AURORA — Twice in the course of four quarters, Denver South quarterback Julian Buerk limped off the field in obvious pain. The first time, the Ravens were still losing so after taking a series off he went back out there.
The second time, the Ravens had just taken the lead in the fourth quarter and he turned the burden over to the defense. His two touchdown passes and the defense’s ability to shut down the run game was the perfect formula for Class 5A No. 3 Denver South to come away with an 18-15 win over No. 1 Vista PEAK Prep on Saturday.
Sacrificing body and all was worth it for the senior quarterback after he had commanded the team to two 4-6 seasons in the years prior.
“You have to do what you have to do to win,” Buerk said. “I came out to play and this was all for the team.”
The team had to battle from behind early. The Bison (4-1 overall, 3-1 5A South) got on the board early thanks to a long touchdown run from Ja’derris Carr. A swinging gate formation on the point after allowed for an easy 2-point conversion to give them an 8-0 lead.
The Ravens (5-0, 4-0) knew they had to adjust their defense to focus on the run game and Buerk knew he had to get his team down the field. He wasn’t afraid to air the ball out and chipped away yardage to get into the red zone in the second quarter.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Buerk found Jake Perruccio over the middle and the sophomore stretched his way into the end zone. Buerk was then stopped less than a yard shy of the goal line on the 2-point conversion, allowing the Bison to maintain a two-point lead at halftime.
The defenses clamped down and neither team scored in the third quarter. With time running out and his ankle obviously causing him discomfort, Buerk mustered up another drive into the Vista PEAK red zone. This time it was Rashad Caldwell on the catch and he kept his legs churning until he could reach the ball over the goal line to put the Ravens up 12-8.
“We know we have one of the best passing games in the state, fall or spring,” South coach Ryan Marini said. “If we can protect him, we know that Julian will take over a game the way he did. Our receivers know to get open because he’ll find them.”
A pick-six from Yohannes Antonio put the game out of reach, although the Bison did score a late touchdown to pull to within a field goal. An injury to Carr late in the game just added to Vista PEAK’s troubles throughout the day. Turnovers and costly penalties stalled drives at the most inopportune times. It’s a lesson the Bison are sure to hang on to moving forward.
“We’ve had similar penalties but those didn’t cost us a game,” Bison coach John Sullivan said. “It finally did. But Denver South played a great game today. They came in with a plan for stopping our run and we’ll get better. We’ll learn from it.”
For at least the weekend, Denver South with ride the wave of energy with the win. Marini was quick to point out that this senior class won a futures championship as eighth graders and a win over a team like Vista PEAK is something that players and coaches alike know can add energy to a program.
“It’s the biggest win we could’ve gotten,” Buerk said.
Now they want to aim for a bigger one as they look to make a championship run in the next month.
Pat Engle has learned a lot in his time as a football coach. He’s been through his ups and downs while coaching for selfish reasons and later, the right reasons.
He’s taken teams to battle against some of the best squads the state has to offer. This season, he’s seeing the success of that work as the Demons remain undefeated and sit at No. 2 in the Class 3A football rankings.
Oh, by the way, they went on the road to get a win over Basalt, who held the No. 1 ranking in the classification last week. That win alone is worthy of some recognition. That recognition comes in the form of being named the Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week.
Previous stops: Centerburg (Ohio) head coach (2002); Battle Mountain head coach (2002-06); Glenwood Springs assistant (2010-15); Glenwood Springs head coach (2018-present).
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Question: Why do you coach?
Engle: I think the, “why” has changed over the years. This is my 29th season in football as a coach. Early on, if I had to be honest, there were a lot of selfish reasons to coach and now I’ve just realized that this game has given me so much and I would just like to see the kids, experience some of the same joys that I’ve had with football. And I just want to see the kids do well. We have a good group of kids out here.
Q: Why do you coach the way that you coach?
Engle: When I think back to high school and college football,, I saw a lot of good coaching and I was coached by a lot of good coaches and I was also coached by some coaches that I do things differently from. One of the things that I would say is that every year or whenever I get a new coach on staff, I typically have that coach draw circle and draw a square. And within the circle I ask them to write down the name of a coach who was absolutely positively transformative and impactful in their lives and in the square, I ask them to write the name of a coach who was kind of that bad guy, that guy that keeps them up at night just a bit. And we have a conversation about the circle and the square, and then I ask them at the end of our conversation, where do you want the kids to put you? I want to be put in that circle for every kid that we have out here at Glenwood Springs High School.
