The Powell Panthers enter Friday night’s first-round playoff game in Torrington as major underdogs.

There’s no point spread, but one can assume Las Vegas would make the No. 1 Trailblazers hefty favorites over the No. 4 Panthers.

Give me the points.

While the records and stats undoubtedly give the East’s top seed the edge, the confidence and renewed sense of purpose won in Powell’s 21-9 victory over Cody last week could give the Panthers an intangible boost.

After that playoff-clinching win, PHS head coach Chanler Buck texted that he saw a “whole new team” out there in Cody.

New team. New season. Anything is possible.

“One thing about the playoffs, this year in particular, is you can hold a pretty strong argument that it’s wide open,” Buck said. “In 3A, you go into playoffs based on your performance, but it feels like a whole other season. You come into it 0-0, it’s do or die next week.”

Anything is possible, but not easy.

If the Panthers were to pull off the upset, they would spoil a perfect season for Torrington, which blazed its way to an 8-0 regular-season record.

The Trailblazers won their games by an average margin of 22.25 points and finished the season with the second-most yards per game in Class 3A. 

No matter which way you slice it, that’s impressive. You won’t find me arguing that Torrington isn’t a good team, but let’s look at some context. 

Torrington did most of its damage against the East’s defenses, only two of which (one being Torrington) rank in the top half of the state in terms of yards allowed per game.

The Panthers opened their season with three straight East opponents — Douglas, Buffalo and Riverton — all of which also played the Blazers.

Powell beat Douglas by 23 on Sept. 4. A month later, Torrington won by just four.

The next week Powell beat Buffalo by 10. Torrington blew the Bison out, 40-7.

Powell lost to Riverton by two, and was perhaps another half-quarter away from a third-straight victory. The Trailblazers out-scored the Wolverines 48-21.

Against eastern opponents, Powell was three points shy of a 3-0 record, while Torrington was five points away from 2-1.

You can’t take away Torrington’s wins. An 8-0 record doesn’t happen by accident. But it’s not hard to see how Powell presents a tougher matchup than the records and gaudy offensive numbers indicate.

“You’re up against teams that have earned that ranking, but teams are different this year,” Buck said.

Powell and Torrington shared two West opponents — Green River and Worland.

Powell was 1-1, with a demoralizing 26-7 loss in Green River, and a tight, 14-12 win at home against the Warriors. Torrington beat the Wolves by 10 and the Warriors by 14.

Again, that certainly doesn’t make the Panthers a lock on Friday, but it illustrates that the gap between the 1 and 4 seed is minimized by the gap in competition between Class 3A’s two conferences.

Buck said Torrington’s performances against common opponents gives him confidence as the Panthers hit the road.

“That’s exactly what you look at. Torrington and Worland, a two-score game, pretty low scoring, a defensive battle,” Buck said. 

Powell’s defense, ranked above all of Torrington’s eastern opponents, could keep the Panthers in contention late in the game.

“That’s not to take anything away from Torrington, but you look at some of those things that those teams did well … and you look at some of the things they did to get points...,” Buck said, considering the possibilities of Friday night.

The Panthers haven’t exactly lit the world on fire offensively, and their run-first attack won’t have it easy against the second-ranked rushing defense in the state.

Torrington allows just 127.6 yards per game, but, again, that was largely against opponents from the East. Aside from the Trailblazers, only one eastern team ranks in the top half of the state in rushing yards per game.

Powell’s greater challenge may be Torrington’s rush offense, which was first in the state at 302.6 yards per game.

Buck said a good running back, and a mammoth offensive line have powered the Trailblazers to their undefeated season.

“They run the heck out of the ball,” Buck said. “They have tremendous size up front. They’re huge.”

The second-year coach said Torrington is capable of passing but, “when they can run the ball as effectively though, there’s no reason to do that.”

The Panthers struggled, as did all teams, to stop Jackson’s Theo Dawson, but Buck said Torrington’s rushing attack is more similar to that of Star Valley’s or, coincidentally enough, Cody.

“Cody outsized us. They’re big too. But our defensive success comes from our speed,” Buck said.

The Broncs were held to 34.6 yards less than their season average, and if the Panthers can apply that relentless defensive will against the Trailblazers, it’s not unthinkable to see them moving into the second round.

“For us, I like the phase we’re going through right now,” Buck said.