Friday Night (High)lights: Cheney takes program to new heights with win over Mead; University clinches postseason spot

We use this space to keep track of postseason possibilities for the Greater Spokane League. What makes that a challenge is that just about every year we don’t know how many spots will be available until late in the season.

It’s a tricky arrangement due to agreements with the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association and the other 4A/3A league in District 6, the Mid-Columbia Conference.

This week the parties finalized the postseason berths available and while it’s close to what we’ve reported before, there is a tweak – specifically for the 3A division.

The top two teams from the GSL in each of the 4A and 3A classifications advance directly to the Week 10 Round of 32 state playoffs. The third-place team in those classifications will face the MCC third-place teams in a Tuesday play-in game, with the winners advancing to the Round of 32 later that week. The 4A teams will face off in the Tri-Cities, the 3A game will be in Spokane.

As previously reported, the top four GSL 2A teams advance directly to the Round of 32.

With that, let’s take a closer look at what happened around the GSL in Week 7.

Going 1-0

Cheney hadn’t won more than two league games in a season since rejoining the GSL in 2021. With Friday’s 23-14 win over Mead, it has now equaled its number of league wins in the last three years combined. It’s hard to call it an upset, since the Blackhawks came into the game with one loss, but it feels like a seismic shift for the program.

“Every week’s kind of monumental, but our mentality right now is we’re 1-0,” Cheney coach John Graham said after the win. “We’re going 1-0 this week. We’re focused on this week. It’s going to be cool to look back on, but we’ve got work to do next week.”

Next week, the Blackhawks host University – the league’s other feel-good story this season – before finishing the campaign at Mt. Spokane in what could be a battle for the top 3A seed to the Week 10 Round of 32.

Titans clinch

With its 27-14 win over Ridgeline, University clinched at least the third GSL 3A seed to the postseason. It’s a huge jump from last year’s 1-8 finish in coach Joe Ireland’s second season with the team.

The Titans are led by sophomore running back Toby Thornburg, who carried 33 times for 154 yards with two TDs in Friday’s game. His 111 rushing attempts leads the league, and at 568 rushing yards he’s just five yards behind Mead’s Max Faagau for the league lead.

U-Hi has a tall task to claim a higher seed and avoid the Tuesday play-in – they play at Cheney this week before hosting undefeated Gonzaga Prep. But they’ll do that confidently, they will appear in a meaningful game in Week 10.

Date with destiny

Not that it needed any help, but undefeated Gonzaga Prep got a boost from Cheney’s big win over Mead. Combined with the Bullpups’ 49-7 win over Central Valley, Mead’s loss gives G-Prep a two-game lead in the 4A race with two to play, including this week’s showdown against the Panthers.

Mead would have to win out, and G-Prep lose its last two, for the Panthers to take the first 4A seed away from the Bullpups.

It also solidifies Gonzaga Prep’s bid for its third consecutive league title. The Bullpups need to only win one in their last two games. Mead has two losses, and either Cheney or Mt. Spokane will pick up at least one more, leaving only one one-loss team possible outside of the Bullpups. G-Prep has wins over Cheney and Mt. Spokane for the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Friday also marked the sixth anniversary of the Bullpups’ last league loss, a 34-0 shutout to Ferris on Oct. 17, 2019.

Muddled mess

The GSL 2A division is so muddled with two weeks to go it’s difficult to evaluate the playoff possibilities. Outside of undefeated West Valley and winless Clarkston, the rest of the five teams are all taking turns beating each other on a weekly basis – and only three of those five will join WV and advance to the postseason.

East Valley sits a game behind first at 3-1, while four teams own two league wins with two games to play. The Knights control their destiny with games against Rogers and West Valley to end the season – but that’s no easy task.

Every game left on the 2A schedule has playoff implications.