Sandpoint the following weekend.

Here are some excerpts from the Idaho Statesman report on the game.  Good reporting by John Gardner, who was a modern-day Ray Giffin, following the Knight’s closely during the early 2000′s:

As the flock of Bishop Kelly High football players, students and parents milled about Nick Ysursa Field on Friday night, many felt they had just witnessed the best high school football game of their lives.

Who could blame them? The Knights had just defeated their archrival Kuna 31-28 in a game that featured everything.

Quarterback Colt Brooks put the finishing touches on the epic game by busting into the end zone from 1 yard out with 26.6 seconds remaining. The victory gave the Knights a perfect regular-season mark of 9-0 (8-0 4A West). The Knights now await a coin flip today to determine if they or Skyview will receive the No. 1 seed entering the playoffs.

“This is right at the top. This is right at the top as one of the best games we’ve played,” 10th-year Bishop Kelly coach Tim Brennan said of the longtime rivalry with Kuna . “It’s No. 1 or right there, it’s hard to say. But it’s No. 1 tonight, I tell you that right now.”

Trailing 28-24, the Knights gave their fans reason to storm the field by driving 59 yards in 48 seconds.

On first down, wideout Tommy Steiner took the handoff on a reverse and loaded his arm up to fire the ball down the field, but turned inside and ran instead. Steiner picked up 19 yards to put the ball on the Kuna 40.

One minute remaining.

Next play, Steiner found a seam in the middle of the field, and Brooks fired the pass between the numbers for a 16-yard
gain.

Fifty-two seconds left.

From the Kuna 24, Brooks found Chris Fife for 7 yards. Next play, incomplete pass.

Forty-six seconds left.

On third-and-3, Brooks kept for 5 yards and a first down. Bishop Kelly took a timeout.

Thirty-nine seconds left.

Then came the gut-check play of the game.

Brooks scrambled to his right, appeared to simply be running out of bounds to save time, but suddenly fired a pass to Fife near the end zone. Fife hauled it in at the 1-yard line, setting up Brooks ‘ sneak into the end zone.

“I was looking for the hole in the middle, and it wasn’t there, I saw Colt scrambling, and I just tried to get to where I thought the hole would be,” Fife said. “Then the ball came, and I thought I was in. The referee was looking at Colt on the sideline, and I thought I had it.”

So for a good take on the game go to Canyon County’s Idaho Press-Tribune, and you will read about how this game against Caldwell was an emotional one for BK coach Brennan as he faced his former team and coaches.  In fact, after the game Brennan bypassed his normal post-game radio interview and instead spent time with the Cougars coaching staff and players.  “I don’t know if it’s an emotional win, it’s an emotional game, just because I care so much about those coaches and kids that we coached against,” said Brennan to the Idaho Press-Tribune, once again proving himself a class act.

Add to a class act a memorable act with Andrew Spangler gaining 302 yards on 16 carries and five touchdowns.

The five touchdowns came on runs of 3, 38, 39, 47 and 66 yards.  The last score was the longest run.

Spangler is stepping up for the injured JoJo Harrington, who broke his ankle in the Emmet loss two weeks ago.

Spangler’s performance threatened the BK single game rushing record of Ramblin’ Ruben Asumendi ran for 344 yards on 43 carries in a game against Vallivue in 1997.

Rohr sealed the win when he ran to the right sideline looking for an open receiver, but failed in that attempt and decided to run. Rohr completed only 3-of-10 passes in the first half and had minus-13 rushing yards before he scored the game-clincher.

“That kid does not get rattled,” BK coach Lee Leslie said. “He’s a very sound kid, very intelligent. I’ve been telling him all year, ‘Run it. Don’t throw lollipops, run it.’ He finally did on the last play of the year, and that was amazing. He looked really fast.”

Rohr evaded a couple tacklers as he cut back across the middle of the field and scored 31 yards later to set off a wild celebration on the BK sideline.

Rohr, a versatile athlete and key member of the BK lacrosse and basketball teams, ended the game 8 of 17 passing with a head-turning four touchdowns and 256 yards. Halftime stats and negative rushing yards for a QB are common; however, what is uncommon is putting together a perfect record as a high school QB. Rohr, 12-0 as a starter, knows it’s not how you start — it’s all about how you finish.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/11/21/1426586/bishop-kelly-completes-perfect.html#ixzz177JZjwwk

The Idaho Statesman story, “Bishop Kelly completes perfect season in winning fourth state title”

Idaho Statesman Photo gallery

KTRV’s coverage is good, you can check out reporter Matt Loveless’ package.

IdahoSports.com has a solid photo gallery by Steve Conner, one of the best local sports photographers.

Andy Harrington's TD reception is one of many great shots in Steve Conner's gallery, check it out.

