With the 1A football state tournament hitting full stride this Saturday, top-ranked Rich is an overwhelming favorite to walk away with the school's fifth state championship and its first since 2002.

A handful of opposing coaches stopped just short of saying it will take a perfect effort to beat the Rebels.

"There's no question that they're playing really well. In order to beat them, you have to play a turnover-free game and be fundamentally and assignment sound," said Monticello coach Jake Downard. "It's going to take a great effort to beat them."

Downard doesn't have to worry about that right now. His Buckaroos are preparing for a different challenge when they face Duchesne at 10:30 a.m. at Snow College this Saturday in the 1A semifinals. Duchesne already beat Monticello 38-6 earlier this year.

Altamont's the unlucky foe that has to deal with Rich this weekend in the 1 p.m. semifinal game at Snow College.

"The way we're looking at it, we've got nothing to lose. Rich is heavily favored and deservedly so," said Altamont coach Mick Fieldsted. "I don't necessarily think it will take a perfect effort, but you have to play mistake-free."

Even a near-perfect effort might not be good enough. Rich has been so dominant this season in outscoring its opponents by an average of 33.9 points — including a 52-14 win over Altamont on Sept. 25.

The winners advance to the 1A championship at Alta High School on Saturday, Nov. 14.

Undefeated Rich is the team everyone expects to be there, but Rebels coach Ashley Brown is trying to keep his kids focused.

"You just hope they don't overlook somebody and you play it one game at a time. You just convince them that they need to continually work hard at the end of the season," said Brown.

With great senior leadership from Bradley Holmes and Caden Anderson, it's unlikely Rich will be overlooking anybody.

In this weekend's rematches of earlier blowouts, turnovers will be key. Altamont turned it over four times in the first half in the previous meeting against Rich and quickly fell behind by a margin that reached 46-0 by halftime.

Duchesne dominated the line of scrimmage in its previous meeting with Monticello, a loss Downard called the worst of the season for the Buckaroos. His team was nowhere near healthy in that game, as the flu decimated his squad, but after a first-round playoff bye last weekend, Monticello is healthy and anxious for the rematch.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com