Chatfield senior Lucas St. Germain sprints down court in the Chargers’ 32-point victory over Lakewood on Saturday. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
LAKEWOOD — As Darth Vader said, “Impressive. Most impressive.”
Chatfield’s boys basketball team made an emphatic statement in the Class 5A Jeffco League with a 90-58 road victory Saturday against Lakewood.
“Everything we do always starts with defense,” Chatfield coach Stephen Schimpeler said. “We put up 90 and you think it’s all offense, but it’s not. We are a defensive program.”
Lakewood’s Kolton Peterson gets a shot off over Chatfield’s Lucas St. Germain. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
The Chargers (9-1, 2-0 in league) are ranked No. 7 in the current CHSAANow.com 5A boys hoops poll and stretched its winning streak to eight games with the 32-point victory.
“We know what we can do when we are clicking on all cylinders,” Chatfield senior Lucas St. Germain said. “It’s just fun to watch when we get going like that.”
Chatfield never trailed and had a double-digit lead before the end of the first quarter. St. Germain (13 points) and fellow senior Joe Miks (21 points) both buried a pair of 3-pointers in the opening quarter.
While senior Titus Reed (eight points) had a quiet game offensively, he was the difference in the first half dominating the defensive boards and spearheading the Chargers’ defense that forced several turnovers.
“We told Titus he was the difference in that first half,” Schimpeler said.
The Tigers didn’t have a single offensive rebound in the first quarter. All dozen of Lakewood’s first-quarter points came on 3-pointers by seniors Kolton Peterson (15 points) and Brandt Christy.
Lakewood (6-3, 1-1) struggled with Chatfield’s pressure defense that put the Tigers in a 34-12 deficit early in the second quarter.
“Chatfield is Chatfield. They put the foot on the neck and they don’t care if you work or not,” Lakewood coach Daryl Johnson said. “It’s an honor to play against them because they always work.”
Lakewood’s Jacob Storey had 18 points in the loss to Chatfield. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
The Chargers kept their foot on the gas scoring 27 points in the third quarter to extend their lead to 74-38. Chatfield showed off its depth with 32 points off the bench, led by senior Landon Rodgers (16 points).
“We are confident in our bench,” Rodgers said. “We know the second group that comes in is just as good and can compete with the first group.”
Saturday’s win pushed Chatfield’s conference winning streak to 18 games, dating back to the 2014-15 season. The Chargers last league loss came against Arvada West on Feb. 15, 2015.
“We don’t really try to worry about it too much,” St. Germain said of Chatfield’s conference winning streak. “We just want to keep moving forward.”
Chatfield returns to the court against the last Jeffco team to hand it a loss. The Chargers travel to A-West (5-6, 2-0) for a 7 p.m. tipoff Wednesday, Jan. 11.
Despite just two games into league play, the winner of Wednesday’s game will stand alone atop the conference with a 3-0 mark.
“It’s always good to go beat another good team and Lakewood is a good team, but it’s just another game,” Schimpeler said. “We’ll enjoy it tonight. It’s gone tomorrow and will be just a memory. There is more work to do.”
Lakewood senior Jacob Storey ended up leading the Tigers in scoring with 18 points in the loss.
The Tigers’ three losses so far this season has all come against ranked 5A teams — No. 3 ThunderRidge, No. 7 Chatfield and No. 9 Cherokee Trail. Lakewood continues its challenging schedule with a non-conference game against No. 4 Denver East at 7 p.m. Monday at Lakewood High School.
“I can’t tell you how much that tape will be looked at. It’s going to be so educational for them. That tape might just be played while we practice,” Johnson said of how he will use the video from the 32-point loss to Chatfield as a tool moving forward. “We’ve got East on Monday is going to be similar pressure, just faster. We’ll have to be ready on Monday.”
Lakewood gets back into 5A Jeffco action at Columbine on Wednesday and at home against A-West on Friday.
Chatfield has an 18-game Class 5A Jeffco League winning streak dating back to the 2014-15 season. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Ralston Valley senior Ashley Van Sickle passes the ball while driving the lane. More photos (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
LAKEWOOD — Round 1 went to Ralston Valley’s girls basketball team Thursday night at Lakewood High School.
