“Some kids will play out of their minds,” Cibola readies for season finale against Gila Ridge

Cibola looks to bring Yuma City Championship trophy back to the Raider campus

YUMA, Ariz. ( KYMA, KECY-TV ) - After an 0-3 start, the Cibola Raiders football team looks to end the season with a winning record at 6-4. The cherry on top would be ending the season as the Yuma City Champion in the battle of Yuma public schools, with Gila Ridge set to invade Raider Field this Friday night.

"Our start I think had a lot to do with things outside of football," Raider head coach Steven Fritz said. "With the pandemic and everything else, that threw so many challenges at everybody." 

After a slow start, the Raiders have won three games in a row. They'd like to make it four with a win over cross town rival Gila Ridge.

"Anytime your playing a cross time rival, it’s on the calendar right from the beginning," Fritz said. "They’ve been our rival in not just football but all sports. Volleyball and basketball games have huge turnouts. Great student, parent and fan support and I expect it to be wild this Friday night."

After experiencing some great success over the past two years, the Hawks enter the contest 1-8. Fritz says the record doesn't matter.

"Records don’t mean anything, those games are over and done with, you’ll handle all your talking on the field and I’m sure their staff feels the same way about that too," Fritz said. "It usually always comes down to a few kids that aren't as known, aren't the superstars. These kids play out of their minds on these nights and that's the team that usually walks away with the win."

Before losing to Gila Ridge last year, Cibola had won the five previous showdowns. Fritz says none of that matters.

"You can't look at the scoreboard against other teams or common opponents, none of that matters, the only thing that matters is what you do on Friday night," Fritz said. "We’ve tried to prepare our kids all week and we just had a conversation, about making sure we don’t have any distractions, stay off social media, stay focused on the game because that’s all that matters for this week."

Fritz anticipates a packed and rowdy crowd, especially since the current pandemic held so many people away from the rivalry game last year.

"I know the kids will be very excited if we can pull off a W," Fritz said. "Get the trophy back and it'll be nice to be able to do that here at home and I know there will be a lot of excitement on campus I’ll just put it to you that way, but we gotta go out and get it done."

Cibola enters the season finale 5-4 and Gila Ridge arrives 1-8. Kickoff at Raider Field is set for 7:00 p.m. You can catch the highlights on the Varsity Blitz on CBS 13 at 10:20 p.m.