COLORADO SPRINGS — Fort Collins went into the third period trailing 1-0, but got an offensive surge to beat Liberty 5-2 and remain unbeaten on the year.
Streaks are what make sports so fun. Ask Joe DiMaggio. Or the 2002 Oakland A’s. Just this year in the NBA, Russell Westbrook went on a crazy streak of seven games with a triple-double.
There’s drama, intrigue and history all tied to streaks in sports no matter how far it reaches.
That’s why the Sanford boys basketball team might just be the best (and underrated) stories of the last few seasons for Colorado high school sports.
The Indians broke a 20-year-old record by winning 74 games in row. They beat the Swallows Charter Academy in the first game of the season to set the mark.
“You don’t think about record until it gets close to within your view,” Sanford coach Rhett Larsen. “Thinking back, after we had the first undefeated season (2014-15), you realize how many games you have total. Then as the next season goes along, and you go undefeated again, you know you have a streak.”
(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Unfortunately it wouldn’t grow past 74, as Sanford fell to La Junta 39-33 less than a week later.
The streak was over, but the Indians accomplished something that no other team in state history had been able to do. But in the process, it wasn’t something that the players were ultimately aiming for.
“I don’t think that they dwelled on that at all, honestly,” Larsen said. “I don’t think that’s what their objective was. I think that it was just a matter of, with those kids coming through, focusing hard like every team does. We were just fortunate to be in that situation.”
It’s easy to look at that number and just take it for what it is. But what about everything that comes with it?
It’s easy to simply take the streak and run with the story, but taking a deeper look at the details makes this 74-game run all the more impressive.
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(Jeff Tucker/jefferywtucker.zenfolio.com)
Jan. 17, 2014 – Win No. 1. Sanford beat Custer 59-33 to start its run at history.
“It doesn’t cross your mind,” Larsen said. “It didn’t cross my mind at the initial starting point. It just kind of happened.”
Dom Collier was still a Denver East Angel and not quite a Colorado Buffalo. Peyton Manning was two days away from leading the Denver Broncos to their first Super Bowl appearance in 15 years. In that time, the Indians scored …
4,924 points during the streak, which amounts to …
66.5 points per game. So offensively, the numbers were good even if they weren’t record-breaking themselves. It leaves the question of exactly how much defense played a role over this run. In 74 games, there were …
2,678 total points allowed by the Indians, which amounts to …
36.1 points allowed per game. Over the course of their winning streak, the Indians allowed less than 10 points a quarter. As a result, Sanford’s average margin of victory was …
30.4 points per game. Does that mean that the Indians were that dominant? In the course of their winning streak there …
16 games that they won by a margin of 10 points or less. But of all those, only …
3 state championships won by the Indians in during their winning streak.
“They’re the climax of it all as far as that goes,” Larsen said of the titles. “It’s what all the teams really wanted and shot for. They approached each season and every game with an individual focus.”
Of all the numbers listed above, the only one that matters in this story is the 74 games that the Indians won consecutively.
It was never a dream. It was never a goal. It was just the result of the Sanford Indians showing up ready to play 74 times in a row.
And as a result, they turned in winners that will now hold one of the most historic marks in all of Colorado high school basketball.
HIGHLANDS RANCH — JJ Woods had 30 points, four rebounds and four assists to help SkyView Academy boys basketball beat Aurora West College Prep 95-29 on Thursday.
Ceegan Callahan chipped in 15 points for the Hawks, while Joe Pippin had nine points, eight rebounds, six assists and five steals.
HIGHLANDS RANCH — Doherty boys basketball surrendered only 16 points in the first half as it ran out to a 79-50 win over Mountain Vista on Thursday night.
Ralston Valley’s Michael Enyart (16) tries to put a backhand shot on goal Wednesday night against Standley Lake. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
ARVADA — Thirteen was an impressive number for Ralston Valley’s hockey team Wednesday night.
That’s the number of players that found the scoresheet at the end of a dominating 10-0 victory for the Mustangs over area-rival Standley Lake at Apex Ice Arena in Arvada. Michael Enyart and Jason Ruszka were the only multi-goal scorers putting in two each for the Mustangs as Ralston Valley was able to spread the wealth.
“I like seeing the young guys score a lot,” Ralston Valley’s Matthew Trubacz said. “I remember being a sophomore and scoring. It was the best thing in the world. It’s good to see everyone taking their part in the team.”
Ralston Valley’s Kyler Medley-Wallis (14) and Blake Bolger celebrate a first-period goal. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Ralston Valley, ranked No. 4 in this week’s CHSAANow.com hockey poll, scored six goals in the first period and got the game into running-clock mode with Ruszka’s second goal of the night less than six minutes into the second period.
