LAKEWOOD — Chatfield football coach Bret McGatlin put trust into his offensive line and running backs Malcolm Boyd and Hunter Barnes with the game on the line Friday night at Jeffco Stadium.
Boyd scored on a 13-yard touchdown run on a fourth-down play to cut Wheat Ridge’s lead to 28-27 with 36.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Instead of kicking the game-tying extra-point, McGatlin kept his offense on the field to go for a 2-point conversion.
“I was just trusting my linemen and they did their job,” said Barnes, who ran in the 2-point conversion to give Chatfield a trilling 29-28 victory in a Class 4A Jeffco League opener.
Chatfield junior Malcolm Boyd (5) scores on a 33-yard touchdown run in the first quarter Friday. Boyd had three touchdowns in the Chargers’ dramatic 29-28 victory. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Wheat Ridge had taken a 28-21 lead with 5:58 left on a 1-yard touchdown run by senior quarterback Anthony Tate. However, the Farmers (3-3, 0-1 in league) couldn’t stop Chatfield from marching 73 yards on 15 plays.
The Chargers ran the ball 11 times on their final drive. Chatfield went to their signature single-file offensive line up that McGatlin’s father Don McGatlin used to use when he was the head coach up at Green Mountain.
“I thought about going to it earlier, but I did that against Greeley West and they shut it down,” Bret McGatlin said. “I wanted to make sure we had time left to run those plays late in the game.”
Chatfield converted on three fourth-down plays and new starting quarterback Matthew Canino completed a huge pass to senior Charlie Wildermuth to get the Chargers’ down to the 13-yard line before Boyd scored his third touchdown of the game.
“A couple of penalties and we jumped offsides,” Wheat Ridge coach Stacy Coryell said of the Farmers unable to stop the Chargers on the eventual game-winning drive. “We just have to be more disciplined. I loved the spirit of the kids.”
The Farmers fell behind 14-0, but battled back to tie things up 14-14 thanks to a 41-yard touchdown run by junior Nick Von Feldt and 75-yard scoring run by sophomore Rocco Tate.
Wheat Ridge senior quarterback Anthony Tate (4) scrambles for yardage while being chased down by Chatfield senior Anthony Johnston on Friday at Jeffco Stadium. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Von Feldt came into Friday’s late afternoon tilt after back-to-back 200-yard games on the ground. Von Feldt also found the end zone eight times in the two victories over Centaurus and Liberty.
“I’ve seen Wheat Ridge a lot and they are getting better and better,” McGatlin said. “They have some tough players. It’s Wheat Ridge. I think that area just has players that are football tough. I knew it would be a battle.”
Anthony Tate completed a pair of long passes to Bryce Shutto and his younger brother Rocco in the final seconds, but after the catch by Rocco at Chatfield’s 15-yard line, time expired.
“It hurts, but well regroup,” Coryell said. “Got to get ready for Bear Creek now.”
Chatfield (4-2, 1-0) came into the start of conference play not only with a 2-game losing streak, but the Chargers also lost their starting quarterback — senior Zack Yanda — for likely the remainder of the regular season. Yanda went down last week in the overtime loss to Greeley West.
“It’s one of those years where we are just going to have to find ways to win,” McGatlin said.
The Chargers head up to the North Area Athletic Complex to face Golden at 4 p.m. next Friday night.
Wheat Ridge sophomore Rocco Tate (2) attempts to weave through Chatfield’s defense in the first half Friday at Jeffco Stadium. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
DENVER — Trailing by two scores, Smoky Hill football roared back with 24 unanswered points to seize control of its huge league matchup against Denver East on Friday evening.
The Buffaloes would use that momentum swing and turn it into a 30-20 victory, improving to 7-0 in the process. More important: The Buffaloes are now 6-0 in the 10-team Metro 10 League, the lone remaining unbeaten. They control their own postseason destiny from this point.
“That’s one of the great wins I would tell you I’ve ever had in terms of grit,” said veteran coach Tom Thenell, in his first year as Smoky Hill’s coach, but third decade as the head of a program. “Grit and determination. They just turned the tide. It’s a great bunch of kids.”
Denver East raced out to a 14-0 lead early in the first quarter on two passing touchdowns from sophomore Myles Patterson. The lead held up through halftime.
