Eagle knocks off two-time defending Class 5A champion Rigby, 17-14
EAGLE, Idaho - Eagle High School came into this season with a long list of goals.
Beat Meridian. Check.
Defeat Rocky Mountain for the first time in seven years. Check.
And win the first 5A Southern Idaho Conference title since 2016. Check.
But on Friday night, the Mustangs crossed off their biggest one to date by ending the two-year championship reign of Rigby in a 17-14 Class 5A state quarterfinal win at Thunder Stadium.
The Trojans (6-5) beat them 37-6 in the exact same setting a year ago on their way to a third state championship in four seasons.
Eagle (10-0) will host Coeur d’Alene (8-2) next week in the state semifinals.
“It was actually the theme all week. We talked about flipping the script and taking the program to the next level,” Eagle coach James Cluphf said. “Rigby put us out three out of the last four years. They’re the cream of the crop. And we talked about us being the team that had to take them out.
“We did it and it’s definitely a monkey off our back.”
The objective nearly remained unchecked, though.
Eagle had let a double-digit first-half lead slip away and trailed 14-10 with 61/2 minutes to go. It had just been stopped a yard short of a first down at the Rigby 11-yard line.
The ball was now back in the hands of Trojans senior quarterback Luke Flowers. The reigning Class 5A player of the year and University of Montana commit was looking to salt the game away with another one of his patented third-and-long conversions. However, Aaron Zrno had other ideas.
The junior defensive back stepped in front of an errant, high pass and returned it all the way to the Rigby 8.
Two plays later, sophomore running back Noah Burnham gave the Mustangs the lead back on a 1-yard touchdown run with 4:47 to go.
“It was great. First pick of the season too,” Zrno said. “I’ve been waiting for it.”
However, Flowers and company would get one last shot at it. And this time, he methodically marched them down the field. Rigby had the ball inside the Eagle 40.
But like most of the night, the Mustangs' defense once again had an answer. And this time it came from one of their leaders.
Eli Mikita dashed the Trojans’ hopes of forcing overtime or pulling off a game-winning touchdown. The senior defensive back read the eyes of Flowers and beat Kade Steffler to the jump ball for the game-sealing interception with 1:32 to go.
Mikita watched his older brother, Ethan, who is now at Boise State, lose to Rigby in 2020, before experiencing the pain himself last season.
“It felt great to finally finish and beat Rigby in a playoff game,” Mikita said. “To make one of the key plays feels amazing.
“I didn’t know what to think. I couldn’t control myself.”
The Mustangs led 10-0 at the break after holding the high-powered Trojan offense to just 43 yards of total offense. Rigby had averaged nearly 40 points per game over its last six games and was 5-1 during that span.
Eagle capitalized with a 58-yard touchdown pass from Davis Harin to Makeo Sneddon at the end of the first quarter. It then tacked on a 27-yard field goal from Lucas Bookholdt in the closing seconds of the second.
But Rigby finally got its offense going in the second half.
Flowers put the Trojans on the board with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Koen Peck less than four minutes into the third. He then gave them their first lead on a 14-yard touchdown pass to Steffler with 1:14 remaining in the quarter. It capped a 12-play, 80-yard drive that took 5:58.
Rigby was looking to bleed off the rest of the clock off in the fourth before the late-game heroics of the Eagle defense.
“I don’t know if anything shocks me anymore with this group,” Cluphf said. “It seems like every week, it’s a new way of doing it. It’s unbelievable what the kids do to pull these things off.
“You got the two-time defending champs that have the ball late like that, and our kids don’t care.”
Burnham recorded another 100-yard game with 112 yards and what proved to be the game-winning score. Sneddon had three catches for 98 yards and the touchdown for the Mustangs, who will play the Vikings for the first time since 2021 next Friday.
“Everything we have in our locker room is all we need,” Zrno said. “We don’t need to worry about who we play. It’s about us.”