The webcast from IdahoSports might be viewable, though I can’t get it to work. Also the place to buy a DVD.

In Nampa’s newspaper Idaho Press Tribune story “Knight and day” there’s just one photo by Charlie Litchfield.  We would like to see a gallery from that talented photographer.

Here is the Pocatello newspaper’s Idaho State Journal story that notes the big plays of BK and also complimentary of the Knights’ stiffening D in the second half, shutting off the run offense and passing options.  The writer also mentions some questionable penalty calls on the Broncos.

Idaho Falls TV Station has some nice video, good recap, and  postgame clip with the Bronco coach.

The Blackfoot Morning News did not publish until Monday.  In “Bishop Kelly thwarts Blackfoot’s bid to repeat” sports writer Mark High devotes most of the article to a detailed tick-tock of the first half — not coincidentally when the Broncos’ offense was hitting on all cylinders.  On the morning of game day High had posted a perceptive pre game analysis with a prediction picked his home town Broncos in a close game.

While the sports writers’ poll was done two weeks ago there are two rating systems that continued through the post season, incorporating the results through the championship.  The idahosports.com Power Rankings for 4A ended with this top five:

Also at the Idaho State Journal the rating system was updated to show Bishop Kelly finishing 2nd place(?), according to a computer model that still has the undefeated Knights a five-point underdog to three-loss Blackfoot.  Here’s the ranking:

Blackfoot 9-3 115.37
Bishop Kelly 12-0 110.35
Shelley 8-3 104.89
Preston 7-3 104.18
Skyview 8-3 102.72
Hillcrest 6-3 98.5
Pocatello 8-2 96.1
Minico 6-3 90.05

And, in a classic example of the political axiom “when you’re explaining, you’re losing,” the blog goes on for several paragraphs describing how a 12-0 team can fail to impress a computer model that apparently places more emphasis on point spreads than wins and losses.  Thus, an appropriate conclusion from the Journal’s Dan Angell, “…and that’s why computers should not decide titles. Basically, my computer ratings were a lot of fun to do and provided proof positive that championships should always be decided on the field.”

Predictions and Chatter.  It appears the sports writer for the Blackfoot paper made it to the Kelly-Shelley game and returned to Bingham County with some sobering news to his locals about that winning team he saw at Nick Ysursa Field.  But before you take that to the bank there is also the sports blog at the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello where its sports writer touts a computer model that rates Blackfoot as a nine point favorite.  Keep in mind this same computer said Shelley would win by four points, and it still says BK is only two points better than Shelley, even after winning by 21.

And if you are looking for total, unanchored chaos there’s always the sportsboards.com thread on the game.

Blackfoot beats Skyview.  Pay attention to this detailed report from the Blackfoot newspaper. There is also a Nampa newspaper story on the game as well.   If you want to burn some time there is also the video web broadcast of the game at idahosports.com.  It’s worth a look because you will see a team that likes to spread it out, throw, and they have some speed.

Blackfoot beats Jerome.  The week before the Broncos put the wood to the Jerome Tigers.

Blackfoot beats Hillcrest.  Blackfoot took the conference title with a convincing win over the Hillcrest Knights.

Blackfoot loses to Shelley.  Back in mid-October the Broncos lost by one point to the Russets.

Blackfoot beats Bonneville.  In early October the Broncos beat the Bonneville Bees.

And here’s the 2010 schedule and results for the Broncos. They averaged 32.9 ppg and gave up 17.7 ppg.

Blackfoot won the 2009 4A State Football Championship with a record of 11-1. Among the wins was a 27-14 victory over BK on Ysursa Field in the quarterfinals. They were 7-3 in 2008; but were 2007 4A State Football Champions. They are good and they know how to win — and it’s safe to say they are the second best Bronco football team in Idaho.

So just ten visits in over 40 years makes a BK visit to Bronco Stadium a rare event, and that’s including  a mix of regular season, some league games, and a few championships.  The 2004 win over Pocatello, 40-8, was for the 4A championship, the first earned by the Knights in 10 years.  The east side lower deck was completely full, probably the largest BK crowd in school history.

Perry Byrne scores on touchdown pass in 1978 State Championship (photo by Mike Zuzel)

Losses in the state championship game occurred in 1978 and 2006.  The 1978 game was the first year the IHSAA sanctioned an official playoff system in 4A (then called A-2), and BK’s appearance in that first-ever Championship Game came on the day after Thanksgiving. That November 24th remains the latest ever the Knights have been on the gridiron [1978 team's victory in the state semi-final the week before on Nov. 18th is among the latest ever as well.]