Q: What do you think it’s like being coached by you?
Engle: I’m a pretty passionate and pretty fiery guy. My kids, in some ways, with what we just did on Friday night, I think they carried some of that passion into that game. I think that they would say that I’m tough, but I’m fair. They’d probably tell you surprisingly, I don’t raise my voice a whole lot, but when I do, it gets their attention. They would tell you that when there’s an issue on the field, I’m going to instruct. I’m not going to make them look bad in front of their buddies. I’m just going to show them how to do it right.
Q: Even in a crazy year like this, how much emotional weight comes with a win over a No. 1 team like you guys were able to do on Friday?
Engle: There was a moment in that game, this is just an amazing moment, and it’s an amazing game to be a part of but it’s exhausting. Coming from Ohio, when I was an assistant coach at my Alma mater and I was the defensive coordinator, I was calling defense against a team by the name of Cleveland St. Ignatius and that team, I believe somewhere from like late 1980’s into the early 2000’s, won 9 out of 13 big-school state titles in Ohio, and that’s not a small accomplishment. And I just remember being on the sideline, calling the defense against that team and I felt the same way. And this is 20 years later, I just felt the same way of every play was contested. Every play was a mental chess match. And it was exhausting.
Q: As much as we always want to say the schedules are tough in the metro areas, you guys on the Western Slope. are running a gauntlet for the next few weeks. How do you keep your boys even-keeled but also energized for each big game that you’ve been facing these last couple weeks?
Engle: We have a 1-0 for the week mentality. We don’t look ahead, and that’s easy to say but harder to do. To be really honest with you, we’ve gotten to a point in our season, four games in – almost five games in, there’s no question about our ability to hit people. There’s no question about our contact. So, we’re trying to back things off just a little bit with regards to contact in practice. We don’t have a whole lot of it. And I would also say that we have lifted weights pretty much four days a week probably since September, so we haven’t really stopped that regimen either. So, we’re trying to keep kids as physically fit as we possibly can.
Q: Do you think this is going to benefit this team, doing what you’re doing well and not letting that physical fitness part of it drop-off in that gap between this spring and the fall?
Engle: If you can figure out a way for me to replace 19 seniors, I would really appreciate it. All kidding aside, our kids here understand the work that’s required to compete. This season is in some ways a direct result of what happened my first two years here, where we played a schedule that included Holy Family, Conifer, Roosevelt, Palisade, Rifle, you go down the list there. And Harrison, all of those teams that I just mentioned, the six teams, they’ve all made the playoffs. We had a war against Roosevelt two years ago and Lane (Wasinger) and I both looked at each other like that was a war. And Roosevelt finds themselves in the in the state finals this past fall. Conifer was a state semi-finalist two years ago. Holy Family is always a buzzsaw going in there. I think our kids just have been through some battles that they don’t necessarily get credit for.
Q: When you think back to what this entire year has been, what are you going remember most about the way that your boys responded to circumstances that were so far outside of their control and the memories that they’re looking to give you this for the spring football season?
Engle: We were in a pretty tight ball game against Montezuma-Cortez. It was six hours on a bus, we’re not going to make a single excuse, but our first half certainly looked like it was six hours on a bus. And I think the score was 7-7 or 7-6, something like that. I walked into the staging room at halftime and I was about to speak. And then many of the seniors just started rattling off this stuff that we had to do better. And I just sat back and I got quiet. They started talking and talking and talking and talking and all of a sudden I looked up, we had about five minutes to go on the clock. I said, “Everything that they just said, that’s what we need to do.” And we went out and scored, I think must have scored 21 points, scored three touchdowns pretty quick, and took control of the game. Against Basalt with five turnovers that we lost, playing the No. 1 team in the state at their place with a hostile crowd. It was a pretty big deal out there on Friday. A very similar thing happened when I walked into the staging room. In fact, I had to calm the kids down. They were so adamant that we have to get this fixed and we have to compete and we’re better than that. Sure enough, the guys came out and we even fumbled. At that point, we had lost two fumbles and two interceptions. We still fumbled the ball two more times, three more times in the second half. So, and to be that resilient and come back and win was absolutely amazing.
