AURORA — Despite several inches of snow overnight Wednesday, the CHSAA state softball tournament at Aurora Sports Park looks to be on schedule for this weekend’s games.
A site visit on Thursday afternoon was very encouraging, and the fields were in great shape. As a result, starting on schedule at 10 a.m. is a real probability.
“The fields have drained very well, and are drying as we speak,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann, who oversees softball. “If there are any delays, they would be caused by any overnight frost.”
“Aurora Parks and Recreation have done a great job with these fields all year, and they will be in great shape for tournament the next two days,” Borgmann added.
Three classifications will play their tournaments at Aurora Sports Park on Friday and Saturday, with the first two rounds scheduled for Friday, and semifinals and championship games on Saturday. A total of 16 teams per classification qualify.
Littleton sophomore Oliver Garnica (8) controls the ball next to Green Mountain junior Blake McKibbin (11) on Tuesday night at Lakewood Memorial Field. The Lions took a 3-2 victory to clinch a postseason bid. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
LAKEWOOD — It was a win or go home situation Tuesday night at Lakewood Memorial Field.
Littleton and Green Mountain were both outside the top-32 in the boys soccer RPI heading into the Class 4A Jeffco League finale at Lakewood Memorial Field. However, the Lions (41st RPI) and Rams (35th RPI) were both in prime position to grab the conference runner-up spot to take an automatic bid to the 32-team state tournament that begins next week.
Green Mountain senior Greyson Gines (7) scored a pair of goals for the Rams on Tuesday night against Littleton, but it wasn’t enough. Green Mountain lost 3-2 to end the Rams’ season. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“We had a lot of ups and downs to be honest. We were both playing for the playoffs,” Littleton senior Jorge Aguilar said. “We worked really hard. I think we deserved to win.”
The Lions (6-7-2, 4-2 in 4A Jeffco) clinched the playoff bid that was up for grabs with a dramatic 3-2 victory, scoring a pair of goals in the final seven minutes for the come-from-behind win.
“It was a tough game. Both teams in the first half didn’t play well,” Littleton coach Pedja Vajzovic admitted. “Both teams played better in the second half. I think we had more possession second half, but they (Rams) were looked dangerous in the counter-attack. We got a little lucky with the PK in the last minute.”
Senior Sebastian Garnica scored the game-winning goal with 25 seconds left in regulation. Garnica took a penalty kick that the Lions were awarded in the final minute.
Green Mountain sophomore goalie Travis Dove couldn’t make the save on the PK and the Rams weren’t able to get the equalizing goal in the closing seconds. Green Mountain ends its season with a 7-7-1, 2-3-1 record and in the middle of the conference standings.
Green Mountain senior Connor Haussler, left, works to get the ball away from Littleton junior Dallas Baer during the opening half Tuesday in the Class 4A Jeffco League finale. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Green Mountain senior Greyson Gines broke the scoreless tie late in the first half. Gines held position on the doorstep of the Lions’ goal before he found an opening to slide a shot past Littleton goalie Logan McLaughlin in the 38th minute.
Littleton tied things up 1-1 in the 51st minute. Aguilar took a long feed and beat a pair of Green Mountain defenders before putting a shot past Dove.
“I think that (first) goal gave us the confidence that we could win the game,” Aguilar said.
Green Mountain regained the lead in the 57th minute when a free kick by Gines deflected off a Littleton defender and into the net. Aguilar answered again with a corner kick goal. He used the strong west wind to aid in bending the ball into the net directly off the corner kick in the 73rd minute.
Things got chippy in the final minutes. Play was stopped for several minutes while officials sorted out an altercation between players. A red card was issued to both a Littleton and Green Mountain player.
The Rams played down a man in the final two minutes after sophomore Thomas Kramer was issued his second yellow card of the game to receive a soft red card.
Littleton could be a dangerous team heading into the playoff despite the sub .500 record. The Lions suffered five 1-goal losses and did defeat Standley Lake — only other 4A Jeffco team besides conference champion Golden (13-1-1, 6-0) likely to make the playoff field — last week.
“We aren’t scared of any team,” Aguilar said. “Even if we are the underdog, I think we can pull it off. We played a lot of good teams close.”
