For the second week in a row, the Summit High School football team will gain a win without ever stepping foot on the field. 

Last week Summit became 8-1 after Battle Mountain High School forfeited its game against the Tigers, and this week Eagle Valley forfeited its scheduled home game on Friday, Nov. 4.

Summit head coach James Wagner said that Eagle Valley decided to end its season early and start looking toward next year. The Eagle Valley Devils were 1-7 on the season before deciding to forfeit to the Tigers.

With the forfeit, Summit will end the regular season with an overall record of 9-1 and 4-1 in league play. 

“The forfeit counts the same as a win,” Wagner said. “It hurt us because (the playoffs) are based on a whole bunch of different things and one of those things is opponent win percentage. No matter what, we were going to get hurt by playing (Eagle Valley and Battle Mountain) just because their record is bad.”  

As of Friday night, Summit was ranked seventh in the 3A football rankings which should be good enough to earn them a spot in the 3A state football playoffs for the first time in over 14 years. Additionally, Summit is ranked second in the 3A League 3 rankings behind Durango, a team the Tigers lost to back in October.

Summit will find out where it will be seeded in the 16-team playoff on Sunday afternoon. As the rankings stand right now, Summit has a chance at hosting a home playoff game. The top eight teams in the classification host the first round of the playoffs.

Although Summit has not played a game since its win over Glenwood Springs on senior night, Oct. 21, Wagner is confident that the team is doing everything it can to stay game ready.

“It is tough,” Wagner said. “You can’t stimulate a game, really. The kids are hungry, I know that. The kids are chomping at the bit to play in a game, so I know their motivation is there. We are running our drills basically at 95%, so we are going hard and keeping the energy up.”