Sierra Grande High School and its undefeated six-man football team are turning into the pride of the San Luis Valley this season.
The Mighty Panthers, as they’re called, extended their 2024 season on Monday with a 50-42 first round Colorado High School state football playoff win over perennial six-man powerhouse Eads High.
Sierra Grande hosted the game, and with fans filling up the stands and the smell of popcorn in the air, seemingly everyone who lives in Fort Garland and Blanca turned out for the Veterans Day high school game at John Roybal Jr. field.
The same can be said in La Jara and Sanford, whose high school football teams also played opening round games on their home fields Monday, and the community spirit that showed up to root on Centauri High and Sanford High.
Sanford escaped with a 20-18 win over Springfield in the 8-man state playoff bracket, while Centauri ended its season with a 33-30 loss to Holyoke in a Class 1A state pairing.
Scenes from the game:
For Sierra Grande, the Panthers ninth victory was sealed in the fourth quarter on a pair of important stops. The first came with 6:54 remaining and the score knotted, 42-42. Eads was comfortable running throughout the game but on a critical fourth down was stopped which gave the football to Sierra Grande.
The Panthers promptly used the opportunity to score on a touchdown pass to Rolando Najera that provided Sierra Grande with the deciding points. A second stop of the Eads team, again on fourth down with 2:23 left to play, sealed the win to advance Sierra Grande to the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs.
Sierra Grande will play Otis High School and Sanford will face Haxtun in a quarterfinal matchups on Saturday, Nov. 16.
Watch the winning touchdown here: