Chatfield junior quarterback Kyle Winkler (11) heads upfield with an entourage of linemen including Connor Haines, Jake Jones and Joey Roselli on Thursday night at Jeffco Stadium. The Chargers improved to 3-0 with a 42-27 victory against Dakota Ridge. (Dennis Pleuss)
LAKEWOOD — Playing as fast as possible on offensive is the current trend on the football field. It appears Chatfield’s super-charged offense might just be ahead of the curve when it comes to diversity to go along with speed.
The Chargers’ high-octane, no-huddle offense had 74 snaps Thursday night in front of Chatfield’s homecoming crowd at Jeffco Stadium in Lakewood. The Chargers downed Jeffco rival Dakota Ridge 42-27 to move to 3-0 this season.
Chatfield moved into the No. 9 slot of the CHSAANow.com Class 5A football poll this week and continued its hot start on the opening drive Thursday night. The Chargers went 80 yards on 13 plays with five different receivers catching balls and four different players carrying the football. Junior quarterback Kyle Winkler capped off the drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass to senior Austin Steinhoff.
“That is definitely what we want to do,” Winkler said, referring to the opening drive. “We have a lot of variety with our offense. All of our receivers are great players. It gives you the self assurance that whoever you throw the ball to they are going to make plays.”
Winkler finished the night 22-for-29 passing for 177 yards and four touchdowns. Senior Brandon Zanier led all Chargers’ receivers with six catches for 91 yards and a touchdown.
“We knew in the offseason that we had a lot of skill kids,” Chatfield coach Brett McGatlin said. “It makes it fun for the kids, which I always love.”
The Chargers needed their depth to close out the victory in the final quarter. Dakota Ridge (1-2) closed to within 28-21 early in the fourth quarter after Eagles’ quarterback Braxton Thais hooked up with senior Tucker Barr for a 24-yard touchdown. Then senior Aaron Nelson scored from one yard out after a special teams’ miscue set Dakota Ridge up at Chatfield’s 10-yardline.
Chatfield senior running back Brendan Murphy was having a huge game with 21 carries for 171 yards and a touchdown, but left the game in the fourth quarter with an injury. Winkler helped ease the pain of losing Murphy by throwing a 22-yard touchdown to Zanier the play after Murphy was helped off the field.
Dakota Ridge senior receiver Jake Sanchez (6) takes a shot from Chatfield senior defensive back Reece Rumsey (4) Thursday night at Jeffco Stadium. (Dennis Pleuss)
Dakota Ridge did answer with Nelson’s second touchdown run of the game to make the score 35-27 after a failed 2-point conversion with 5:23 left in the fourth quarter.
Senior Austin Steinhoff had a big 27-yard run on the ensuing drive for Chatfield. Junior Sean O’Dell had a 35-yard reception to put the Chargers on Dakota Ridge’s 6-yard line. O’Dell finished the drive with a 5-yard touchdown catch from Winkler to seal the victory.
“It’s a rivalry game. We can see their school from our school,” McGatlin said. “(Dakota Ridge is) a good football. That’s going to be a really good 4A football team.”
Dakota Ridge coach Ron Woitalewicz called the loss a “moral” victory.
“Very proud of our kids,” Woitalewicz said. “It was 28-7 and a lot of kids would fold up and get blown out. I thought our kids fought and competed all the way to the end.”
The Eagles’ two losses this year have come at the hands of 5A’s top ranked ThunderRidge (2-0) and Chatfield.
“Playing games like this will make us better and tougher when our league (play) rolls around,” Woitalewicz said.
Dakota Ridge has a pair of non-league road games against George Washington and Central of Grand Junction before diving into its 4A Plains League play.
Chatfield faces another 5A Jeffco school in Arvada West next Friday at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada before kicking off its 5A Super 6 conference schedule with Lakewood.
A massive rainstorm has caused widespread postponements of athletic events this weekend, including a slew of games or matches on Thursday.
Most schools have moved games to next week, or later in the month, but football teams have had an especially tough time rescheduling because of the week-to-week nature of the schedule.
With that in mind, the following is a statement from Harry Waterman, assistant commissioner in charge of football:
“Regular season games are the jurisdiction of the individual schools and school districts. Because of the number of conflicts that may occur, the individual schools and school districts are responsible for making the determination on any games to be rescheduled. Sunday is not an option for games to be rescheduled per CHSAA bylaws. Teams will be allowed to reschedule games to Monday, even if it means playing two games in a week.”
So, yes, we will be getting Monday Night Football next week.
Below is a list of postponements, for all sports. Are we missing a game? Email it to rcasey@chsaa.org.
The expectations were already high. Now, perhaps, things have been kicked up a notch.
ThunderRidge, coming off a 36-18 win over then-No. 3 Ralston Valley, took over atop the CHSAANow.com football poll in 5A this week. The Grizzlies had been No. 2, but jumped Valor Christian, which lost in overtime to Bingham (Utah).
Valor has yet to play an in-state opponent this season, and the four-time defending champion still received half of the first-place votes. Still, the Eagles are No. 2 this week.
Cherry Creek had its own big win last week — over then-No. 6 Pomona — and moved up on place to No. 3.
