(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

The first full week of football games is in full swing for Friday night. Contests across the state will have implications not just for this week, but a playoff picture that will evolve over the course of the season.

There are several games that can be heard through various radio broadcasts in Colorado.

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Lamar at (1A 2) Limon

Game time: 7 p.m. kick.

Station: KLMR 920

On the call: Ethan Denton

Denton on the matchup: “The young Savages may have their hands full tonight on the road against the Badgers, who return QB Cannan Bennett and RB Hauk Hubbard who hope lead Limon to a deep playoff run. Lamar sophomore QB Zane Rankin will make his first start against a Badger defense which posted six shutouts in 2017.”

Listen on 920 AM or at klmr920.com.

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Grand Junction at Montrose

Game time: 7 p.m. kick.

Station: The Team 1340

On the call: Greg Wentzel (Play by Play), Reo Van Gilder (Color)

Van Gilder on the matchup: “Montrose ran for 159 yards on 41 carries against Grand Junction Central last week, and found some success through the air. Sophomore quarterback Keegan Goodwin showed nice touch and good awareness in his first varsity start. Grand Junction’s AJ Mariz found some success in his first start, as well. Grand Junction’s defense kept stopping Palmer on fourth down, giving Mariz and running back Carson Loveridge short fields all day. Two running teams and physical defenses in this one, should be a smash-mouth affair.”

Listen on 1340 AM or at TheTeam1340.com.

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Sterling at Eaton

Time: 7 p.m. kick.

Station: KFKA 1310

On the call: Clark Johnson (Play by Play), Mike Danson (Color)

Preps director Tanner Schwindt on the matchup: “For Eaton and Sterling it’ll be the third matchup in the last two years for the two teams but both look remarkably different. It will be more of a feeling out process for Eaton and a bounce back week for Sterling.”

Listen on 1310 AM or at 1310kfka.com.

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Pagosa Springs at (2) La Junta

Time: 7 p.m. kick

Station: KBLJ 1400

On the call: Pat McGee (Play by Play), Chas Phillips (Color)

KBLJ on the matchup: “Look for the Tiger offense to basically be the same. Not much of a change as of what the offense looks like. Defense as always will be the key to victory. If they play like they did against Raton they should be fine.”

Listen on 1400 AM or at network1sports.com/station/kblj.

LITTLETON — Cameron Gail had the lone goal, and No. 7 Arapahoe boys soccer beat rival Heritage 10 on Thursday.

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ARVADA — It was a first for Arvada West junior Judah Johnston on Wednesday night at the North Area Athletic Complex.

“That’s the first PK (penalty kick) I’ve every missed in my life,” said Johnston, who scored 14 goals for the Wildcats’s boys soccer team last season. “I told (A-West coach Troy Gette) I would score for him and he put me right back on.”

Standley Lake goalie Kevin Ruzicka (00) is able to keep A-West junior Jonah Werner from getting off a shot on goal. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

Standley Lake senior goalie Kevin Ruzika was just able to get a hand on Johnston’s PK midway through he second half. The ball hit the post and was cleared out by Standley Lake junior Sawyer Bundgaard to keep the non-league game between Class 5A and 4A Jeffco teams scoreless.

Johnston did atone for the miss with 10 minutes remaining in regulation time to score the lone and game-winning goal in a 1-0 victory for A-West.

“He (Johnston) is a cool goal scorer. He has all the confidence in the world,” Gette said. “We can lean on his pretty heavily. I wasn’t worried about him.”

Junior Gabe Wills fed a pass to Johnston in the Gators’ goal box. Johnston had just found a seam between several Standley Lake defenders in the 70th minute.

“Gabe saw the run I was making and played me through,” Johnston said of his fifth goal of the season through three games. “It was me one-on-one and I just slotted it back post.”

A-West’s Gabe Wills (8) and Standley Lake’s Calvin Goetz (3) battle for possession Wednesday night at NAAC. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

It was the third straight shutout victory for A-West (3-0 record). Johnston commented that he is even surprised the Wildcats haven’t given up a goal in 240 minutes of action.

“Standley Lake has been a rival team for awhile,” Johnston said. “We’ve had some tough games with them the last two years. It was a good win for us.”

A big reason for the defensive prowess is sophomore Kyler Tate. Standley Lake (2-2-1) had only a few scoring chances on A-West senior goalie Latham Kleckner with Tate running the defensive back for the Wildcats.

“Kyler is a stud back there,” Gette said of his center back defender. “He keeps the back four really organized and allows us to push numbers in different places.”

