Sorry Mike… but Friday’s Placer-Colfax game will clearly show that this is the year of the Hillmen. What coach Tony Martello was doing in 1996 has no bearing on Friday’s PVL showdown between two teams jockeying for playoff seeding.

Congrats to Martello for adjusting his offensive schemes to this year’s strength: its offensive line and running backs — specifically Pat Rawlins. And therein lies the problem for the Falcons. This is the most one-dimensional football team Colfax has fielded in years. Shut down Rawlins, and the offense comes to a halt.

Defensive coordinator Eric Rodarte has seen, in person, the Falcons play and watched them on film. Coach Rodarte will have his linebackers key Rawlins and shut him down. He will challenge the rest of the Colfax offense to beat the Hillmen defense. By the way, this will be the same defense that held Lincoln to 13 points. Look for Josh Klem and Michael Gray to have huge nights for the Hillmen defense.

Offensively, the Hillmen have too much firepower for the Falcons. Asher Gotzmer, Dalton Dyer, Josh Turney, Cameron Southward, Josh Klem, Collin Burnett — you can’t key them all.

If you attempt to shut down Gotzmer, which every team has attempted to do this year with little success, you leave Dyer and Turney with one-on-one tackling situations. No Falcon can bring down Dyer one-on-one. Burnett has matured into a first-rate quarterback. He will have a field day against a defense that must stack eight people in the box. That leaves only three defenders to cover the field. Burnett will pick apart the Falcon secondary.

Gotzmer and Dyer are too quick for the Falcon secondary. This tandem of running backs will have a decided advantage in space; the Falcon outside linebackers and secondary are not quick enough to stay with these two speedsters.

Comparative scores suggest a Placer victory: Placer 51, Bear River 7; Colfax 31, Bear River 30 (OT). Placer 61, Mesa Verde 13; Colfax 24,Mesa Verde 13.

The rivalry/emotion factor will last for only a few series. I coached on the Hillmen sidelines for almost 20 years, and I saw over and over again that emotion lasts for a very short time. Talent and preparation take over quickly. Placer has too much for the gritty Falcons to handle.

No phone calls to buses heading to a playoff game; no court orders; no finger pointing. LeFebvre Stadium is the only place to be Friday night. These are two outstanding teams, two outstanding coaches and two outstanding programs. It doesn’t get any better than this. The energy and electricity from the stadium will light up our beautiful foothill skies.

Placer 35-Colfax 14