The Mustangs (8-1 overall, 1-0 in league), ranked No. 2 in the current CHSAANow.com Class 5A girls hoops poll, got out of the 5A Jeffco League gate in style with a 48-35 road victory over No. 6 Lakewood (5-4, 0-1).
“Coming out and winning on their home court is really big for us,” said Ralston Valley senior Michaela Shaklee, who had four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points. “It’s a good way to start out league.”
Ralston Valley and Lakewood have dominated 5A Jeffco for the past several years. Since Arvada West won the conference title in 2010, either the Mustangs or Tigers have stood atop the league. The past two seasons both finished with identical 13-1 league marks, splitting the two meetings against each other.
Lakewood junior Camilla Emsbo, left, looks for room to operate Thursday. More photos (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“We’ve shared two league championships with them, so to get the away win is important,” Ralston Valley junior Samantha Van Sickle said.
The second meeting during the league season between the two Jeffco powerhouses is scheduled for Jan. 27 at Ralston Valley High School.
“You know Lakewood is going to be full go next time, but it’s nice to know you have one in hand going back to your home court,” Ralston Valley coach Jeff Gomer said. “It’s turned into a nice rivalry. Chris (Lakewood coach Chris Poisson) is a great friend. The kids get a long and it’s always competitive.”
Ralston Valley had great success from long range early on Thursday night making five 3-pointers in the first quarter to jump out to a 15-7 lead. However, the Mustangs went cold in the second quarter and didn’t score until nearly three minutes left before halftime.
Lakewood’s 7-0 run cut the Mustangs’ lead to 15-14.
“We hit some early and started depending on it in the first half way too much,” Gomer said of the 3-pointers. “The second half I thought we did a better job of breaking it down and getting our 3-pointers off a kick outs instead of just firing them up.”
Ralston Valley put up 21 points in the third quarter to take a double-digit lead heading to the final quarter. Senior Sarah Bevington (10 points) got going on the inside and senior Ashley Van Sickle (14 points) hit a pair of floaters in the lane to take control of the game.
Ralston Valley’s Ashley Van Sickle (5) puts a layup over Lakewood’s Jessica Woodhead. More photos (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“The game was played the way we needed it to be played,” Poisson said. “(Ralston Valley) just had more firepower. You could see that in the second half.”
The Tigers were shorthanded without a pair of starters because of injury. Juniors Hannah Renstrom and Kira Emsbo both missed the conference opener, but Poisson said both should be back within the next few weeks.
“Lakewood is still a really good team even without its two starters,” Shaklee said. “I think we really have to be careful with the (Emsbo) twins because they are so talented. We’ve got to be ready when we get them at our house.”
Lakewood’s 6-foot-4 junior Camilla Emsbo led the way for the Tigers with 14 points in the loss.
“We aren’t in the position we wanted to be with so many injuries, but we fought well,” Camilla Emsbo said. “It wasn’t the result we wanted. You can’t win them all.”
It was the first home game for Lakewood this season. The game was emotional for Poisson. It was the first home game without his assistant coach and father, Joe Poisson, by his side. Joe — longtime girls basketball coach at Arvada High School before joining his son’s coaching staff — passed away unexpectedly last spring after a heart attack.
The Tigers have also dealt with the death of Mackenzie Forrest, who passed away after a tragic car accident shortly after Forrest led Lakewood to the state 5A quarterfinals last season to finish her remarkable prep hoops career.
“Everything has been tough,” Poisson said of the losses of his father and Forrest. “I went to a coaches clinic in the fall. My dad would have picked me up. It’s tough, but I’m glad we have those memories.”
Ralston Valley senior Michaela Shaklee (11) dribbles through Lakewood players Thursday night. More photos (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Tim Yount of On The Mat provides weekly wrestling rankings for teams and individuals in all weight classes. To see individual rankings, you can subscribe to On The Mat’s full rankings.
To subscribe via PayPal, choose your subscription option on this page click on the corresponding PayPal button. To subscribe by mail or fax and pay by personal check, click here for a printable subscription form. Email Tim Yount at tim@onthematrankings.com with questions.