Green Mountain’s (from left to right) Blake Schell, Kuba Betlinski and Benjamin Krajewski deflect a free kick during the first half Tuesday at Lakewood Memorial Field. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Some of the top football matchups featuring Ohio teams this past Friday night were Mentor vs. Shaker Heights, Cleveland St. Ignatius vs. Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller, Cincinnati St. Xavier vs. Massillon Washington and Northwestern vs. Ohio State.
That’s correct, Northwestern University vs. Ohio State University, on Friday night. While the game was in Evanston, Illinois, and not Columbus, it was televised on the Big Ten Network. Ohio State, one of the nation’s top-ranked college teams with one of the strongest fan bases, played on Friday night in direct competition with the several hundred high school games across the state.
And that wasn’t the only college football game on Friday night. There were three other FBS (I-A) matchups, including an Atlantic Coast Conference game between Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Through the first eight weeks of the season, there have been about 25 major college football games on Friday night.
A number of high schools in Ohio moved their games earlier in the hope of finishing before the start of the Ohio State-Northwestern game. Others moved their games to Thursday or Saturday. At least one school – Ursuline Academy in greater Cincinnati – urged its fans to not watch the Ohio State game:
“Please make a statement to Ohio State by NOT watching their Friday night game this week. Friday nights are for HS football. Let’s keep it that way. Support your local team. We play Boardman, and would love to have you in our stands, but that’s not the point. Support HS football.”
High schools should not have to adjust their schedules to accommodate colleges playing on Friday nights. High school coaches, administrators and fans are opposed to colleges playing on Friday nights. The NFHS and its member state associations are opposed. Even leaders in the Ohio State administration did not initially support the idea of the Buckeyes playing on Friday night. Friday nights are for high school football and should remain that way.
Two years ago, the NFHS membership adopted the following resolution:
“Be it RESOLVED that every Friday night during the fall in America is ‘High School Football Night.’
“Be it FURTHER RESOLVED that college and professional football teams should refrain from scheduling contests on Friday nights. Such restraint would be an investment in their own future success. It would also demonstrate that high school football has value well beyond the field of play. Schools, communities and scholastic teams for girls and boys all benefit when football is strong.
“THEREFORE, the National Federation of State High School Associations urges all parties to observe the central premise of this resolution.”
In addition to the Big Ten Conference, teams in the Pac-12, Mountain West, Atlantic Coast and American conferences, as well as Conference USA, have played on Friday nights. When these current television contracts expire, it is the desire of everyone within the high school community that new deals would preserve Friday nights for high school football.
Friday nights offer communities a traditional time and place to congregate and support their students. As was the case last week in Ohio, a college game on Friday night impacts interest and attendance at high school games.
Let’s maintain Friday nights in the fall for high school football. It is a win-win for everyone.
The state cross country meet is scheduled to be held at Norris-Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs on Saturday.
The Colorado Springs area is forecast to get snow on Wednesday night, and have a high of 37 degrees on Thursday. However, Friday is slated for a high of 53, and Saturday has a high of 64. The forecasts for Sunday and Monday both call for snow.
As such, the plan from the CHSAA office and course officials is to run the meet as scheduled on Saturday.
“We know snow is expected two days ahead of the event, but we are prepared with plows and other snow removal equipment, and plan to work on the course Thursday and Friday in preparation for Saturday’s races,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Jenn Roberts-Uhlig. “With more snow on the way on Sunday and Monday, we are fully prepared and expecting to run on Saturday.”
With poor weather expected in Aurora on Wednesday night, the CHSAA office has communicated its weather contingency plan to all schools involved.
The state softball tournaments are scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Aurora Sports Park.
The following is the weather contingency plan:
Should inclement weather interfere with play this weekend, our contingency plan is to use the first available day to conclude the tournament games play be postponed.
For example, if games are postponed on Friday, then Saturday is the next available day and Sunday becomes the next available day after that. If Sunday is not available, then Monday becomes the next available day.
However, the philosophy of this tournament is to push game times back until we can get on the field. That may mean delays of several hours on game times. We will use the lights at those fields that have them, if necessary.
