The Moscow Bears are the reigning 4A Intermountain League football champions and looking to repeat this accomplishment in 2025 \u2014 their second season in their new conference.<\/p>\n
During the first two years under coach Rob Bafus, the Bears had a record of just 1-15 but then turned the ship around and went 7-2 last season until they fell to American Falls in the first round of the 4A state playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur main focus is staying on the right track of winning seasons and winning league championships and beyond,\u201d Bafus said before the season. \u201cWe need to make a deeper run in the playoffs, ultimately, to get to where we want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moscow has to deal with the loss of three-year starting quarterback Noah Velasco, who was the league MVP last year. The Bears also lost two all-league receivers in Butch Kiblen and Connor Isakson. <\/p>\n
But Bafus said he is excited for freshman quarterback Wyatt Cross to help push Moscow football further. Cross is the son of the Idaho Vandals recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach Sheldon Cross. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can tell he grew up in a football locker room with his dad,\u201d Bafus said. \u201cHis dad\u2019s a DI coach. This kid, you can tell when you first set eyes on him that he has a high football IQ. He understands how to read defenses and God gifted him with a quarterback arm \u2014 he can really sling it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bafus said that Cross is uncommonly mature for his age and said that growing up around football has helped build his maturity. <\/p>\n
The Moscow football team is dealing with a net loss of 10 players, however, as it lost 15 total seniors and only gained five incoming freshmen for this season.<\/p>\n
But Bafus said he is not worried about the leadership of the team.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The leadership is) outstanding,\u201d Bafus said. \u201cLast year\u2019s juniors are stepping up and going to lead this team to success. I look for big things out of Jericho Pike. He\u2019s gonna be a senior. That\u2019s gonna play a big role for us. George Stott, Paul Dixon (and Pike) \u2014 those will be the big three guys that we need to step up and lead as seniors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pike is a returning player who will play wide receiver and linebacker. Stott will play wide receiver and defensive line and Dixon will play on the offensive and defensive lines.<\/p>\n
Bafus said that not only the three players\u2019 leadership will be important to Moscow but their play too. <\/p>\n
The defense is the main point of strength of the team and Moscow will rely on the defense to shut down its opponents in order to win games this season. <\/p>\n
He said the front seven of the defense will be the most important and toughest part of the team. <\/p>\n
\u201cI like what I\u2019ve seen up there all year long, from spring ball to summer camp, and then here in fall camp,\u201d Bafus said. \u201cOur front seven, I truly believe, is going to be extremely solid, which will then open up things for our guys on the back end to make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bafus mentioned senior Jack Johnson on the defensive line as a key player. Some other Bears to watch include Pullman High School transfer Kolten Kendall, who is a junior middle linebacker, and junior defensive back Curtis Carr in the back half of the field.<\/p>\n
Bafus said he is excited with how the defense is flying toward the ball on each play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re going to be extremely physical, especially up front, with our front seven, and we\u2019re going to show a lot of different looks on defense, and bring pressure from a lot of different areas, and change up our coverages,\u201d Bafus said. \u201cThe kids have really bought into it. It\u2019s a little bit complex, but now I\u2019m really comfortable with where we are, with our shifts, our movements and our disguises of coverages, and the kids got it down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bears opened their season with a nonleague loss to 3A Grangeville, 26-20 on Friday, and will next play host to 5A Caldwell at 5 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n
Junt can be reached at 208-848-2258, tjunt@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @TrevorJunt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Moscow Bears are the reigning 4A Intermountain League football champions and looking to repeat this accomplishment in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[50515,374,692,391,2493,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-323820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-2025-prep-football-previews","9":"tag-bears","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-chicagobears","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115105345583613484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}