During a four year home-and-home series with our canal bank neighbor Borah High School, the Borah home games were played at Bronco Stadium.  The 2004 game was closely contested with a late BK touchdown making what was a razor thin one point lead look more like an eight point cushion.  In 2000 and 2001 the 4A SIC included Boise and Timberline on the schedule so BK was visitor in those conference games.  The game against Timberline was on a Thursday night and actually received some national media attention because it came two days after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and was one of the first high school games played following that tragic event. Unknown to many is that BK’s JV team played on 9-12-01, little more than 24 hours after the attack, and defeated Timberline at BK.

Finally, the early appearances include the famous 1970 game against Boise High School and a season opener  where BK hosted Bonneville High School of Idaho Falls on the artificial turf, which ended in a 12-12 tie. School leaders moved the game to Bronco Stadium on a weekend where the Boise public schools and Boise State College were not scheduled to play and figured the Knights would draw a good crowd in their opening game after winning the mythical state single-game playoff at Jerome the year prior. There have been other times the Knights played at BSU, like during Team Camp in the summer, as shown below:

Beginning in the late 1950s Boise High would play Borah, a cross town rivalry to end the season.  Those games would go on to include Capital High School in the rotation and they went on through the 1970s, and thousands would attend a Borah-Capital game at the old Bronco Stadium.  These were big events.  The old wooden Bronco Stadium would fill for a Borah-Boise game, or a Borah-Capital tilt.  After the stadium was replaced with a 14,000 seat facility in 1970 to match a burgeoning Boise State Bronco football program the high schools still brought out the crowds, even as late as 1974 some 12,500 seats were filled for a Boise-Capital game that was decided in overtime.

Back in 1965 the BK Knights started a rather short tradition playing Meridian High School at Meridian Speedway on Veterans Day.  This tradition lasted all of three seasons, which was probably a good thing because the Knights were on the losing end of three contests 53-20, 55-7 and 14-0.  The last loss was in 1967 after the Knights had marched through a season with eight wins and giving up one score the previous week against Vallivue — otherwise a ridiculous seven wins by shutout.  The extended layoff between October 27 to Nov. 11 did not help.  Thus, the game with Meridian was moved to a Friday game (which was lost in 1968 but BK won in 1969).

It was not until November 11, 1977 that BK would play again on Veterans Day, and that was in a post-season bragging rights playoff against the Buhl Indians.  Just like those Meridian season-enders that didn’t go well for BK, the game at Buhl was a forgettable 36-13 loss.

Then a generation passed.

With the playoff system in place for more than 30 years with games deep into November it’s inevitable that a game be played on November 11th, but it didn’t happen until 2005 when BK traveled to Sandpoint for a memorable come from behind win with Cody Hawkins to Stew Tracy for a touchdown in the last minute.

Idaho Statesman story “Bishop Kelly football Grinds Out a W”

Idaho Press Tribune’s take is “Knights Avoid First-Round Disappointment”

Pocatello’s Idaho State Journal story titled “Indians Falter in Second Half.”

Photo gallery in the Idaho Statesman has 28 great still shots by Shawn Raecke.

And while hundreds of fans listened to the BKFOOTBALL.COM audio stream of the game broadcast from Salt & Light 1140 AM, last night’s game was also webcast (audio only) at Idaho Sports. You can listen to that now if you like.

BK will face the winner of the Middleton v. Shelley game.  That game is Saturday night (tonight) at Holt Arena in Pocatello, and will be webcast live at by our friends at IdahoSports.com. We know Middleton is good, but BK has never played the Russetts in 47 years of football.

Next Saturday’s game will be played at Nick Ysursa Field at 1:00 p.m.  Come out and support the Knights in the state semi-finals!

This is no different than earlier years.  Indeed, the talent-laden teams from powerful Eastern Idaho have played a dominant role in the state playoff results the past several years.  Here’s a list of the results of the 4A State Championship games since 2004:

2004  BK defeated Pocatello
2005  BK defeated Pocatello
2006  Pocatello defeated BK
2007  Blackfoot defeated Nampa
2008  Hillcrest defeated Jerome
2009  Blackfoot defeated Sandpoint

From 2006 forward the record of Southern Idaho Conference teams in the playoffs against Magic Valley and Eastern Idaho teams is a sobering 0-7.  The last win for the SIC was way back in the 2005 state championship, the famous “3rd and 47 game,” at Holt Arena.  That was five seasons and 31,222 YouTube views ago. So supporters of BK football would do well to learn more about the potential postseason opponents from the South and East.  We’ve put together a thumbnail of what you need to know about each team  seeded in the IHSAA bracket, including last Friday’s play-in games, the results, and what it may mean for the Bishop Kelly Knights.  Follow us in order as we head East.