During the break, Smoky Hill junior Vincent King implored the team to calm down and have fun, according to senior David Hoage. Thenell referenced former NBA player and coach Rudy Tomjanovich: “Don’t underestimate the heart of the champion.”
“That’s about all I could say to my guys: ‘You guys want to be champions, you’re going to have to come out in the second half with heart and win this second half,’” Thenell said.
The defense led the way, starting with a safety off a poor snap with 2:04 remaining in the third quarter.
“I just think it juiced our confidence, flipped a switch there,” Thenell said of the safety.
Smoky Hill turned the ensuing possession into points when 5-foot-8, 175-pound running back Obasanjo Sanni plunged in for a 1-yard score. It was 14-9 at that point — eight seconds remained in the third quarter — and Smoky Hill had all the momentum.
“I felt the momentum before the touchdown even happened,” Hoage said. “As a team, we go off people’s vibes. … The touchdown, it made us strive to be better.”
Denver East got the ball back, but Smoky Hill forced the Angels to punt. And then Smoky Hill’s Chase Lyons partially blocked that punt. It went about 20 yards in the air, where Hoage caught it, and returned it for a score.
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
“I couldn’t have done it without Chase getting that punt block in,” Hoage said. “I love playing with him. He sets the tone, and we make big plays happen. It wasn’t my touchdown, it was a defensive touchdown. It was all of ours. We share it as a team.”
Suddenly, a sluggish start for Smoky Hill had been erased. The Buffaloes led 17-14 after a two-point conversion.
They didn’t stop there.
Smoky junior Xavier Gulick intercepted a pass on the next drive and returned it for a score. It made the score 24-14 with 10:48 to play, off 24 unanswered points. Smoky Hill’s defense and special teams had scored 16 of those points.
“Our defense turned the game around,” Thenell said.
Denver East responded quickly with an 80-yard touchdown from Patterson to Elijah Ewing, but the extra point missed, to cut the lead to 24-20.
Smoky Hill’s offense chewed up some clock, leading to a 26-yard field goal from Elisha Brown that made it 27-20 with 4:26 to go.
The Buffs’ defense then came up with a big stop, forcing a turnover on downs, and Brown added another field goal with 51 seconds left to put the game out of reach.
“We have a kicker that right now, field goal-wise, he’s as good as anybody out there,” Thenell said. “He was money in the clutch.”
In terms of a league win, it was about as big as they come. Both teams entered 5-0 in league play, so Smoky Hill is now alone in first place in the Metro 10. They also own now a head-to-head tiebreak over Denver East, one of two one-loss teams in the league.
In short, they will control whether or not they make the postseason via the league’s automatic berth.
“It’s huge,” Thenell said. “We’re in the driver’s seat. When you can control your own destiny, that makes your life in athletics easier.”
Added Hoage: “League champions? That’s what we want to be.”
LITTLETON — Montrose has no problem grinding a team down with runs between the tackles. That’s because at any given moment one of the running backs will break through a huge hole created by the offensive line or an opposing defense will load the box allowing for a big (yet rare) pass play.
That’s summing up Montrose’s Wing-T offense to, well, a T.
The Class 4A No. 3 Indians gave No. 5 Heritage fits on offense to come away with a 54-28 win at Littleton Public Stadium on Friday night.
Montrose (6-0 overall, 1-0 4A Metro) was powered by a well-balanced attack that saw Emmert Kastendieck run for three touchdowns and Keagan Goodwin have an efficient day through the air, including finding Chris Eckerman for a 22-yard touchdown pass in the closing minutes of the first half.
“We haven’t shown a lot of that,” Montrose coach Brett Mertens said. “We’ve practiced them and it’s fun to see our kids complete them. It was cool to see.”
The first drive for the Indians was methodical as the ball mainly went to Eckerman who practically dragged the Eagles (5-1, 0-1) defense into the red zone.
Kastendieck finished off the drive with a five-yard touchdown run, the shortest of his three touchdown runs in the first half.
“We were really good, especially our line,” quarterback Keagan Goodwin said. “We work as a team and the line crushed it today.”
And they were just getting started. On the first play of the second offense drive for Montrose, Eckerman broke for a 58-yard touchdown, putting the Eagles on their heels early.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Heritage was able to find some offense and sustain a drive deep into Montrose territory where Gianni Palazzo ran for a three-yard touchdown to cut the Indians lead in half. Unfortunately for the home crowd, that would be the closest Heritage would be for the rest of the night.
