Pine Bluffs Survives Shoshoni for 1A 9-Man Championship

Pine Bluffs and Shoshoni kicked off the 1A 9-Man regular season with Pine Bluffs winning on the road 34-26. They met again in the State Championship game on Saturday in Laramie and it was another compelling game.

Each team scored once in the opening quarter as Dalton Schaefer reeled off a 61-yard run to the end zone for Pine Bluffs and Pehton Truempler answered with a 1-yard plunge for Shoshoni so it was 7 all after one.

In the 2nd quarter, Schaefer scored again from 13 yards out and he finished with 182 yards rushing on the day. The Wranglers responded with a pair of touchdown passes from Alex Mills to Dom Jarvis that covered 70 yards and 5 yards respectively giving Shoshoni a 20-13 lead at the halftime intermission.

Pine Bluffs owned the 3rd quarter as Stu Lerwick found Ryan Fornstrom for a touchdown connection that covered 77 yards and Tayler Beeken rumbled into the end zone from 13 yards out so the Hornets had a 23-20 advantage after 3 quarters of play.

The teams traded touchdowns in the 4th quarter with Truempler scoring for Shoshoni on a 5-yard run and Schaefer tallied his 3rd TD of the game as he ran it in from the 13. Truempler by the way had 176 yards on the ground for the afternoon. Shoshoni's last chance play was certainly exciting as Mills completed a pass to Cannon Campbell for a pickup of 41 before being dragged down at the 19 to end the game.

Pine Bluffs wins it 33-27 for their first state title since 2017. Shoshoni finished the year at 9-2. We have a video to share with you from Saturday afternoon at War Memorial Stadium and a collection of photos from Bridget Truempler. Enjoy!