COLORADO SPRINGS — In three touches, Cade Palmer helped The Classical Academy run away with another win. The Classical Academy junior found the end zone on his first three carries of the game, all of them from at least 27 yards out as the Class 3A No. 2 Titans rolled to a 41-12 win over No. 6 The Academy.
It was the first loss of the year for the Wildcats, but considering the way the game started there should be no hanging heads going into next week’s game against Faith Christian.
“Kudos to them,” TCA coach Justin Rich said. “They fought really hard in the second half and we needed to play a four-quarter game.”
In no time at all, the Titans (3-0 overall, 3-0 3A East) were up 21-0. That came as Palmer ran for touchdowns of 50, 27 and 33 yards, all of which came in the first quarter.
Two more rushing touchdowns in the second quarter pushed the lead to 35-0, providing the fast start that the Titans are hoping to see each week through the remainder of the season.
“It’s really good to come out to a quick start,” Palmer said. “The offensive line was dominating in the first quarter and a half, and even into the second half. It’s important to have that fast start.”
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
The Wildcats (3-1, 3-1) struggled to move the ball against the Titans’ physical defensive front but kept chipping away. Quarterback Isaiah Eliot connected on a few passes and made some tough runs before taking a hard hit in the second quarter that ultimately took him out of the game.
Forced to adjust, the Wildcats moved to a double-wing style formation and drove into the red zone where they punched the ball in on the last play of the first half.
That offensive set continued to give the Titans fits in the second half. The Wildcats gained yards and chewed up clock to find something that worked. If they hadn’t been in a deep hole, it could’ve been an equalizer if sustained for four quarters.
“That double-wing formation, we didn’t have the time to work on that,” Rich said. “They were down one of the best players on the field in (Gabriel Espinosa) who has to be leading the state in receptions, he didn’t play the second half on offense. And if (Eliot) was going to run the ball, it’s going to be hard to run it that often.”
Coming into the game, Espinosa had 23 receptions for 283 yards and two touchdowns. But the Titans were fast and aggressive on defense which neutralized The Academy’s typical offensive flow.
The Titans scored their lone touchdown of the half on a pass to Aden Timson, but it was the fast start that allowed them to settle in and play their game.
“Every game we come out quick with a lot of energy, it catches teams off guard,” Palmer said. “It takes a ton of pressure off your defense if you’re up 21 points in five minutes.”
The Titans finish their regular season schedule on the road as they head to Kent Denver next week and Denver West on April 22.
There isn’t a perspective of football that Tyson Vigil hasn’t seen. Growing up, he played both 8-man and 6-man in high school before heading to Cornell College in Iowa where he got next-level taste of the 11-man game.
Since graduating, he has become an official and a volunteer assistant at Las Animas before taking the head job a year ago.
This spring, the Trojans have seen early success on the gridiron which has been difficult to come by in recent years. When their season got moved to Season C, a hunger and desire to play Brough renewed love of the the game back to the small town sandwiched between La Junta and Lamar.
Las Animas is the No. 4 team in the CHSAANow.com rankings and Vigil has been named the Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week.
Previous stops: Las Animas assistant (2015-18); Las Animas head coach (2019-present)
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Question: Why do you coach?
Vigil: Well, I got into coaching because I love the sport; well, sports in general, but I’m loving now because I’ve started to understand the connections that I’m making with the players and the lessons that I’m hoping I’m teaching them can carry on for their lives later on. And that makes me reflect back on my own personal athletic career and all the lessons I learned. I started just for love of sports, and now it’s more like a personal connection to the athletes that I’m working with.
Q: Why do you coach the way that you coach?
Vigil: I pretty much coach the way I was coached growing up. I was real fortunate to play for a family of coaches in the Lovato’s when I played at Cheraw High School and they were a very caring, very nurturing, but stern set of coaches and they got the most out of their athletes that they could.
I just modeled myself after them, as well as my dad. He was always a coach for me growing up and he was a lot of the same and it becomes more of a character building thing than it is a wins and losses kind of thing. At least whenever I was an athlete. I just tried to kind of pass that along and pay it forward to the kids that I’m coaching now.
