East Upsets Natrona 24-19 In The Semifinals

The Cheyenne East Thunderbirds pulled the upset Friday night in the 4A football semifinals over Natrona 24-19. The T-Birds (7-4) avenged a regular season 26-3 loss back on Sept. 30th to the Mustangs.

The Mustangs end the season 10-1 and snaps their 13-game win streak dating back to last year's state championship run.

The East defense was able to shut down Natrona for the most part thoughout the game. The Mustangs also committed three turnovers, one interception and two fumbles, one that led to an East second quarter touchdown.

East got on the board first with a Trevon Hinker to Cameron Jaure 80-yard touchdown in the first quarter. Natrona tied it in the first with a 49-yard touchdown run by Tom Myler.

On the first play in the second quarter on a half back pass, Easts' Tevis Bartlett hooked up with Cameron Johnson for 37 yards. later in the quarter East would recover a fumbled punt by Natrona's Josh Flanigan on the 15 yard line and three plays later Hayes Stone would run it in from 1-yard out to give East a 21-7 lead. Natrona would cut it to 21-10 at half with a 46-yard field goal from Taylor King.

The second half the Natrona defense was able to hold East to just 84 yards, but only came up with a field goal by King in the third quarter of 43 yards to get within 21-13. East would add a fourth quarter field goal by Trey Herrera of 23 yards to give the T-Birds a 24-13 lead. The Mustangs would then take the enusing kickoff with 3:30 left and drive 87 yards on 14 plays and score on a Cody Vollmar to Camillo Martinez 16-yard touchdown. But the two-point conversion was no good to make it 24-19. Natrona's on-side kick was recovered by East and they were able to run the clock out.

East quarterback Trevon Hinker passing wise was 6 of 16 for 131 yards and one touchdown. Jeremy Woods rushed the ball lfor 87 yards on 21 carries. East had 279 total yards. Natrona had 300 yards with 187 passing yards, 161 of those in the second half. Vollmar was 14 of 31 for 185 yards. Myler rushed for 71 yards on 12 carries.