Chatfield players celebrate a goal by senior Kevin Peterson (10) in the first half Saturday at Lakewood Memorial Field. The Chargers ended Green Mountain’s 6-game winning streak. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
LAKEWOOD — Chatfield boys soccer team did a few things Saturday morning at Lakewood Memorial Field that no squad has done against Green Mountain this season.
The Chargers (4-0 record) ended the Rams’ 6-game winning streak where Green Mountain (6-1) had outscored opponents 22-0. Chatfield got first-half goals by senior Kevin Peterson (33rd minute) and Ben Cabot (38th minute) to take a 2-0 victory.
Chatfield senior goalie Taylor Oden was stellar in goal for the Chargers to record the third shutout victory of the season for Chatfield.
LAKEWOOD — Eaton’s offense really didn’t need to be on the football field Saturday afternoon at Trailblazer Stadium.
The Fightin’ Reds, ranked No. 9 in the CHSAANow.com Class 2A football poll, scored three defensive touchdowns and forced two other turnovers that allowed Eaton to start eventual touchdown drives inside D’Evelyn 20-yard line.
“This win is really big,” said Eaton sophomore Gage Butler after a 34-0 victory over No. 10 D’Evelyn. “To come out here and show our skills. It was a great win.”
D’Evelyn seniors Luca McIntyre (1) and Sam Bradley (2) work on bring down Eaton senior Ty Garnhart. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Eaton senior Henry Fritzler got the Reds going defensively recovering a fumble by D’Evelyn senior quarterback Evan Willis at midfield. The defensive lineman rumbled 50 yards into the end zone to give Eaton (2-0 record) an early 7-0 lead.
Butler came up big in the final minutes of the first half with a pair of touchdowns. He intercepted a pass from Willis and returned it 80 yards for the second defensive touchdown for the Reds with 1:12 left before halftime.
“I just saw the ball and played the ball,” Butler said of the interception and impressive return where he weaved his way into the end zone. “I was pretty tired on the way down there. The stiff arm won it.”
Another fumble by Willis in the final minute was recovered by Eaton senior Judson Church with 38 seconds left in the second quarter. Three plays later Butler scored from 2 yards out to push the lead to 20-0 with 8.9 seconds left before halftime.
“He (Bulter) is just an athlete and a competitor,” Eaton coach Zac Lemon said of his sophomore running back/defensive back. “I love it that is age doesn’t get to him. He doesn’t care about experience. He is taking advantage of his opportunity.”
D’Evelyn senior Daniel Brady goes up to make a catch Saturday afternoon at Trailblazer Stadium. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
A strange stat for the first half was Eaton ran just 13 offensive plays from scrimmage totaling 37 yards. D’Evelyn had 36 offensive plays from scrimmage for 141 yards, but the three Jaguar turnovers was the reason why D’Evelyn (1-1) trailed 20-0 at the break.
“You tell your kids to take care of the ball and if you don’t turn it over you’ll win the game,” D’Evelyn coach Jeremy Bennett said. “Early I though our offense was clicking. We kept shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Eaton sealed the victory scoring on back-to-back plays early in the fourth quarter. Sophomore quarterback Scott Grable connected with Church for a 19-yard touchdown coming off an interception by senior Alex Maravilla that set up the Reds in the redzone.
On the Jaguars’ next offensive play D’Evelyn senior running back Enzo Franzese took a hard hit and fumbled. Senior Ty Garnhart picked up the loose ball and ran it in from 13 yards out for the third defensive touchdown. The score put Eaton up 34-0 with 8:48 left in the fourth quarter.
“We were so excited about the way we played,” Lemon said. “We know we are really young and inexperience in our secondary, but they executed to perfection today. They excepted the challenge and step up today.”
The next challenge for Eaton will be No. 3 Platte Valley. The Reds host the Broncos (3-0) at 6 p.m. next Saturday, Sept. 15.
D’Evelyn returns to Trailblazer Stadium to host The Academy (2-0) at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14. It will be the Jaguars’ homecoming game.
“We’ll regroup. You’ve got to look at the mistakes and correct those,” Bennett said. “We’ve got to clean it up and fix it.”
D’Evelyn junior Thomas Lowry (14) tries to avoid the tackle attempt by Eaton junior Spencer Renfroe (24) during the first half Saturday at Trailblazer Stadium. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
ARVADA — Evergreen volleyball turned to its sister tandem of Claudia and Hayley Dillon to seal an impressive road victory Thursday night.
Claudia, senior and University of Missouri commit, and junior Hayley combined for a dozen kills and a couple of key blocks in the decisive 27-25 fourth-set victory for the Cougars (3-2 record).
Evergreen senior Claudia Dillon (15) puts down a spike over Ralston Valley’s Taylor Scherff (17) and Laurel Kelly. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“We didn’t say anything like get us (Dillon sisters) the ball, but I think everyone knows if Hayley or myself, or anyone else, get on a roll to just go to them,” Claudia said after the Cougars’ 3-1 victory. “Hayley was unstoppable on the front row. Once either of us got to the front row they just fed us the ball.”
