Straughn travels north to Pleasant Grove for first round

Straughn (5-5) will start the Class 4A AHSAA state playoffs with a first-round road matchup at Pleasant Grove (8-1) on Friday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m.

This will be the first-ever matchup between the Tigers and Spartans.

Head Coach Garrett Windham said it is a privilege to be able to play postseason football.

“We are in a position where the team has earned an opportunity to play. Losing such an experienced senior class from 2023, there were a lot of unknowns coming into 2024. This team has fought hard each week to put themselves in this situation, and we’re excited to be playing football another week. We want to maintain the expectation each year of earning the right to play postseason football because it’s such a tough thing to do on a yearly basis. These guys have done a tremendous job this year to get us to this point,” Windham said.

Region 2 fourth seed Straughn enters the playoffs for the 26th time in school history with an overall record of 18-25 and is 11-14 in the first round. Region 4 champion Pleasant Grove makes its 29th appearance with a 34-28 mark and is 15-13 against opening-round opponents.

The Tigers ended the regular season with a hard-fought 33-21 loss at home to Goshen last week.

“Coach (Darrell) LeBeaux has had a ton of success with that program over the years. He and his staff do a great job of getting their guys ready to play. They’ve moved down from 5A to 4A and haven’t missed a beat this year. They have some talented receivers and backfield and play very sound defensive football. We’ll have to control the ball on offense and not get behind the chains to keep their fast-paced offense off the field. It will come down to us playing a sound game and executing at a high level. That is to be expected at this point of the year in playoff football where each week is a tough opponent,” Windham said.

The winner will play St. Michael or Handley in the second round next week.