To purchase individual weeks of the rankings (as opposed to the entire season), you will need to use the printable subscription form and pay by check. The season ranking subscriptions are offered at a discounted rate.
As the New Year comes along it usually takes brings with it the shift of non-league into league contests, but Saturday the Continental and Centennial leagues resolve unfitted business.
The CHSAANow.com No. 5 Cherry Creek Bruins take on the defending Class 5A champion ThunderRidge Grizzlies.
This is a big game for both teams as they look to get their seasons filled with high expectations back on track. The Grizzlies (4-6 overall) are off to a slow start but look to be contenders in the Continental League accompanied by Highlands Ranch and Regis Jesuit.
The Bruins (4-4) on the other hand, have suffered only one in-state loss. That came at the hands of No. 2 Ralston Valley. All other Bruin losses were suffered in out-of-state games. Two of the ThunderRidge losses were in out-of-state games.
Multiple big time players have been added to the roster this year and are already making an impact for the team. One of which is senior guard and St. Leo University commit Delaney Bernard.
“It’s been an easy transition and this team feels like a family more than any other team I’ve played on,” Bernard said. “I’m extremely excited for the season to start picking up, I think this team works well together and we can do great things together.”
The Bruins have also been plagued with inactives early in the season so the team will only get more dangerous as players return to action.
“We will only be that much better,” Bernard said. “Everyone is looking forward to when we have everyone back and playing.”
As the team progresses along in the year, they will pickup new weapons and new ways to attack which may wreak havoc on opposing coaching trying to gameplan. That havoc starts on Saturday.
“My mentality and I know the rest of the teams going into this game is to focus on what we do,” Bernard said. “(Doing) those things best will lead us to a win.”
MONUMENT — Prior to Wednesday’s Class 4A top 10 showdown between Sand Creek and Lewis-Palmer, Rangers coach Bill Benton couldn’t help but point out that the Scorpions had two distinct advantages.
They were No. 25 and No. 4 on the roster.
Almost prophetically, it was D’Shawn Schwartz and Jeffrey Gary – the two players Benton referenced – who carried Sand Creek to a 74-66 win.
The Sand Creek dynamic duo was firing on all cylinders early and often. The Scorpions (9-1 overall, 1-0 Pikes Peak Athletic Conference) jumped out to a 6-2 lead as Schwartz and Gary each knocked down a 3-pointer on their first shots of the game.
They would combine to connect on eight more before the night was over.
“With two kids that can knock it down like that, it spreads the floor,” Sand Creek coach Rob Hawkins said. “We run our entire offense through those two guys. The biggest thing is we were able to get the ball to other guys.”
Devon Young added 10 for the Scorpions, getting most of them on easy shots under the basketball when the Lewis-Palmer defense collapsed on Schwartz who led the game with 33 points.
But it was the focus on what Sand Creek was going to defensively that took the Rangers (4-3, 0-1) away from what they do best as a team. Benton spoke with regret after the game, acknowledging that worrying about what the other team’s style rather than concentrating on what his guys do well ending up hurting.
“Over the last week, I changed part of my focus and I think our guys were hurt by it,” Benton said. “We are a defensive-minded team and we spent a lot of the last couple days focusing what (Sand Creek) was going to do to us defensively. Scoring 66 points, we weren’t struggling on the offensive end.”
Sand Creek came into the game with rhythm on offense partially because they had already seen game action since the end of the holiday break. They beat Palmer 87-53 on Monday night, the first day completion was allowed.
Schwartz exploded for 43 points in that win, just setting the tone for what he needed to do to knock off the defending PPAC champions.
“It helped us prepare,” Schwartz said. “We had a good game, we could get some rest get a little bit of practice and get some shots up.”
The Rangers are a very different team from what they were a year ago. They lost key seniors from a team that ran the table in league, but were able to get solid production from Joel Scott and Billy Cook.
Cook led the team with 21 points and Scott added 13.
“Joel had a heck of a game,” Schwartz said. “I didn’t expect him to come out blazing like he did. I knew even though they graduated a lot of players that they’d be tough. Their coaching is great.”
The most important thing for Benton as a coach is to make sure his boys learn from defeat. The last time Lewis-Palmer lost a PPAC game was back on Feb. 18, 2015 to eventual state champion Air Academy.