Ralston Valley (2-2) actually grabbed a 25-17 first-set win to start off the non-league match against Evergreen, ranked No. 8 in the latest Class 4A volleyball CHSAANow.com poll. The Mustangs were led by seniors Natasha Eberle, Madeline Fitchett and junior Laurel Kelly in the opening set.
First-year coach Jess Sponenberg had the Mustangs off to a great start, but Evergreen won the next three sets 25-22, 25-18 and 27-25 to get the win.
“We’ve been working really hard on keeping other teams’ runs to a minimum,” Evergreen’s first-year coach Gail Andrews said. “That was really our focus in practice all week. I think that really helped us tonight.”
The domination up front and powerful spikes by Claudia and Hayley in the final three sets really changed the momentum. However, it took a full team effort to hold off Ralston Valley from forcing a fifth set.
On the final point Evergreen senior Skylar Gale’s serve eventually found the hand of Ralston Valley junior Marisa Jergensen for a spike attempt from the outside. Evergreen junior Gillian Hoerman was able block Jergensen’s hit to end the match.
Evergreen senior Skylar Gale hits a serve during the Cougars’ 3-1 victory over Ralston Valley. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“If you let those runs get too big you are kind of out of the game. We wanted to stop those runs and get a couple of our own,” Claudia said of the final set. “It was probably tighter than I would have liked it to be, but it was fun to see everyone pushed to the edge.”
Evergreen setter Katie Hays did a nice job getting the likes of Gabby Clark and Hoerman involved on the outside, but when the Cougars needed to get a critical point they looked to the Dillon sisters.
“We’ve got to keep moving the ball around or else we’ll get predictable. We’ve got a lot of good hitters,” Andrews said of getting everyone involved on the court. “A lot of the time we can count on Claudia and Hayley to get the job done, but I can say that about almost all my hitters.”
It was the first road victory for Evergreen on the season. The Cougars dropped non-league games against (4A) No. 5 Erie and (5A) No. 8 Chatfield last week.
“We are ready for league to start,” Claudia said as Evergreen heads to the Spartan Challenge this weekend before opening 4A Jeffco League play Sept. 11 against Wheat Ridge.
Ralston Valley hits the road to face Denver East next week on Sept. 11 before gearing up for its 5A Jeffco League opener Sept. 20 against rival Pomona.
Evergreen junior Gabby Clark (7) drive a hit between Ralston Valley’s Natasha Eberle (11) and Jamie Dorczuk (16) on Thursday night. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
PEYTON — Up two points in the fourth quarter, Peyton called for a toss to the left side intended for running back JD Hart. The senior was surprised to CSCS sophomore Joe Dunn in the backfield, seemingly in a perfect position to steal the pitch and make a dash for the end zone.
Both players had their hands on the ball, but Hart wanted it more. As did the Panthers. Hart made his way into the end zone on that play, paving the way for Class 1A No. 5 Peyton to come away with a 37-19 over CSCS on Thursday night.
“I kind of freaked out for a minute because I thought he was going to take the ball,” Hart said.
With good reason. The Panthers (2-0 overall) held just a two-point lead when that play happened. If Dunn comes up with it and takes it for a CSCS touchdown, the Lions (1-1) all of sudden would’ve been up four.
It was that much of a battle on Thursday.
CSCS started the game with the ball and gave Peyton a heavy dose of Peyton Brones on the ground. The junior got the Lions within striking distance and then Grant Baker finished the opening drive off with an 11-yard touchdown run.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
“We came out a little flat and they punched us in the mouth,” Peyton coach Richard Deems said. “They came out and they were ready to play. That’s a good football team and we knew that. We’ve had some tough battles with them before.”
The Panthers finally found a groove on the ground and it was Josh Gonzales scoring on a three-yard run that gave them a 7-6 lead. Trevor Walker pushed it to 15-6 right before halftime with a five-yard touchdown run.
Starting the second half, it looked like Peyton was poised to dominate as Walker found Brandon Hussey through the air for 25 yards. But then the Panthers started moving backwards. Momentum got stifled but it took the Lions a few drives to fully capitalize on those opportunities.
Brones scored his first touchdown on a two-yard run. Early in the fourth quarter Walker broke for a 39-yard touchdown run to once again make it a two-score game. Brones immediately answered with a 65-yard to once again put the Lions within two points.
Hart took over from there on out. On top of the nine-yard score where he ripped the ball away from Dunn, he also drove in the final nail with a 15-yard score. Overall he finished with 15 carries for 127 yards and two touchdowns.
“Hats off to Peyton, they took it when they needed to,” CSCS coach Jay Kersey said. “They ran the ball very well when they needed to.”
Before Hart’s last score of the game, the Lions still had a chance to battle back. Facing a 4th and 6, Caleb Stockton’s pass was picked off by Clay Sims.
With some of the defensive struggles early for Peyton, it was a confident booster for the game to be decided on a mentally sound defensive play.
“My read was just to watch the quarterback’s eyes and he came right across to me and I was able to step in and take it,” Sims said.
That was the key for the Panthers. When everything was on the line, they didn’t settle for wanting it. They got their hands on the ball and they took it.
