Prep football: League races heat up across the region

We’re at the midway point of the season and league races are starting to come into focus. Let’s take a look across Eastern Washington and North Idaho at the standings and potential key matchups the rest of the way.

Greater Spokane 4A

Gonzaga Prep and Central Valley have each taken a couple of early shots. With no one looking unstoppable, everything’s up for grabs.

Lewis and Clark (5-0, 3-0), ranked No. 7 in state by the Associated Press, and Mead (4-1, 2-0) have the early lead. LC, which has an advantage over everyone with a win in its pocket over CV (3-2, 0-1), finishes the regular season against Mead and G-Prep (3-2, 1-0) in successive weeks.

CV looks to have its offense back on track and battles the G-Prep Bullpups – who were shut out by injured Mt. Spokane last week – on Friday at Albi in what amounts to a must-win situation for both teams in Week 6.

Greater Spokane 3A

League play in the four-way round robin doesn’t start for another week, but that won’t stop us from already declaring Mt. Spokane the clear favorite to claim the top 3A seed. Even missing its two top quarterbacks and top rusher, there just isn’t a team in the league that can match up with the Wildcats’ backups.

Great Northern 2A

A three-way race between No. 7 West Valley (4-1, 1-0), No. 8 Cheney (5-0) and unranked Pullman (4-1, 1-0). WV’s Eagles have work to do if they want to avenge a loss in the semifinal round at state last season.

Northeast 1A

Newport (4-0, 2-0) is ranked sixth in state and has a date with Colville (3-2, 2-0) in two weeks, which should be a matchup of two still-unbeaten teams.

Northeast 2B

Eighth-ranked Reardan (4-1, 1-0) won a big one over No. 9 Asotin (3-2, 0-1) last week in the South Division. Its toughest test left is against Colfax (3-2, 1-0) on Oct. 19. All-state RB Silas Perreiah leads No. 6 Northwest Christian (4-1, 0-0) in the North, which could get a game from Wilbur-Creston (4-1, 0-1) on Oct. 12.

Northeast 1B

Tekoa-Rosalia (4-1, 3-0) looks to be the class of the North Division, but Selkirk (3-1, 3-1) will try to play spoiler in its contest on Friday. Almira/Coulee-Hartline (5-0, 3-0) plays Odessa (5-0, 3-0) this week for the South Division title in a battle of the state’s No. 1 and No. 2 teams.

Southeast 1B

Garfield-Palouse (5-0), No. 3 in state, has a matchup against Sunnyside Christian (4-1) on Oct. 12 which should decide the league title.

Idaho

Coeur d’Alene (5-0), fresh off its dismantling of previously No. 1 Highland, faces Lewiston this week in what could be its toughest 5A league matchup.

St. Maries (6-1) and Grangeville (6-0) are both ranked in state 2A and face each other on Friday.