Twin Falls Bruins – A few years ago Twin Falls won the 5A football championship but last year Canyon Ridge High School opened which split the large student body and both schools moved to 4A.  The Bruins made it to the semi-finals last year, losing to Blackfoot one week after the Broncos beat Bishop Kelly.  Twin Falls hung around the top five ranking this year with wins over Nampa 14-0 and a four point margin over Skyview (double that of the Knights) and losing to Pocatello on the road 22-21. The high rankings dissolved over the past two weeks, first when Minico knocked off the Bruins 27-21 putting them in second place in the conference in the Magic Valley, and then forcing the Bruins on the road to a play-in game at Preston where the Indians took care of Twin Falls 42-6.  A season record of 6-3 for a team that matched up closely with two common opponents to BK in the Minico and Skyview games, but less dominant over Nampa.

Minico Spartans – BK had its hands full with that season opener on the road in Minidoka County and escaped with a 13-6 win over the Spartans in early September.  Minico had won a tune-up game the week prior and after the loss to BK and a drubbing from an Elizabeth, Colorado, team in Holt Arena the Spartans went on a tear through the 4A Great Basin (West) league piling up wins with impressive victory margins.  The finale came two weeks ago when Minico was a touchdown better than Twin Falls.  This win gave the Spartans the right to host the Shelley Russets.  But home field was no advantage as the Russets won 21-7.  So like Twin Falls, Minico finished 6-3.

Pocatello Indians – For a while this season BK #1 Poky #2 was just like we saw earlier this decade.  The Indians went unbeaten until a 44-3 drubbing from the Preston Indians (a nearly identical score to the Preston-Twin Falls game).  This loss knocked them out of the ratings for a while, especially the power rankings published by their hometown newspaper.  But over the past three weeks Pocatello has pulled off some impressive wins including victories over 5As Skyline and Highland, and last Friday’s win over 2008 state champion Hillcrest as mentioned above.  Pocatello did play at Middleton early this year and managed a less than dominating 21-16 victory.  But scores from two months ago should be discounted because they happened long ago.  The Indians are a formidable opponent with an 8-1 record.   Mention must be made about the Pocatello coach, Tom Harrison, who has faced BK in the past, including the state championships 2004 through 2006 where BK won the first two and Pocatello the last one.  Harrison was quick to remind the Pocatello paper that the 2006 win made him 3-3 against BK because he counts his games with Snake River from the 1990s. Some BK partisans grouse about Harrison running up the score in 1996, 1999 and 2006, and the controversy over a Pocatello cheap shot against a Highland star player in 2008 only fed opinions already held.  Will there be fireworks on Friday night at BK?

Blackfoot Broncos – The 2009 state champions have put together a 7-2 record which included only losses to Shelley and to a Canadian team that made the trip to Holt Arena in September (we are trying to find out if the Canadian team got to have 12 players on the field).  Thanks to favorable coin flips the Broncos hosted last week and easily beat a mediocre Jerome squad in a play-in game.  Blackfoot is on the other side of the bracket and the Knights will face them if both teams make the championship.

Shelley Russets – This is the first year in 4A football for the Shelley High School Russets after a dominating presence in 3A where they won four state championships in the past seven years.  The step up does not seemed to have been a problem as Shelley ended up in a three-way tie for first place with Hillcrest and Blackfoot in the High Country Conference.  Last time we saw a team move up a classification and make the playoffs in the first year was…2000 when BK went to 4A and got within a game of the state championship.  Shelly took care of business with its 21-7 win over Minico – on the road.  They will now host Middleton this weekend in Holt Arena.  Whichever team prevails takes on the winner of the Bishop Kelly vs. Pocatello game.

Hillcrest Knights – The team furthest upstream, at the north end of Idaho Falls carries the same mascot name as Bishop Kelly.  Once a doormat squad as recently as 2005, Hillcrest built a program with sustained success, including snaring the state championship trophy in 2008.  In 2009 they won the conference but lost in the semi finals at Sandpoint and missed a chance to play fellow league opponent Blackfoot for the state championship.  Hillcrest managed a 6-2 season with wins over Shelley and Preston, and losses to Blackfoot and 5A Skyline.  When the three-way tie was resolved with coin flips Hillcrest ended up in middle position, getting to host the second place Pocatello last Friday.  Pocatello won 16-14, something that had not happened in several years.   This will remove any confusion over two teams with the Knights as a mascot.

Preston Indians – Finally, we divert south and east from Pocatello over to the Bear River Basin to find the team furthest to the east and south.  BK has faced Preston in the past on the basketball court, but never in football. Many only know this town as the place the film Napolean Dynamite was created. Gosh.  Preston is somewhat of an enigma this season as they lost to Hillcrest by a point, but throttled Pocatello 44-3.  This was good enough for the first position in the Great Basin conference and a chance to host a one-loss Twin Falls team.  The Preston Indians sent Twin Falls back home after a 42-6 beating, as if to say to them:  “What the heck are you guys doin’? Tryin’ to ruin my life and make me look like a freakin’ idiot?”  Preston travels to Blackfoot this Friday night.