GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) – It is the point of the high school football season where we are separating the pretenders from the contenders, with a fresh batch of games on the Western Slope, and across the state.
At Stocker Stadium, the Palisade Bulldogs and Central Warriors met to battle for the WarDog Trophy. Both teams came into this game looking to rebound after road losses the previous week. Palisade have not had success against their rivals in recent history, with the Warriors holding the WarDog since 2019. Palisade was the road team in this game but the Bulldogs were undefeated at Stocker Stadium entering play Friday. The game was also Central’s homecoming game, but Palisade crashed the party. The Bulldogs run game looked as effective as ever marching down to score a rushing touchdown with Cade Carter, paired with a Nathan Umberger pick six to put Palisade up 14-0 quickly. Central scored their first points off the leg of River Westcott to make things 14-3, but they could not find an answer for the Bulldogs run game. Palisade ran away with this game, and ran up the score late to take home the WarDog Trophy 35-3.
The North Fork miners took on the Gunnison Cowboys for their homecoming game in Hotchkiss, and things got started off early. An early Miners safety put North Fork up 2-0, and then from the one-yard line, junior Braeden Flores uses the old QB sneak. He calls his own number and North Fork goes up 9-0…