Ruszka was one of the young Mustangs who got plenty of ice time against Standley Lake (0-5, 0-3 in Pinnacle League). Ruszka scored the opening goal hammering home a rebound in front of the net 3 minutes, 34 seconds into the first period.
“I saw him (Ruszka) play a couple of games on JV and he really impressed me a lot. He has a lot of potential for this team and he proved he wanted to be out here tonight,” Trubacz said. “Dylan (McGee) got his first goal. It was a great night for the young guys.”
Standley Lake goalie Nick Delorey faced 57 shots over three periods. Delorey made 47 saves, while Ralston Valley goalie Joseph Doig had to make just eight saves to pick up the shutout victory.
The win was important to help Ralston Valley forget about a disappointing 5-3 home loss to No. 2 Cherry Creek last week.
“I thought we had a good first period. We did some good things off the bat there,” Ralston Valley coach Matt Schoepflin said. “After a loss to Cherry Creek it’s good just to get back in the win column.”
Ralston Valley (4-1, 1-1 in Foothills League) is on the road against No. 8 Monarch on Saturday, Dec. 17, before the winter break. While it is a new year, memories are still fresh for the Mustangs when it comes to the Coyotes. Monarch defeated Ralston Valley 6-2 in the state semifinals last season.
“I think it’s always a motivation. We’ve developed a pretty good rivalry with Monarch over the last few years,” Schoepflin said. “It’s always an exciting game on our schedule and I know it’s for them as well. Saturday night will be exciting.”
Ralston Valley’s Adam Albert (3) gets off a shot. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Standley Lake will look for its first win of the season with the Gators host Summit on Friday, Dec. 16, and Columbine on Tuesday, Dec. 20, before winter break. Both games will be played at the Promenade in Westminster.
When Ralston Valley and Standley Lake joined CHSAA-sanctioned hockey together in the 2006-07 school year the two programs quickly became to of the elite programs in the state.
The Mustangs have played in five state championship games, winning back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014. The Gators’ program has struggled in recent years going 10-26-2 over the past two seasons. Schoepflin said he hopes Standley Lake can get back to when they were a perennial playoff team.
“I feel bad that the (Standley Lake) program has taken a couple of steps back the last few years,” Schoepflin said. “They have some good people in there now who are trying to turn things around.”
Ralston Valley had made it to at least the state quarterfinals in almost every year the program has existed.
“I heard about RV hockey when I was in seventh grade and how well they are doing,” Ralston Valley’s Jack Steffer said. “As long as the upperclassmen — juniors and seniors — keep pushing the sophomores and freshmen, younger players will hear how well the program is doing and want to play. Hopefully we will never have a drop off.”
Ralston Valley’s Andrew Frerich (12) and Standley Lake’s Martin Ronan battle against the boards Wednesday night at Apex Ice Arena. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Our new rankings are out, folks, and it reflects the tremendous starts teams like George Washington, Denver East, Smoky Hill, Pueblo West, and Vista PEAK are having (just to name a few).
As exciting as the action was out-of-state and locally last week this one is shaping up to be just as tremendous with monster early-season matchups.
Let’s take a look at the big games and see if we can’t find a few gems that may normally go overlooked.
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A Look Back
Monday, Dec. 12
Our 4A No. 2 squad, already senior-heavy with Jalen Sanders and Kayle Knuckles leading scoring, just got better and state champ quarterback Dylan McCaffrey just joined the hoop squad. He started off with 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals in Valor’s win over Thomas Jefferson.
We don’t scour the 3A action much but there’s a player at Manual HS demanding attention! Jayden Bowles again displayed why he’s one of the most talented sophomores in the state regardless of division scoring 33 points in the Thunderbolts close 77-73 win over Pinnacle. Bowles was an amazing 14 of 15 from the field and hauled in 11 rebounds for the double-double!
Mountain Range used a 20-3 second quarter advantage after starting down 9 to Horizon to seal the win behind Max Castillo and Mike Polson’s 15 points each.
Palmer has a brutal early schedule and the Terrors got in the win column over Castle View with sophomore Darien Meyers scoring 17!
Luke Wilson’s 21 points helped a feisty Boulder squad to a 1 point half time lead but an Eaglecrest team with something to prove after dropping to No. 5 in our poll, pulled out this 61-51 victory. A 23-13 fourth quarter did the trick for the Raptors!
Tuesday, Dec. 13
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
There hasn’t been a Tuesday this action-packed (especially this early) in a few years and there was no larger match than No. 1 George Washington hosting quickly rising Smoky Hil,l who has jumped into the top-10 at No. 8 after their impressive road trip and start to season. Dan Morhmann was our man on the scene as the Patriots “raced” to the huge home win.
