What else would Levi Kramer rather be doing in November?
“This is why we do it, why you play, why you lift all the weights, watch film . . . I love this time of year, it’s the fun time of year,” the Wray coach said.
He may love it even more this season as the top-ranked Eagles also earned Class 1A’s top postseason seed among 16 qualifiers.
Wray, in winning the North Central League and finishing the regular season at 9-0, piled up victories over four other playoff teams — perennial challenger Akron, Burlington, Wiggins and defending state champion Yuma. And the Eagles did it by offering about as balanced an offense as there is in the classification. Senior Brett Vlasin at the controls has proven fruitful.
“He has been making amazing decisions,” Kramer said. “We set a high goal for him of 60 percent completions and he’s right at 61.”
Vlasin has rolled to 21 touchdown passes and only two interceptions, which, Kramer said, “keeps defenses from getting in a comfort zone and putting eight or nine people in the box against us” in a traditionally rush-oriented class.
Defensively, the Eagles have given up more than two scores only three times. Their one gray area has been special teams — they’ve been hit for four touchdowns on returns.
Wray will open at home against Rocky Ford. Limon, Hayden, Monte Vista, Paonia and Rye round out the top half of the bracket.
Second-seeded Hotchkiss, which will begin preliminaries against Lutheran (Parker), rules a bottom half that includes Byers, Lyons, John Mall and Strasburg.
Neil Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
First round
Saturday, 1 p.m.
(16) Rocky Ford (6-3) at (1) Wray (9-0)
(9) Hayden (5-4) at (8) Monte Vista (7-2)
(13) Yuma (6-3) at (4) Limon (8-1)
(12) Paonia (4-5) at (5) Rye (8-1)
(14) Wiggins (4-5) at (3) Burlington (8-1)
(11) John Mall (6-3) vs. (6) Byers (7-2) at Strasburg High School
(10) Akron (6-3) at (7) Lyons (7-2)
(15) Lutheran (Parker) (6-3) at (2) Hotchkiss (8-1)
