RJFL

Anyone who comes by to catch a glimpse of the future of football in this area, will see a few changes this year. RJFL added a second tackle league and will not be broken down as Sr Tackle (5th/6th) Jr Tackle (3rd/4th), Flag (1st/2nd) and Ultimate (PS/K). It should be exciting for the 3rd and 4th graders who, for the past 10 years, have had to play flag; and we think it will better prepare these young kids for the Middle School programs.

The season did kick off on Thursday night with a full slate of games in the Sr. Tackle division. In the first game, it was a rematch of the last game of 2007, the championship game. Both the Packers and Cowboys were preseason favorites coming into this season, but neither team really appeared to have shown up for this contest. The Packers took an early lead when Chance Mathes broke one outside for a 30 yd touchdown. On the ensuing kickoff, however, Tristen White got to the corner and took it to the house to tie the score. In the 3rd quarter, the Cowboys drove it 10 yards, after a Packer turnover, and Jordan Mills pushed in from the 1 yd. line. Other than two perfect passes from Brandon Fullerton to Steve Roenig and Chris Quayle for 31 and 25 yds repectively; there was little offense from either team.

In the night cap "The Ax Man" Mike Axthelm started his coaching debut with a very impressive win over a very good Bears team. Using a lot of counter action to nuetralize the Bears size advantage, the Niners skilled people of Mike Axthelm, Keeton Zancanella, and Zach and Jake Anderson had their way with the Bears building a 24-6 lead after the Bears opened the scoring. The Bears scored late to close the score to 24-12.

The 10th annual Fremont Football Festival was dominated by wind, rain, and Powell. At one point during the morning, league officials had all but canceled the remaining games, but the wind died down and the tournament was completed.

The shorthanded;shortstaffed Riverton teams went 0-4 for the first time in the tournament's history. The Red team lost to Cody 18-0 in their first game then closed out the day with a 13-7 loss to Wind River. The Black team opened with a crushing 40-0 loss to Powell and ended the day with a 20-6 loss to Rawlins. Lander beat Rawlins 7-0 then lost to Cody 22-12. Powell crushed Cody 36-0 to end the tournament.

With culmination of the tackle games last night, the stage is set for the 2007 "tournament week" for RJFL. Here are the times and previews of the games to be played.


TUESDAY NIGHT FLAG CONSOLATION

In the 5:30 game it will be the Raiders (1-4) vs the Ravens (0-5). These teams met back in week 3 with the Raiders getting their only win of the season in a close one.

At 7:00 it will be the Patriots (3-2) vs the Shoshoni Steelers (3-2). The Steelers gave the league leading Jaguars their only loss of the season and feel they were caught a little off guard by the scrappy Patriots in their week 3 game. They would like to see a little redemption in this one.


WEDNESDAY NIGHT TACKLE CONSOLATION:

Things get started at 5:30 with da Bears (2-4) and the Dolphins (1-5). In week for of the season they played to a 14 deadlock in regulation and the difference came down to a 2 point conversion by the Bears in OT. Should be another good one.

Following this game it will be the preseason favorite 49ers (3-3) and the Lander Bulldogs (2-3). After starting the season 0-2 the Bulldogs have been ferocious, putting together 2 impressive wins and falling one chain link away from getting to the league leading Packers last night in a 25-26 loss. They'll try to rebound against a very good and dangerous Niner team.


THURSDAY NIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Things get rolling with the flag championship that pits the Jaguars (4-1) against the Bengals (4-1) The Jags had to defeat the Bengals in the last week of the season to secure the #1 seed. The fur should fly in this cat fight.

At 7:00 it will be the Packers (6-0) defending their title against the Cowboys (5-1). Entering the 2007 season both teams had very few returning kids and lots of questions. They met in a classic shoot out in week 1, with the Packers finally winning 26-25. They both have 5 weeks of play behind them and will play again as veteran teams. Should be interesting.

Also, the Wind River Cougars in their first organized game of the year will travel to Lander to play the Tigers in a 6:30 kickoff

It's been a great season and the best of the best is about to come. Come out and support these future Wolverines, Tigers, Cougars, Wranglers, and Chiefs........

With the regular season in the books, the final RJFL Flag Standings are as follows:

Jaguars 4-1
Bengals 4-1
Patriots 3-2
Steelers 3-2
Raiders 1-4
Ravens 0-5

In head to head play, the Jaguars beat the Bengals and will be the number one seed in the upcoming tournament, and the Patriots defeated the Shoshoni Steelers and will take the 3 seed.

