LAKEWOOD — Having a 20-point fourth quarter gave a reason for Green Mountain’s large homecoming crowd to leave Jeffco Stadium with smiles on their faces.
Green Mountain — No. 5 in the CHSAANow.com Class 3A rankings — took a 31-6 victory over Mountain View on Thursday, but it wasn’t as easy as the final score indicated.
“I don’t know if we are reading our press clippings or what,” said Green Mountain coach Jesse German, who’s team jumped into the top-10 after back-to-back shutout victories to start the season. “We still have to go out and earn everything. I think our nerves were tight at the start with homecoming and we had way too many penalties.”
Green Mountain (3-0 record) was marred by double-digit penalties that kept the Rams’ offense from getting much traction for the majority of the night. An 88-yard pass from Mountain View quarterback Bergen Roth to junior Isaac Morales that was tipped twice before Morales gathered it in and made the long run into the end zone gave the Mountain Lions a 6-3 lead with 4:44 left in the first quarter.
The Rams did take a 11-6 lead after a 9-yard touchdown run by senior Anthony DiGrazia on the first play of the second quarter, but Green Mountain had three straight 3-and-out on offense to end the first half.
“It comes down to discipline,” German said of the penalty issues. “We really have to dial in with our discipline and I expect them to respond.”
Junior George Soppe responded with a big fumble recovery midway through the third quarter that ended a potential go-ahead scoring drive for Mountain View.
“It was huge. We needed that. We were pretty dead all game,” Soppe said of his fumble recovery that stopped a Mountain View drive on the Rams’ 21-yard line. “That gave us some energy to help us push through the game. Our guys stepped up and did what they had to do.”
Green Mountain’s offense also responded with a 12-play, 79-yard scoring drive that was capped off by a 2-yard touchdown run by senior Dominic Sanchez on the first play of the fourth quarter to extend the Rams’ lead to 18-6.
The Rams would tack on a 1-yard touchdown run by senior quarterback Zach Wallace with 2:57 left in the game. Green Mountain’s defense got into the scoring act with a pick-6 by senior Colton Brown in the final minutes to make the score 31-6.
“We want to score on defense,” German said. “We just don’t want to play defense.”
German admitted that Green Mountain will lean on its stout defense this season until the Rams’ offense can really get going.
“Our offense will get going,” Soppe said. “We’ll be good. It’s going to be a fun season.”
The fun travels down to Pueblo next Friday night to face Pueblo South (0-2).