“Those first two drives, their offensive line came out and showed what they were all about,” Heritage coach Tyler Knoblock said. “I tip my hat to them to how well they were prepared they were and how they played up front.”
The second half told more of the same story for both teams. Montrose was in a groove while Heritage seemed out of sorts. Conner Cummiskey was forced out of the pocket on the first Eagles drive and threw an interception to Zach Ubben to account for the first turnover for either side.
And then Eckerman made the Eagles pay. He broke for a 70-yard touchdown for Montrose’s fourth score of more than 20 yards. In all, Eckerman ran for 295 yards and scored three times on the ground and once on a reception. Two of his rushing touchdowns came on runs that started in Montrose territory.
“It was all on the o-line,” Eckerman said. “I had wide open holes. It was all the o-line.”
Cummiskey found Erik Olsen for a 23-yard touchdown pass to once again cut into the Montrose lead, but by that point the lead was too much to overcome.
“We need to be humble, but we’re feeling good,” Eckerman said. “We want to keep this going.”
With the loss for Heritage, Montrose now stands as one of two undefeated teams in 4A, Loveland being the other.
Heritage will look to rebound next week at Aurora Central.
The Indians hope to build on the momentum when they host Denver South next Friday. But any question as to whether or not the Indians are a top team in 4A were all but answered with Friday’s decisive win.
Hoehne took a big step toward securing a league championship in the Arkansas Valley with a win over Holly on Friday.
The third-ranked Farmers beat Holly 54-20.
Holly actually led the game 20-8 in the first quarter, meaning Hoehne ripped off 46 unanswered points.
“It was kind of scary at first,” coach Gabe Dasko told the Colorado Preps Scoreboard Show. “We made some defensive adjustments, and our kids kind of wore them down physically. Our kids are pretty physical.
“I mean, we’d rather play football in a phone booth,” Dasko continued. “They kind of spread you out, and they put you in some tough situations.”
Hoehne is now 5-1, and 4-0 in the Arkansas Valley. Every other team in the league has at least one loss.
“It’s not over yet,” Dasko said. “We’ve still got Wiley and McClave. We’re not good enough right now to take anybody lightly. McClave looks like they’re playing pretty decent right now. And we’ve just got to keep sharpening the edge on the knife for our kids, and getting better every week.”
Salida is now 6-0 after beating Pagosa Springs 35-7.
“I think last year set the table for us,” first-year Spartans coach Matt Luttrell told the Scoreboard Show. “The kids have been well-coached up to this point. Eric Handke did a great job kind of passing the baton on to me. And I’ve been around these kids since they were freshmen, as well. It’s just fun to be a part of. Last year definitely set the tone for us.”
6-man No. 1 Stratton/Liberty continued to roll, this time beating No. 9 Granada 52-12. The Knighted Eagles are 6-0.
Also unbeaten in 6-man are No. 2 Kit Carson (6-0) and No. 10 Mountain Valley (5-0). Mountain Valley has only scheduled eight games.
There are six unbeaten teams in 2A: No. 6 Basalt, No. 1 La Junta, No. 5 Resurrection Christian, No. 7 Salida, No. 2 Platte Valley and No. 3 Rifle. All are 6-0.
In 3A, No. 1 Erie, No. 6 Thomas Jefferson and No. 2 Discovery Canyon are all 6-0. No. 5 Harrison (5-0) plays Falcon on Saturday.
Undefeated teams in 1A: No. 4 Peyton (6-0) and No. 1 Limon (5-0). The Badgers play Yuma on Saturday.
Only No. 1 Loveland and No. 3 Montrose remain unbeaten in 4A. Both are 6-0.
Four teams are 7-0 in 5A: Smoky Hill, No. 1 Cherry Creek, No. 3 Columbine and No. 4 Eaglecrest. 6-0 Valor Christian plays Rock Canyon on Saturday.
There are four unbeaten teams in 8-man, and only No. 2 West Grand is 6-0 so far. No. 1 Sedgwick County, No. 5 Mancos and No. 6 Sanford all play Saturday. Sedgwick County, a three-time defending champion, has the longest winning streak in the state at 28 games.
