A Look Back at Connell's State Championship Game

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By Keith Leventhal

Story Published: Dec 7, 2009 at 10:54 PM PST

The high school football season wrapped up on Friday and Saturday...and our area is now home to a couple of new trophies.

We start with Saturday's 1A title game.

Both Connell and Cascade Christian came into the game with identical 13-0 records...but once the game got started, it was easy to see that the Eagles were the better team.

Quarterback Nate Martinez had a great day, throwing for 186 yards and 3 touchdowns.

2 of those touchdowns went to Shane Didier, while the other went to Matt Hadley, who also had 100 yards rushing.

And, as if that wasn't enough, the Connell defense held Cascade Christian to 200 total yards in the game...and that's why the Eagles won the 1A state title, beating the Cougars 28-7.

After the game, the Eagles talked about how close this team is.

Connell sophomore RB/S Matt Hadley says, "Its so much fun, especially being with this group of guys, my sophomore and junior class, man, there's no greater feeling knowing that we have good enough athletes to be able to come back and win it again."

Connell head coach Wayne Riner adds, "It is the best unified team we've ever had, I mean, these guys are a band of brothers and they, I never seen a team stick together like this team right here and that's the fun of coaching right there. This team has never gotten in trouble, they always do what we taught, and they're just a good group of boys."

This is the Eagles first 1A state title in school history...they had been 0-3 in the 1A championship game before this week.

Its also their 2nd title overall...they won the 2A state championship back in 2002.