Box Elder remained unbeaten on the 2024 football season, coming back to best Hot Springs in the semifinal round of 6-man playoff football over the weekend. New Media Broadcasters broke the contest down with head coach Thomas Dilworth, who shared how the adversity early on motivated the team to get the win for a fallen teammate.
“We started the game really well and then (star receiver) Tracen (Jilot) went down,” Dilworth said. “I think a lot of the kids really thought that it would be the end of the season.”
“Anytime you lose a player like Tracen, it’s kind of hard to recover from that,” Dilworth continued. “We mentally checked out a little bit for a couple of quarters.”
“Then, we regrouped a little bit there at halftime, came out in the third quarter and noticed some things and then we made some adjustments,” Dilworth said. “(We gave quarterback) Tuarie (Stiffarm-Rosette) some time. It was just a great day for him (throwing eight touchdown passes).”
The Bears are into the final showdown, journeying for a five-hour bus ride to Bridger to face the Scouts. Coach Dilworth is still looking to be in business as usual and offered a way for his defense to step up when it matters most against a dynamic offense that Bridger runs.
“Bridger has definitely evolved since that game with DGSG (their last loss in week 2),” Dilworth said. “They had some injuries in that game. They weren’t at full steam there.”
“I think we’ve seen Bridger just really turn it on these last three weeks,” Dilworth continued. “They’ve got a heck of an offense with that Gage Goltz. We’ve kind of struggled to contain running quarterbacks like that.”
“If we can figure that out this week and figure out how to contain (Goltz), I think we have a really good chance,” Dilworth said.
Box Elder (10-0) and Bridger (11-1) will face off for the MHSA 6-man state football playoff championship game on Saturday. Kickoff is at 1pm from Bridger.