“We have our goals in our team room,” Cook said. “This loss, we have to learn from it, but it’s not going to affect any of those long term goals. Coach said it’s a good loss as long as we learn from it.”
And for the Scorpions, opening league play with a win over the defending champion is a good message to send.
“I was good with this,” Hawkins said. “It was nerve-racking. They beat some good teams. They were good. I knew they were going to be tough.”
Pomona senior Jason Romero has control of his match against Chatfield junior Earl C. Manzanares on Wednesday night. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
ARVADA — The defending Class 5A state wrestling team champion Pomona Panthers are loaded with talent in an attempt to add a third team state title over five seasons.
“I think this is probably the deepest team we’ve had. We’ve got a lot of good solid wrestlers on this team,” Pomona coach Sam Federico said after a 62-0 dual victory over Chatfield on Wednesday night. “It’s a fun year. We’ve got a group with a lot of top-notch kids.”
Pomona currently has 10 wrestlers ranked in the top-5 in their weight class. The state-wide recognized rankings are Tim Yount’s On the Mat rankings.
While the rankings are always something that must be proved down at the three-day state championship at Pepsi Center in February, the Panthers have wrestlers that have already had great success at state. Sophomores Justin Pacheco, Colton Yapoujian, Theorius Robison, along with seniors Jason Romero, Nolan Krone and Uriah Vigil all placed at the 5A state tournament last season.
Pomona junior Xavier Herrera has his arm raised after a victory at 152 pounds. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“There has been teams like this in the past,” Pomona senior Brandon Micale said. “The Arvada West team (back-to-back team titles in 2014 and 2015) a couple of years ago were like this. It’s nice to have the No. 1 ranking on your back, but we have to show up at Pepsi Center and prove that we deserve it.”
One missing piece this year is senior Cameron Gonzales, who was the state runner-up at 170 pounds. The all-state football running back broke his lower leg in the 5A state semifinal in November.
Federico, who has been with Pomona’s wrestling program for a dozen years, said there is still a chance that Gonzales could get back on the mat to compete at the state-qualifying regional tournament. Pomona will be in the 5A Region 1 tournament at Palmer High School in Colorado Springs on Feb. 10 and 11. The state tournament is scheduled for Feb. 16-18 at Pepsi Center.
“Last year we won state with one state (individual) champ. The year before we had four state champs and lost. I don’t know which is better to be honest with you,” said Federico, who admitted he is still moving wrestlers around when it comes to weight classes to put together the strongest line-up. “Wrestling is an individual sport and I want state champs. That’s what these kids are after. Our goal is to have (individual) state titles and if the team title comes with that it’s great too.”
Pomona had a busy couple of weeks coming up. The Panthers have road duals against Windsor and Ralston Valley on back-to-back nights — Jan. 11 and 12. The Panthers follow that up with the Arvada West Invite on Saturday, Jan. 14. The next week Pomona will take part in the two-day Top of the Rockies tournament at Centaurus High School Jan. 20 and 21.
Chatfield junior Earl C. Manzanares, facing, looks to escape. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“January is definitely a meat grinder, but that is what makes you better,” said Romero, who pinned Chatfield junior and state qualifier Earl C. Manzanares on Wednesday night. “Wrestling tough kids day-after-day is what makes you good. That is what makes Pomona so great. We are always chasing the toughest competition we can.”
Romero is one of the Panthers who will head to Fresno, CA this weekend for the two-day Doc Buchanan Invitational at Clovis High School.
The Panthers have already had success on the national level. Pomona won the 84-team Reno Tournament before winter break. Robison — Pomona’s lone returning state champion — won his weight class in Reno.
“It’s a big stretch here with four weeks in a row with tough tournaments,” Federico said. “Hopefully we come out of those in better shape and not injured to head toward regionals and the state tournament, that’s the plan.”
The goals and aspirations go beyond the wrestling mat for the Panthers.
“We want to keep pushing ourselves. Not only on the wrestling room, but also in our academics, or school and how we are as people,” Romero said. “We want to be all we can be all-around.”
Pomona will attempt to win the program’s fifth Class 5A state team title next month at Pepsi Center. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