We will work to get all Friday games completed on Friday. Only complexes B and C have lights, so if games are moved from complex A, they will be integrated onto those fields on B and C.
Should frost become a factor, we will simply push back starting times until the fields are ready. Teams are asked to only access the fields when told to by facility management or CHSAA personnel.
There may be situations where the facility availability will force the next available day out of the rotation. All schools need to communicate this to their players, parents, administrators and fans. CHSAANow.com will provide the most up-to-date information on any postponements and game rescheduling.
The forecast today looks favorable for both Friday and Saturday, but it could change quickly, so please look for updates this week.
The forecast calls for a mixture of rain, then snow on Wednesday night, and a high of 44 degrees on Thursday. Friday, the first day of play, calls for a high of 60 degrees, and Saturday calls for a high of 70.
MONUMENT — Senior night for Class 4A No. 6 Palmer Ridge started out with some festivities, but once the actual sets began, it wasn’t the Bears doing to the bulk of the celebrating.
Despite a bumpy start to its season, No. 2 Lewis-Palmer looked every bit the part of a three-time defending state champion with a 25-14, 23-25, 25-20, 25-17 win over Palmer Ridge, capturing their sixth league win of the season. The Rangers (12-5 overall, 6-0 Pikes Peak Athletic Conference) have not lost a league match since 2015, when they fell 3-1 to eventual state champion Cheyenne Mountain.
“We’ve been driven by defense all year,” said Rangers head coach Wade Baxter. “What we want to do is we want to funnel as much of the other team’s offense to (senior Gianna Bartalo) as we can. We just funnel everything to Gianna so that’s our strength offensively.”
The plan worked and even with this L-P team seemingly depleted from what it has been in years past, it has been difficult for teams to find ways to beat the Rangers.
“We knew they were going to have a good defense,” said Bears head coach Trevor Sullivan. “We tried our best offensively to just put the ball where they weren’t. Credit to them, they were a great defensive team picking up more balls than we thought they would. That’s how we prepped, we prepped to be as aggressively offensively as we could be.”
Lewis-Palmer had full control of the first set, winning 25-14. The Rangers jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead and never looked back. They never trailed at any point during the first set.
“I don’t think we were overwhelmed,” said Sullivan. “We talked about being in control of our minds a lot and we were in control of our minds, but the volleyball skill just wasn’t quite there. I think we did a really good job of regrouping and being calm going into that second set and just taking care of business.”
(Derek Lee/CHSAANow.com)
That skill seemed to even out a bit in the second set. The Bears (11-6, 3-2) battled to a 25-23 win, giving the Rangers just their second dropped set all season in PPAC play.
“They really hurt us in the second set hitting over us,” said Baxter. “Our block was a little bit slow and so we moved the block outside.”
For a team that has a lot less varsity experience than previous years, the Mustangs haven’t missed a beat. They’ve relied on seniors such as Bartalo—who had 35 digs tonight—and Danielle Norman (19 kills), but other players have stepped up as well.
“It’s just a case of everyone stepping up when they need to,” said Baxter. “Dani’s our No. 1 hitter but everybody really contributed tonight. Kaitlynn Bird (13 kills), our other outside hitter, had a great game so I was really pleased with the way she stepped up.”
Baxter said that this season hasn’t been as easy as last year was because last year’s team had a really overwhelming offense.
“We don’t have that now so we’re kind of dominating in a sense that we’re 6-0, but every point has been harder fought than they were last year,” he said. “There were a lot of quick sets and quick points last year where we’re having to fight and fight and fight and play long points and just lay out everything on the floor defensively more this year than we’ve had to in the past.”
Among the ways to get noticed as a football team, knocking off the top-ranked team in the state is certainly one of the best.
That’s exactly what Matt Loyd’s Ralston Valley Mustangs did last Friday. Their 24-23 win over Columbine sent shock waves throughout the Class 5A landscape and instantly thrust Ralston Valley into the state championship conversation.
Loyd would love to see that for his players, but wins and losses have never been the most important thing to him. Developing his players into better people is his main priority, but he’s shown that when done right, monumental wins have a tendency to pop up every now and then.