Despite being just a sophomore, Tate loves the pressure role.

Standley Lake junior Christian Lee (8) blocks the path of A-West sophomore Eli Ross during the first half. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

“I like to be the last line of defense,” Tate said. “It’s a great feeling to make a game-saving tackle.”

Tate actually helped seal the victory late. Standley Lake senior Tate Minch took a direct free kick just outside the Wildcats’ goalie box in the final minutes. Tate was able to get a head on Minch’s kick to prevent it from getting on goal.

“We play hard and go hard for every 50/50 ball,” Tate said of the A-West defense. “We all work for each other.”

A-West has more than a week before its next game. The Wildcats travel to Grandview on Sept. 6.

Standley Lake has been in a close game in all five matches this season. A pair of 1-goal wins, a pair of 1-goal losses and a 1-1 tie on the road against Niwot the day before the loss to A-West. The Gators head to Brighton to face the Bulldogs on Sept. 4.

A-West junior Judah Johnston, middle, uses his head between Standley Lake juniors Sawyer Bundgaard and Christian Lee. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

MONUMENT — Dating back to 2017, Castle View volleyball coach Scott Dowis knew that he was going to have a major youth movement this year.

The writing was on the wall because his roster was just full of seniors who would be departing at the conclusion of the season. The good news is they departed with the 2017 Class 5A state championship.

Wednesday night it was time to see if the younger girls on the roster were ready to step up. A 25-18, 25-13, 22-25, 25-22 win over Palmer Ridge would certainly indicate that the new crop of Sabercats were ready to take on the roles they been groomed for last season.

“We knew it was coming, it wasn’t a surprise,” Dowis said. “We were preparing for this year last year with some of our underclassmen who were going to have to fill some spots at a very young age. This is great experience for us. Palmer Ridge is a very quality opponent. We looked like a team that you wouldn’t guess a player isn’t playing the same position this year as they did last year; it’s a completely new lineup and they looked pretty good.”

The 5A No. 3 Sabercats (1-0 overall) took the first two sets from the Bears (1-1) with more ease than the final two sets offered.

Palmer Ridge, the No. 5 team in the 4A poll, closed the gap somewhat in the second set and used that momentum to prevent the Sabercats from driving north on I-25 with a sweep.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

“For a young team, because we are a young team, it was a huge momentum swing which was awesome,” Palmer Ridge coach Trevor Sullivan said. “We came out and scored as many points as we could in that second set. It helped us build into the third and we just used our big hitters. We had a nothing to lose mentality and swung away. We passed well, we served well.”

Like the Sabercats, the Bears are going through somewhat of a transformation. Sullivan is entering his first year as coach and a trio of talented freshmen from a year ago is no longer with the program.

But Sullivan saw a team that maintained a competitive fire from a year ago and can use a loss to a team like Castle View to get better and prepare them for tougher teams down the road, including potentially the toughest league in all of 4A.

“We have the luxury of playing great teams all the team,” Sullivan said. “Our conference is pretty tough and we have the defending state champions down the road. It’s great, it keeps our competitive level up.”

With a new lineup filing onto the court, the Sabercats are also bringing a new mentality into 2018. A repeat of a state championship would be nice, but the players know that in order to accomplish any major feat, this team has to go through a different journey than last year’s team did.

“Our mode and our mindset is always just to focus on this match and focus on every point,” junior Leanne Lowry said. “Obviously last year was great but we have different goals we want to accomplish.”

Lowry will be a key component in accomplishing those goals. She played libero last season but has moved to outside hitter this year. She led the Sabercats with 14 kills. That’s 12 better than her season total for all of 2017.

It’s all part of new Castle View team. The jerseys might look the same, but the girls, the on-court movements and, more importantly, the identity of this team is all brand new.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

LITTLETON — Arapahoe boys tennis swept its match against Chatfield on Wednesday, 7-0.

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The Overland gymnastics team finished as the Class 5A state meet runners-up by a mere fraction of a point last season.

Read the full story from the Aurora Sentinel.

DENVER — Greeley West boys soccer, a Class 5A team, moved to 2-0-1 this season with a 2-1 win over 4A No. 7 Kennedy on Wednesday.

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(Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)

A light slate of football games for Week 1 provided plenty of excitement. But the appetizer is over and the Week 2 main course is set to provide the first full slate of football games for 2018.

Thursday night kicks off the action with some very intriguing matchups. Two of those games can be heard state-wide through radio broadcasts.

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(2) Broomfield at (3) Loveland

Time: 6:30 p.m. kick.

