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Home > Archive > Oct 19, 2006

By D. Gary Webb
Sports Editor
It’s crunch time, and as always the St. George schools are the ones doing the crunching.
  It’s the final week of the Region 9 football season, and while Snow Canyon is guaranteed a spot in the playoffs all three teams have a lot to win or lose on Friday night.

  Pick either of the two games, Dixie at Snow Canyon or Hurricane at Pine View, both start at 7 p.m., and you won’t be disappointed.

  What are the ramifications for each team? We could be here for a while, but basically it’s this:
  If Snow Canyon wins it clinches both the region title and the top seed. If the Warriors loose it depends on what happens in Cedar City, but either way Snow Canyon is playoff bound.
  Dixie can punch its own ticket by beating Snow Canyon. A 3-2 mark is an invitation to the first two rounds on the road, but at least they make the playoffs.

  The Flyers are bunched up with Hurricane and Pine View for third place at the moment, all coming into the final week with 2-2 records. They can’t all win, and they can’t all lose, so somebody will either player their way in or out of post season Friday night.   The winner of the Hurricane/Pine View game is in, along with Dixie if it wins, or here we go!

  A team can change seeds with a coin toss, but must win or be ousted from the playoffs on the field. You can bet a lot of cell phones are going to be getting used during those two games.

*In volleyball the Warriors came into the week undefeated in region play and will make the trip to Utah Valley no matter what happens this week.

  A pair of wins against Pine View (Tuesday) and second-place Hurricane tonight (7 p.m., Snow Canyon High) would assure Snow Canyon of the top spot from Region 9.

  Dixie must beat Hurricane on Tuesday before facing Canyon View tonight if the Flyers are to climb into the second seed position, and Pine
View takes on the Warriors Tuesday before finishing the regular season at Cedar City.
  Snow Canyon, Dixie, Pine View and Hurricane will be the four region teams to go to state, so all that is left is scrambling for position.

*Cross country will be finished by the time this issue is delivered to your mailbox, and while we’ll review the state meet next week you should already know the results. Several area runners had outstanding races at the Region 9 meet, and you can find their comments on that event elsewhere in this issue, and our three Athletes of the Week are runners.

  By the way, a special note should be tacked onto Snow Canyon senior Brandon Wignall for making the All-Academic All-state team. After placing in the top-10 in almost every region race this year, Wignall dropped to No. 12 at region, and since the Warriors didn’t make it as a team he didn’t get to run at state.

  It was a pleasure to visit with Wignall and his mother, as it was with Rodney Warr’s family and the Goold’s, and that is one of the reasons I love covering high school sports. These, and all our Athlete’s of the Week are wonderful, quality people, and I consider it a pleasure and a treat to work with them.

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