Middle school county rivalry alive

RBC I The middle school football teams from Meeker and Rangely completed their seasons on a morning that felt like football season. The temperature was in the mid-30s and the wind was blowing, but the chill didn’t stop the kids from playing hard as Meeker’s seventh and eighth grade boys defeated the Panthers in Rangely.
The seventh-grade team, led by quarterback/kicker/linebacker Logan Hughes, had an outstanding team effort with tough offensive blocking from the line and a team defense that was extremely tough. Jake Pelloni had another hard-hitting game, along with several other defensive players for Meeker.
The Rangely team is preparing for the eight-man format when they get to high school and their limited number of kids certainly played a part as they played the eighth grade game with several players from the seventh grade team.
In their first meeting, the Panthers would play eight-man offense and 11-man defense but this time they played 11-man on both sides of the ball and the extra men proved very beneficial to the Meeker team. An outstanding team effort by the eighth-grade boys, including a catch by Tell Blanke, a touchdown run by Hunter Garcia, and several defensive plays by the entire team gave the Cowboys the win to end their season.
The coaches were very proud of the effort the athletes put in and their improvement was evident. The option is a hard offense to run at any level and Meeker certainly showed it was possible, and they backed their offense up with tenacious team defense. Congratulations to both Meeker and Rangely teams for outstanding seasons. Good luck moving on to the next sport.