Final Tackle standings won't be known until tonite. The league official(s) are looking into changes to the tournament week originally scheduled. Due to the fact that Monday is a holiday which will be observed by the local schools the tournment may be moved to Tues thru Thurs. Additionally, a suggestion was made that maybe the Tackle and Flag Championship games be played on the same night.

Stay tuned..........

All the coaches involved with games scheduled for tonite have called and postponed tonite's flag action at RJFL. The early game has set a make up time, but he late game has not at this point.


Tackle Standings with 2 weeks remaining

Packers 4-0
Cowboys 3-1
49ers 2-1
Bears 1-2
Dolphins 1-2
Bulldogs 0-2
Tigers 0-3

The big matchup this week will be the preseason favorite 49ers agains the surprising Packers.

With flag games coming aboard and ultimate games to start in the very near future, the RJFL season is getting in full swing.

The Dolphins opened their 2007 season with an 8-6 victory over the Lander Bulldogs, in Lander, on Wednesday night. Thursday night, the Bears went to Lander and clawed their way to an 8-0 win over the Tigers. Coach Earland Thompson said that his defense held the Tigers no gain on 4 tries in the OT session to get the win.

In Riverton, the Cowboys shocked the little RJFL world with a convincing 26-7 win over the preseason favorite 49'ers, who looked very tough in their opening win. In the late game, the Packers scored early and big off of Dolphin turnovers to cruise to a 37-7 win. The Dolphins actually could have pulled to within a touchdown, but couldn't covert from point blank just before halftime. Of note in this game was Logan Hartbank's 3 for 3 effort kicking extra points. It's the first time in RJFL history that a kicker has been 100% on multiple PAT attempts.

The Riverton Jr. Football League kicked off its 26th season with a couple of enjoyable games at the complex on Major's Ave.

The defending league champion Packers squared off against one of the preseason favorites to win the league, the Cowboys, in the opening game. It was all Cowboys early as they opened up a 13-0 lead. The Packers finally got things going when Brandon Fullerton hit Logan Hartbank for a 30 yd touchdown. The Cowboys, behind the running of Triston White, came right back and went up 19-8. But, the Packers closed out this half with a 32 yd t.d. run from Tyler Clementson and another 35 yd hookup between Fullerton and Hartbank to take a 20-19 lead at half. The Packers scored first in the second half on a 15 yd run by Hartbank. The Cowboys answered with another touchdown in the 4th period, but their PAT was no good and the final stood at 26-25, Packers.

In the late game, the preseason favorite 49'ers locked up with the Bears. It was the Bears early, driving to an 8-0 lead; but it was all 49er's after that point; as they rolled to a 24-8 victory.

RJFL will hold the draft for the flag league tonite (8/29) at 7:00 at the rec building on Washington. The local league will feature 5 teams this year with a team also coming in from Shoshoni. The league still has room for about 8 players. We are still looking for coaches for at least one team if anyone is interested.

Tackle schedules are out and can be found here: RJFL Tackle Schedule. We still have room for a few players in the tackle league.

The ultimate league will divide up teams in the next few weeks.

As is always the case, we are looking for people to officiate games. If you like to get yelled at, booed, and questioned, for the wage of a hotdog and a cold drink; this is the place you want to be. However, you would have the satisfaction of knowing that you actually know the rules, as opposed to all the referees on the sideline because we will tutor you with experienced officials that know the rules. If you would like to adventure into the exciting world of striped shirts and knickers give me a call.

Hey everybody; Craig has been talking about this for a couple of months and the great idea has become reality. This should be a kick butt site if all the sports enthusiasts in this town take advantage of it. It should provide the inside and in depth Riverton sports news we currently don't get. So I hope everyone logs on and contributes!!

Just to get the ball rolling; we are currently taking registration for the 26th RJFL season. Wow, that seems unreal, but we just keep rolling along. It is getting a little scary because my brother and I have been involved long enough now, that we're starting to see kids of kids we coached, entering our Ultimate League.

We're off to a great start though, with possibly record numbers in our Tackle League. We had 96 players signed up on draft night and we usually get between 10 and 20 late signees after the draft. It is a little bit scary only because we do not want to exceed 22 players per team because of playing time issues, so that would put us at a limit of 110 as our ideal maximum number. That's not to say that we can't find that 111th kid, and so on, a team to play on, but it does make it a little tough to get all the kids decent playing time.

Soo, yes we are still accepting tackle registrations, as well as flag and ultimate. We will probably hold the flag draft next week, with the ultimate in possibly two weeks.

If this increase in numbers can be sustained; it should increase our chances of competing with the "big boys" in 5A in about 4 years. GO BIG RED!!!