LARAMIE — The MVHS Buffalo football team returned home last Saturday night without the 2A championship trophy, but the team returned as champions due to their run on the field and the guys’ accomplishments on-and-off the field.

Although the outcome was different than what the team would have liked, the Buffalos excelled throughout the season, only suffering a non-conference loss in their first game of the season. The Buffalos finished the regular season with a 9-1 record. According to head coach Brent Walk prior to the trip to Laramie, they had gotten better and tougher each week. Walk attributed this to the team’s can-do attitude and their determination to put in the effort to improve.

In addition, Walk had previously said, the team had worked hard in the off-season to become the team they were headed into the final bout for the championship. Walk had also said, the Buffalo Bison would be the best team the MVHS Buffalos had faced on the field all year.

The Buffalo Bison were predicted to be a team to beat when the season opened as the Bison dropped from 3A to 2A this year. The Bison also stepped on the turf in Laramie with a 9-1 record having lost their first game of the season against 3A Douglas.

The MVHS Buffalos earned their trip to Laramie by shutting out Thermopolis and also shutting down the Glenrock Herders, a team, which Walk said, was a “very good team.”

In reference to the championship game last Saturday, Walk said, everything that could have gone wrong for the Buffs in the first half, went wrong. Tuesday afternoon Walk said he was still trying to “wrap my head around it.” He continued by saying, “We were beaten by a better team on this particular day,” and the credit went to Buffalo. Walk also said it was “frustrating” to see the problems the Buffs encountered, but said, “It is what it is. It can’t be changed.”

When vying for a championship and all the prelims are finished, two teams meet head-to-head on the turf to see who takes the win. And this time, the Buffalo Bison took the win over the MVHS Buffs, 43-18. The score was fairly lopsided and the Bison seemed to move the ball more in the first half putting the MVHS Buffs in a hole in which they couldn’t climb out.

The MVHS Buffs came out in the second half and moved to make a difference. Madsen was back in as quarterback. The Buffs put up the three unanswered TDs, but weren’t able to put the icing on the cake as they missed the three 2-point conversions. Some other problems cropped up with the incomplete passes and the runners being brought down. However, the yardage deficit the Buffs incurred in the first half faded as the Buffs were able to hold the offense in front. The Buffs racked up enough yardage to gain the upper hand on the total yardage of the game and held the Bison to 70 yards in the second half. As for the total yardage, Buffalo ended with 461 versus Mountain View at 482.

A final touchdown by the Bison closed out the score at 43-18, with Bison taking the 2A football championship.

Mountain View will have nine returning players on both the offensive and defensive sides. It will lose four seniors – Colby Rees, Tyson Condos, Celton Perry and Clay Benedict. – which includes two starters.