Rigby rushes for 293 yards, powering its way to another 6A championship

POCATELLO — The Rigby Trojan run game proved over and over this season to be too much for any and all comers.

Amani Morel, Kue Kofe and the Trojan offense set that statement in stone Saturday at Idaho State University’s ICCU Dome, rushing for nearly 300 yards in a dominant victory over the Timberline Wolves (10-2) to claim a second straight state title, and fifth banner in seven years.

Morel, who was a workhorse for the Trojans (11-1) all season, did yeoman’s work again. But when he went down with an apparent leg injury in the third quarter, his backup, Kofe, stepped in and kept the Rigby offense rumbling. Behind an offense that averaged nearly six yards per carry — despite a pair of big losses on sacks — and a defensive gem, which included a Cannon Korth pick-six, Rigby rolled to a 41-6 win.

Head coach Armando Gonzalez, who has led Rigby to all five of those titles, is normally critical of his team and quick to point out the little things that went wrong. Aside from leaving some points on the board in the first half, though, Gonzalez had nothing but good things to say about his squad’s performance.

“This was probably one of the most dominant performances, in the end, of any of our state championship teams,” he told EastIdahoSports.com after the game.

Rigby went for it and failed on fourth down twice in the first half. And, with Morel’s 17 carries for 107 yards and two touchdowns, serving as the extent of the offense through 24 minutes of play, the Trojans went into the halftime break clinging to a 14-0 advantage.

“We let them hang around,” Gonzalez said. “You can’t do that to a dangerous team like that — man, they have some players.”

Looking to seize momentum out of the break, Timberline attempted a sneak-attack onside kick to start the third. But Rigby recovered, giving themselves a short field.

Gonzalez said he prepared his team for a potential onside kick in the locker room, noting that the title game is the time when teams have to push their chips to the center of the table — like he did going for it on fourth down twice.

“You’ve got to take those risks in state championship games,” he said. “We’re always going to be aggressive. If we go down, we’re going to go down being aggressive.”

The Trojans needed just eight plays, around three minutes, to get back into the endzone and claim all the momentum. Scoring in the overpowering way they did, pounding the rock to set up a 20-yard scoring pass from senior quarterback Jacob Flowers to junior Evan Freeman, Gonzalez said, was “critical.”

“(Timberline) didn’t have much fight left after that,” he added.

Rigby’s defense turned the Wolves away again, then the offense added to their growing lead on a nine-yard touchdown pass from Flowers to Korth.

When Timberline got the ball back, and after the third quarter rolled into the fourth, Korth added another nail to the coffin of the Wolves’ title aspirations, picking off the Hudson Lewis pass and streaking 40 yards to the endzone.

Flowers said that there is no feeling like seeing his defense put points on the board.

“There’s no feeling like being on the sideline and watching film, and knowing you don’t have to go back on the field because the defense just scored. That’s the greatest feeling ever,” he said.

Asked if he ever finds himself being thankful he doesn’t have to figure out a way to score on his own defense, Flower laughed, saying the thought has crossed his mind. He went on to say that facing the Trojan defense every day at practice has definitely served as a benefit for his offensive unit.

According to Korth, the feeling is mutual. There are times, he said, when he is not on the field for offensive snaps, when he counts his lucky stars that he doesn’t have to chase Freeman or try to tackle Morel.

“We have to go against them in practice every day, so it’s nice to see the other teams have to deal with it,” he said with a chuckle.

Flowers finished the game with 52 rushing yards on 14 carries, to go with 90 yards and two scores passing. Korth caught one pass for nine yards and a score, ran for six yards on his only carry and intercepted a pair of Timberline passes, including the pick-six.

Morel had to be helped off the field in the third, after being twisted down to ground at the end of a seven-yard run. He would return, but while he was out, Kofe, the junior, piled up 86 yards on his nine carries.

Six different Trojans finished the game with at least one carry, and all of them recorded positive yardage. None put together more than Morel, though, who finished with 142 yards on 19 carries.

Timberline, who was without star quarterback Jack Brant, was forced to move Lewis, their star wide receiver, into Brant’s spot. And though he struggled throwing the ball, the three-star Oregon-commit, was on the receiving end of the Wolves’ lone score, with 1:46 left in the game.

Flowers said he is excited to be part of back-to-back state championships, but in the grand scheme of things, he noted that it means little if the 2026 team cannot continue the tradition of success.

The key for the juniors and sophomores, he said, is to focus on the process and preparation that leads to Rigby’s success, rather than the games that prove that success.

“We’ve gone back-to-back, and our juniors need to understand that it wouldn’t happen without all the preparation we do from January to now,” he said.

Korth echoed that sentiment, saying that Rigby relies on a three-pronged approach to success — win the conference, beat “that team up north” (Madison), and win the district. From there, the senior said, Rigby believes the path to a title game will be laid before them.

Gonzalez said the same, noting that when the players reconvene in January, before they begin work in February, he explains to them that anyone unwilling to work nonstop from February to the end of November isn’t cut out to be a Trojan.

“We’re all exhausted. We are mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. It’s a long, grueling process,” he said. “That’s the standard we’ve set, there’s no turning back now.”

That proof of that standard is in the pudding, as Rigby is once again the champion of Idaho high school football. And behind Freeman, Kofe, nose tackle Irie Adolpho and the rest of this year’s juniors, they expect to do it again next year.