Station: KFKA 1310

One the call: Tanner Schwindt (Play by Play), Mike Danson (Color)

Schwindt on the matchup: “Look for a lot of ground and pound. The No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the state, respectively, both got there by running the ball and playing some great defense. Look for more of that when the game kicks off.”

Listen on 1310 AM or at 1310kfka.com.

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(7) Durango at (4) Palisade

Time: 7 p.m. kick.

Station: The Team 1340

On the call: Reo Van Gilder (Play by Play), Jeff Grady (Color)

Van Gilder on the matchup: “Palisade has a lot of production to replace offensively, losing their top two rushers and significant pieces along the offensive line. Terrance Willams and Austin Bernal did a lot on both sides of the ball for Joe Ramunno’s squad, so they will have to be replaced. Offensively, they do bring back Cameron Tucker under center, so that should help steady any nerves on that side of the ball.”

Listen on AM 1340 or online at theteam1340.com.

ARVADA — Hitting was contagious Tuesday afternoon at Arvada West High School.

A-West and Golden softball teams combined for 29 hits to score 22 runs in the non-league game between the Class 5A Jeffco and 4A Jeffco squads. When the dust settled, the Wildcats came away with a 15-7 victory in A-West’s home opener.

“We started off maybe a little slow, but once the girls settled in and were a little more selective with the pitches they were attacking they were able to string things together,” A-West coach Brenna Millikan said. “The top part of our line-up kind of sets the tone, but when we are successful its when that bottom half is really coming through.”

Golden junior Makayla Middleton gets the scoring fest going Tuesday with a lead-off triple. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

Golden (2-5 record) actually held a 5-4 lead through two innings. Senior Cassidy Paulson had an RBI single and Golden’s twin sisters Makayla and Makenzie Middleton highlighted a 4-run top of the second inning for the Demons with an RBI single by Makayla and a 2-run triple by Makenzie off A-West starting junior pitcher Isabelle Schwien.

The Demons extended their lead to 7-4 with Katherine Dunson and Kaela Fajardo scoring in the top of the third inning, but it was all A-West from there on out. The Wildcats (6-2) scored 11 unanswered runs, all coming in the bottom of the third and fourth innings.

“Our start of the line-up got us going and the bottom half fed off of that,” said A-West senior Christaana Angelopulos, who went 4-for-5 with three RBIs. “Once we get one through nine hitting we are unstoppable. Everyone just needs to contribute. We’ll be good.”

The seven, eight and nine A-West batters — Jadyn Sabell, Taylor Kahl and Alexis Folks — combined to go 7-for-10 with seven runs scored. The Wildcats put the icing on their offensive outburst with junior Shelby Robb racing around the bases after a fly ball to right field was mishandled to score the final three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.

A-West sophomore Savannah Clausen relieved Schwien to start the top of the fourth inning and was able to squelch the hot Demon bats. Clausen was able to scatter five hits in pitching four scoreless innings.

A-West sophomore Savannah Clausen pitched four scoreless innings of relieve against Golden. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

“Savannah went out there and kind of kept them off-balance, got us more ground ball outs,” Millikan said. “She has done a really good job for us and when she goes out there with a lot of energy the team feels that.”

The sophomore said her strong outing was a big confident boost. Clausen was tagged with the loss in her last outing when the Wildcats lost 13-8 to Prairie View on Aug. 24.

“I wasn’t nervous,” Clausen said coming into the game to start the fourth inning with the Wildcats holding a 9-7 lead. “I knew our team would get it together and shut them down.”

The Wildcats play just two games in the Eric Tournament of Championships coming up this weekend. However, A-West will get two hard tests against Loveland (6-0) and Broken Arrow (10-2) from Oklahoma.

Golden has a bit of a break before playing in the Berthoud Tournament coming up the following weekend.

“It’s a rough schedule and it doesn’t let up,” Golden coach Chad Herbers said. “We’ve seen some really good pitchers this entire non-league and today was no different. Today we made some good adjustments on the offensive side.”

While Herbers like what he saw from the plate with his Demons, he knows his team needs to figure things out to reach their high expectations.

“We’ve just got to tie both sides (offense and defense) together,” Herbers said. “If we have any aspirations of going not only to the postseason —but deep into the postseason — we’ve got to play these teams, mentally adjust and get through it.”

A-West shortstop Christaana Angelopulos fields and fires a throw to first base during the Wildcats’ 15-7 victory against Golden. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

GREENWOOD VILLAGE — No. 2 Cherry Creek field hockey beat Mountain Vista 4-1 on Tuesday, and is now 2-0 this season.

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