The Panther Undefeated Season Ends in Pine Bluffs

For most of their season, the Saratoga Panthers had defied expectations.

On their third coach in three years, the Panthers secured a win over Lusk for the first time since 2004. They followed that up with their third win in three years over the Wright Panthers, this time with a double-digit lead. Last year, they felled Wright 6-0 and the year before they won 4-0. It’s been history in the making for both Saratoga Panthers fans and high school football fans.

As was noted by Patrick Schmiedt of wyoming-football.com, this has been the best season for Saratoga in decades. In 2003, the Panthers had an undefeated start to their season and the last time they saw an undefeated season was in 1982.

On October 11, the Panthers faced one of the other undefeated teams in the 1A 9-Man East Conference as they were hosted by the Pine Bluffs Hornets. In a game where someone would come out with their streak broken, Saratoga felt the sting of the Hornets as they fell 63-7 to Pine Bluffs.

The Saratoga team, trying to keep up their undefeated season, could not stop the passing and rushing game of the No. 2 team in the conference. Pine Bluffs put up 167 passing yards versus 49 passing yards for Saratoga and 2 Saratoga thrown interceptions.

"We learned that we can't make mistakes against excellent teams like Pine Bluffs as they know how to take advantage of those and convert them into quick points," said Head Coach Jared Mason.

Pine Bluffs racked up 6 rushing touchdowns, 2 passing touchdowns and 1 interception return in the massive scoring clinic.

The lone Panther touchdown occurred in the 4th quarter with Hazen Williams completing a touchdown with a 1 yard rush.

Following their loss to the Hornets, the Saratoga Panthers are still holding onto their No. 3 spot with a 5-1 season record and a 3-1 conference record.

'We took some bumps and bruises, but I was pleased with our guys' "no quit" effort. I'm confident that we will learn and grow from the experience," said Mason.

Saratoga will have a chance at redemption in their next conference game as they host the Southeast Cyclones (4-2, 2-2) for homecoming.

The Panthers will face-off against the Cyclones beginning at 6 p.m. on October 18.