We were joking on twitter that if the Grandview Wolves pop up on your schedule: be sure to have a point guard and big man to match what the Wolves have! Rampart, with all of it’s size in starting five, found out that is easier said than done as Gage Prim was again workman-like, scoring 15 points. Bt the man of the night was Lechaun Duhart who poured in a season high 33 points!
Montbello’s FNE Warriors have been playing good ball early but this night they ran into the “run-n-gun” pressure defense of No. 10 Chatfield and Dennis Pleuss has you fully covered.
Senior point guard Brevin Brimble was cookin’ early as he went 7-10 from the field scoring 20 in only three quarters of play as the No. 9 Spartans took down Dakota Ridge by 19 points. We were able to catch up with the senior for a bit of a Ball Fever Chat and Brevin credited the team’s “family feel” to their offseason work, stating, “We’ve been working hard ever since we lost in the Elite 8 last year. We’ve become more of a family … closer as team.” With teams like Mountain Vista and Regis coming up for the 4-1 Spartans, Brimble embraces it: “Having a tough schedule is great!” He hopes the tough schedule proves just what a special team the Spartans have this season. He feels the brutal non-league schedule will “help us prepare for March when it’s time to compete for a ring.” With senior leadership like Brimble there’s no reason the Spartans shouldn’t visit the coliseum again!
Jack Eberhard has your action shots from the streaking Cherry Creek Bruins 19-point win over Monarch.
The Vista Ridge duo of Hunter Maldonado (29 points) and Noah Beatty (16 points) again proving to be one of the best tandems in the state as Vista Ridge blows out 5A Loveland. Vista Ridge will be a 4A terror late season! The Fever Crew was alerted to take to Twitter for this unbelievable dunk by Wyoming-bound Maldonado:
No Surprise Mountain Vista and Fossil Ridge raced to a 77-67 final score as both teams can get up and down! Seniors stars showed up as Braxton Bartolette scored 28 but not enough as Jake Belknapp’s 26 helped Vista secure the win.
J Pfaffinger led four Lambkins in double figure scoring when Fort Collins only allowed 34 total points to Aurora Central at Fort Collins.
Boy, Vista PEAK again looks balanced with four starters scoring 14 points or more. The Bison are undefeated and passed another early test beating Lewis-Palmer by 5 at home.
Sand Creek dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 in our 4A poll after suffering their first loss last week and they took it ALL out on Ponderosa in a blow out Tuesday!
Rock Canyon remains No. 2 in this week’s poll and they again held court vs. tough Overland 55-47 with junior star Sam Masten scoring 20.
Three seniors score 14 points each as Heritage shuts down Littleton 69-35.
The Grizzlies remained undefeated and held onto their 5A No. 4 spot in our latest poll. They welcomed a Lakewood team that can score with anyone on Tuesday going to overtime. ThunderRidge needed Corey Seng’s last-second heroics as he drove for a game winning drive to seal it as part of his 23 points.
Top 10 4A match up and it looked to be the slug fest we expected as No. 5 Holy Family used a 15-8 fourth quarter comeback to beat No. 9 Sierra by 5 down in the Springs. KKTV did catch this sweet throw downby star CJ Jennigs who led Sierra in the loss.
Mitch Sundel scored 20 as Thompson Valley upset No. 8 D’Evelyn by 2!
Cherokee Trail moved up a spot to No. 6 this week and were tested immediately by Legend but pulled off the 46-42 win with Jaizec Lottie scoring 16.
Back-and-forth the entire way in this one as Chaparral had a new sophomore, Joe Dalton (20 points), lead the way as they pull off a big win over strong Arapahoe 68-63 at home.
Wednesday, Dec. 14
Junior Kirk Relford scored a game high 17 as Windsor were not kind guests to 5A visitor Gateway winning 55-47.
Had the opportunity to spend good time Prairie View senior Trey Marble last spring and this quality young man put up 26 points carrying the load but the Thunderhawks went down to Mountain Range 77-55.
Wheat Ridge traveled south to tangle with Harrison but came up short 65-62 while Quinzel Harding scored 18.
Ashton Rogers shot 50% from the field scoring 24 points to lead Coronado to victory over Air Academy.
After a strong showing at Eaglecrest Monday, Boulder bounced back with a win at Aurora Central 53-46 as Peter Chopra scored 14.
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Midweek Thoughts
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
George Washington has certainly made a statement that the Patriots are back! They fully earned the No. 1 spot with early play and solidified that with impressive win over Smoky Hill adding to the resume.
Intrigued to see Sand Creek in 4A. The Scorpions took a surprising loss last week but came back with a vengeance as previously noted. Couldn’t keep up with Tuesday’s overall action across the state and it makes us hungry for more!