With just two weeks remaining in the regular season, Ralston Valley now sits at 8-0 is tied with Pomona atop the 5A Metro West standings.
Loyd prefers to keep his focus week to week, but with that focus paying off last week he has been named the Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week.
Previous stops: Bear Creek assistant (1990), Golden assistant (1991-92), Golden head coach (1993-98), Ralston Valley head coach (1999-present).
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(Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Dan Mohrmann: What got you into coaching?
Matt Loyd: I decided to be a football coach because of my high school coach, Ed Kintz.
Mohrmann: How did he make that a desirable path for you?
Loyd: I’m not looking for some sob story, but the story is that I’ve never seen my father. He was the next best thing to a father figure for me.
Mohrmann: From your kids’ perspective, what do you think it’s like to be coached by you?
Loyd: Hopefully they know I care about them because that’s why I’m doing it.
Mohrmann: What are some of your favorite memories from coaching?
Loyd: The best thing is just working with the kids each day. The wins and losses and everything, that’s something my sons can keep up with that. But that’s not why I got into it in the first place. I just like working with the kids and my number one goal is to make them better men. It’s that simple.
Mohrmann: And occasionally when you do that, you get to accomplish something special, like knocking off the number one team in the state. What was the emotion like after that win on Friday?
Loyd: I was very pleased for our seniors because they hadn’t beaten Columbine. I was really happy for them. And they had kind of set that as a goal to make that happen. And they did.
Mohrmann: As the game was playing out, was there ever a point where you got the sense like it was going to go your way?
Loyd: I guess I just believe like we always have a chance. Until the time runs out, we’re going keep trying. Obviously Columbine is a really, really, really good football team and we knew it would be a battle and we have to get the ball last with a chance to at least score and either go for a tie or go for two. There was no chance — there was no way I was going to go for the tie. I was going for two.
Mohrmann: Everyone makes a big deal mostly after a loss about, you know, turning the page and moving forward to the next week, but how do you do that after such a monumental win?
Loyd: That is really what we focus on each week. I realize it’s tough after a big win, but one of our captains, JJ Galbreath — we usually get together at the end and then I usually talk — and as we got together he said, “Coach you mind if I say something to everybody?” I said sure, no problem.
He basically said, “Hey guys, this is great. Great win, but we have to focus on next week. This isn’t all we can do.” So the kids had already said it. That’s a true story. He asked if he could talk to the team before I could.
And he had already said, “Guys, this is awesome. It’s great that we beat them, but we need to get focused on next week.” So it was pretty simple.
Mohrmann: A lot of people have made big deals about certain teams whether it’s Columbine, whether it’s Cherry Creek, whether it’s Valor Christian, what did people find out about your team on Friday night?
Loyd: We’ve always been a good team, but I guess the way that Columbine was beating opponents with not giving up a lot of points and scoring a lot with the way they run their offense, for our guys to be able to beat them, that’s probably the biggest thing.
You’re going to have to show some toughness and you’re going to have to show that regardless of how physical the game is that we can hang with that.
Mohrmann: You talked about how, how much you enjoy working with the kids and, and building them into better men and I’m sure you’ve dealt with your fair share of heartbreaking losses, so how does this win really help them in that process?
Loyd: To be honest, I don’t talk about winning and losing very much. We just talked about going out and do the best we can. That’s really how it is. I know our kids wanted to win this game because they had not beaten Columbine since they were in high school.
There are some times when you can do, you can win a game and not learn anything from it. There are times when you can lose a game and learn a lot. I felt even though we won the game, we learned a lot about ourselves as far as how tough we can be. I’m sure we can still get better, but our kids are in a good mindset.
They just focus on things week to week and that’s how it should be. Everybody says that, but like I said, it was the kids doing that before I had even said anything.
Mohrmann: What did they all say when they gathered for practice Monday? If they’re looking week to week, what was the first thing that was talked about at the first practice following that win?
Loyd: To be honest, it was probably more about the wind. We get a lot of wind at Ralston Valley, and it was windy and cold and they knew regardless of the weather, it’s just time to go get the job done.
We have to do what we have to do. So that’s probably the first thing they were talking about.