Q: What do you think it’s like to be coached by you?
Vigil: Well, that might depend on who you ask. I think the kids like me and they appreciate the effort that I put forward, but then on the flip side of it one of my best players, my quarterback, is my son.
I wonder, but I don’t think so, but at times there might be a little friction there. Not really, I just worry about it because it’s hard to be coaching an be dad at the same time. He seems so much like me that there’s really not that much conflict involved. If I would put myself in a player’s shoes, I would think that they would look at me like someone who cares about them as a person and as students, more so than just a football player.
Q: One of the, one of the odd benefits I’m seeing with some of the schools playing in Season C this year is that it’s almost like there’s a spark that’s reigniting interest in some programs. Has that been the case at Las Animas?
Vigil: I took over our program last year and I think a fresh change was a start in the right direction. But the fact that we didn’t get to play in the fall was a disappointment, but at the same time, a blessing. The kids realized how much they really cherish participation and competition. We did our best to satisfy that during the fall when we didn’t have football by having workouts.
By the time the actual season rolled around, the guys were hungry and they were ready to compete. And it had been so long, it was just like quenching of the thirst for them. They’re playing the best ball that Las Animas has seen in years right now. I really think it’s a lot of factors involved, but that big, long layoff of no football made them want it and appreciate it that much more. That goes for me too. I find myself rejuvenated as a coach being thatvI was away from the game for so long.
I was fortunate enough, I’m also an official, so I was able to kind of satisfy my hunger back in the fall. In fact, I was fortunate enough to officiate in the 8-man state championship game during the fall season. And I even got to do that with my dad and he and I got to work together. It was little weird to be just officiating and not coaching at the time, but at the same time, I was really missing football as a coach. I think the players felt same way.
Q: Officials tend to get so much grief, does that help your perspective from a coaching standpoint to be able to see both sides of the game?
Vigil: Actually, at times I think that it kind of works against me. As an official, and I’ve been an official a lot longer than I’ve been a coach, I sympathize and empathize with the officials. There are times where maybe I should fight a little bit more for a call that goes against us, but there have been so many times and I’ve had my rear end chewed that I don’t want to be that coach and that guy that I don’t like to deal with.
But at the same time, it also helps me to play my cards right. I know what an official wants to hear and I know what they don’t want to hear. I try to avoid those things that they don’t want to hear. And I try to say the things that will help me. It’s kind of a catch-22 at times but I think all in all having both having seen both sides of the coin, it works to my benefit.
Q: Going back to the resurgence in programs that can happen with this spring season, how do you instill that culture into a team so that hopefully that momentum carries over into the fall?
Vigil: It’s kind of a nice thing, the fact that we’re getting two football seasons out of one year. We don’t have a long layoff with different sports being being played and then, again, having that long wayoff. So we’re going to get through this season hopefully successfully, and we won’t have a very long break before we’re back at it again. My returning players next year will be pretty fresh in terms of both physical conditioning and mental conditioning. I see it being a pretty good thing, really.
Q: We’re asking kids to battle through so much adversity at this point in our lives, how have your boys handled it and what do you think is the biggest lesson that they’ve learned through high school athletics?
Vigil: This has been the craziest year of any kind of sporting or academic year that I’ve been a part of. I think that’s paying off on the field because they’ve had to fight through not being in school and once we did get back in school it looked a lot different than it did back in what I would call regular time. And so they’re having to learn to adapt to life and that pays off on the football field because they can adapt to adversity on the field.
Whenever something goes wrong on the field, they can change things and move forward and do whatever it takes to be successful.
So in some ways, it’s been a bad experience with COVID changing the whole landscape of life, but it’s also providing the student-athletes with the opportunity to be able to adapt, to change and be able to accept the fact that there are some things that are out of your control, but they have to move past those and, and move forward.
Q: Do you think that it helps grow their appreciation of high school sports at the same time?
Vigil: Oh, absolutely. Like I was saying, the fact that these guys were unable to do anything during the entire fall, they realized how much it means to them and how much they get out of it. And myself included, being away from coaching was really difficult, but whenever this season rolled around the season, I really got to soak it in. I really got to make the most of it. And I really got to appreciate the opportunities I’ve been given. And I think the kids have the same mindset.