Grandview (No. 4) also moved up one place, and faces ThunderRidge this week.
Columbine went from No. 7 to No. 5 to round out the top five.
Ralston Valley settled in sixth following its loss, Regis Jesuit is seventh and Fairview is eighth.
The 5A top-ten is rounded out by two newcomers: Chatfield (No. 9) and Grand Junction (No. 10).
In 4A, Monarch continued its hold on the No. 1 spot. Denver South moved up to second, and the ranking added Standley Lake at No. 9.
Class 1A also got a new No. 1 team this week with Buena Vista taking over at the top.
Pomona 42, Cherokee Trail 40, Arapahoe 34, Douglas County 20, Doherty 8, Horizon 4, Legend 2, Mullen 2, Mountain Range 1, Mountain Vista 1.
Dropped out
Pomona (6), Cherokee Trail (8).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
1
Monarch (19)
2-0
192
1
2
Denver South (1)
2-0
170
3
3
Pueblo West
2-0
120
7
4
Montrose
3-0
113
5
5
Wheat Ridge
1-1
98
2
6
Falcon
2-0
96
6
7
Loveland
2-0
88
8
8
Pine Creek
1-1
70
4
9
Standley Lake
2-0
31
–
10
Windsor
1-1
29
9
Others receiving votes:
Montbello 15, Dakota Ridge 14, Mesa Ridge 14, Durango 13, Pueblo Centennial 9, Longmont 7, Vista Ridge 5, Sand Creek 4, Ponderosa 3, Widefield 3, Green Mountain 2, Pueblo South 2, Thompson Valley 2.
Dropped out
Dakota Ridge (10).
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
1
Silver Creek (8)
2-0
124
1
2
Discovery Canyon
3-0
97
2
3
Rifle (4)
2-0
89
3
4
Holy Family
2-0
80
6
5
Conifer
2-0
79
5
6
Palisade
2-0
53
8
7
Lutheran (1)
3-0
50
9
8
Coronado (1)
3-0
45
–
9
Roosevelt
1-1
35
7
10
Elizabeth
1-1
28
4
Others receiving votes:
Eagle Valley 16, Pueblo East 15, Northridge 10, Erie 4.
Dropped out
D’Evelyn (10).
Class 2A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
1
Platte Valley (7)
2-0
79
1
2
Brush (1)
2-0
64
4
3
Kent Denver
1-1
62
3
4
Florence
1-1
45
2
5
La Junta
2-0
40
6
6
Strasburg
2-0
36
8
7
Eaton
1-1
33
5
8
Manitou Springs
1-0
18
10
9
Lamar
2-0
16
9
10
Bayfield
1-1
12
–
Others receiving votes:
Fort Lupton 11, Denver West 7, Faith Christian 7, Ridgeview Academy 6, University 2, Aspen 1, KIPP 1.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Rangeview 25, Denver East 24, Standley Lake 20, Poudre 18, Fossil Ridge 16, Montbello 14, Arvada West 11, Aurora Central 8, Abraham Lincoln 7, Adams City 6, Heritage 4, Palmer 4, Brighton 2, Fort Collins 2.
Dropped out
Denver East (5), Fossil Ridge (7), Heritage (8).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Battle Mountain (8)
3-0-0
121
1
2-0-0
2
Broomfield (3)
2-1-1
107
2
2-1-0
3
Cheyenne Mountain (1)
2-0-0
104
4
2-0-0
4
Air Academy (1)
4-0-0
93
5
3-0-0
5
Niwot
2-1-1
65
3
1-1-1
6
Evergreen
3-1-0
57
7
3-0-0
7
Ponderosa
2-1-0
41
8
1-1-0
8
Pueblo West
2-0-0
21
–
1-0-0
9
Denver South
1-1-0
17
6
0-1-0
10
Silver Creek
3-1-0
14
–
2-0-0
Others receiving votes:
Longmont 11, Denver North 10, Valor Christian 10, Lewis-Palmer 9, Windsor 9, Golden 6, Sand Creek 3, Denver West 2, Mullen 2, Summit 2, Wheat Ridge 2, Montrose 1, Steamboat Springs 1.
Dropped out
Sand Creek (9), Valor Christian (10).
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
The Classical Academy (6)
4-0-0
111
2
1-0-0
2
Colorado Academy (4)
3-0-0
104
1
2-0-0
3
Holy Family
3-0-0
77
4
2-0-0
4
Coal Ridge (1)
3-0-0
72
6
3-0-0
5
Basalt
3-1-0
63
3
1-1-0
6
Manitou Springs
4-0-0
40
–
2-0-0
7
Kent Denver (1)
1-2-0
37
5
0-1-0
8
Faith Christian
2-2-1
35
7
1-1-1
9
Salida
3-0-0
33
9
1-0-0
10
Jefferson Academy
3-1-0
16
–
3-1-0
Others receiving votes:
Peak to Peak 10, Bruce Randolph 9, Fountain Valley 7, Machebeuf 7, Denver Christian 6, Jefferson 6, Lake County 6, Frontier Academy 5, Roaring Fork 5, Liberty Common 4, C.S. Christian 3, Aurora West 2, Lutheran 2.
