Jeffco Preps With Pleuss is a monthly roundup of Jeffco prep highlights hosted by Dennis Pleuss, Jeffco Public Schools’ sports information director. Prep football action started up in early October. We’ve got highlights from four games — Columbine vs Arvada West, Pomona vs Lakewood, Central of Grand Junction vs Dakota Ridge and Wheat Ridge vs Chatfield — from the first few weeks of the 6-game regular season. Boys tennis season wrapped up with Lakewood and Ralston Valley having good showings at the Class 5A state tournament at Gates Tennis Center in Denver. Cross country season also concluded with the Jeffco League Championships that led into the state meet held in Colorado Springs.
The 2020 all-state softball teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These team were created following a process where the coaches voted upon a list of nominees. Players who were named first-team all-league are eligible for the all-state ballot.
Coaches also voted specifically for player and coach of the year.
Legend picked up a major top-10 win on Friday night.
The Titans, ranked No. 10 in Class 5A, built on a hot start en route to a 31-7 road upset of No. 7 Regis Jesuit.
The win was led by seniors Kalen Shoemaker and Connor Eise, who each had two touchdowns: Shoemaker with one throwing and one rushing, and Eise with two on the ground.
Legend is now off to a 3-0 start for the second consecutive season, and the win marked a program first for the Titans, who had yet to beat Regis Jesuit. The schools met each of the past two seasons.
Five minutes in, Legend took a 7-0 lead when Eise snuck in on the left side from 1-yard out.
Then early in the second quarter, on third down, Shoemaker rolled to his right and threw back left, finding Carter Helfrich on a 10-yard score that made it 14-0.
A few minutes after that, Shoemaker dashed 90 yards on the ground to make it 21-0.
Regis scored just before halftime to cut the lead to 21-7 when Dervin Taylor scored up the middle from 10 yards out.
Legend added a 25-yard field goal from Caden Smith, and it was 24-7.
In the fourth, Eise capped the scoring with a 25-yard touchdown.
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6-man: (1) Fleming 32, (5) Prairie 8
Scoreless at halftime, and a one-score game after three quarters, Fleming broke things open to come up with a major top-5 win on Friday night.
“We did some things well, and there’s some things we definitely have to work on, but I guess we did enough well,” Fleming coach John King told the Scoreboard Show.
A defensive struggle through the first two quarters, Fleming scored two touchdowns in the first minute of the third quarter to go up 16-0.
“We finally kind of settled down and started executing better offensively, and then really had all the momentum in the world,” King said. “The next two possessions in a row, we turned the ball over. We could have really taken the game over, but we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot and let them hang around.”
Prairie scored two minutes after that, making it 16-8 heading to the final frame.
Fleming scored on the third play of that fourth quarter, pushing their lead to 24-8, and added a final score with 4:31 to play on fourth down.
“It was a really nice battle for us,” King said. “We had some kids who are starting for us the first time this year.”
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2A: (3) Sterling 31, (5) Platte Valley 21
Kaeden Sheets threw four touchdowns as Sterling held off a rally from Platte Valley to win the top-5 battle.
Sheets’ big night started off with three first-quarter touchdowns, two to Tucker Myers, as the Tigers built an 18-0 lead.
Platte Valley rallied. McDaniel had a 2-yard run with 4:35 left in the third, and two minutes after that, McDaniel hit Lauer for a 12-yard score to make it 24-21.
In the fourth quarter, Peyton Rose sealed the game with an 8-yard run.
Gunnison won its first varsity game since 2016, 20-7, over Cedaredge.
In double overtime, Windsor beat Erie 38-32. “Different players stepped up at different times and made big plays,” Windsor coach Chris Jones told the Scoreboard Show. “It was a wonderful team effort on defense.” The Wizards are now 3-0.
8-man No. 1 Sedgwick County won its 20th consecutive game, the longest streak in the state, with a 60-14 win over No. 10 Haxtun.
In their first game of 2020 following a two-week quarantine, 4A No. 3 Pine Creek beat 5A Chaparral 17-7.
In the annual Whistle Game, 2A No. 4 Lamar beat rival La Junta 43-14 after building a 28-0 lead. “We started out pretty fast. We were able to grab some pretty big chunks there,” coach Jason Tice told the Scoreboard Show.
3A No. 4 Lutheran was impressive in a top-10 game for the second consecutive week, this time beating No. 7 Palisade 54-24.
After moving up to No. 1 this week, Roosevelt beat Thompson Valley 42-0 in 3A.
In 5A, Douglas County beat Doherty 27-24 on a last-second field goal.
ARVADA — Pomona senior Joevannie Rosales made the biggest field goal in recent memory for the Panthers on Friday night at the North Area Athletic Complex.
The soccer player turned kicker for Pomona — No. 4 in the CHSAANow.com Class 5A football rankings — booted a 40-yard field goal as time expired to give the Panthers a 17-14 victory over rival and No. 6 Ralston Valley.
Ralston Valley junior quarterback Zach Friedman (7) gets off a pass despite pressure from Pomona junior Deion Maes. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“I had all the confidence in the world. He (Rosales) has the talent to do it,” Pomona coach Jay Madden said seconds after Rosales was mobbed by teammates after hitting the game-winning field goal. “He has only been playing football for 20 days. He wouldn’t even be playing football if there was a soccer season.”
Rosales led Pomona’s boys soccer team with 14 goals last Fall as a junior. With the COVID-19 pandemic moving boys soccer to the spring, Rosales decided to try his hand at kicking a football this season.
“He was kicking in PE class one day. I told him he at least has to try it,” Madden said of Rosales. “Now he does this in the biggest rivalry game in Jeffco, maybe the whole state. That was awesome.”
The final kick had plenty of distance and drew off the right upright, just like Rosales had planned.
“It was scary,” Rosales said about first coming out to play football. “It took a little while to getting used to. Now, I feel pretty good. I could get better.”
Pomona (3-0, 2-0 in 5A Jeffco) was just good enough to get past Ralston Valley (2-1, 1-1). The Panthers never trailed after taking a 7-0 lead at halftime on a 2-yard touchdown run by senior quarterback Jack Pospisil, but the Mustangs finally ended a 10-quarter scoreless streak for Pomona’s defense.
Ralston Valley tied things up 7-7 after junior Luke Resendez intercepted Pospisil to give the Mustangs great field position on Pomona’s 27-yard line midway through the third quarter. Junior quarterback Zach Friedman scored on a 2-yard run to tie things at 7-7.
“It’s alway a battle against RV,” Pomona junior running back/linebacker Chase Muller said. “We made some big plays in the second half. That is what really won us the game.”
Ralston Valley senior Tyler Roybal fights for yardage against Pomona’s defense during the first half Friday at the North Area Athletic Complex. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Muller capped off a 10-play, 80-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to close out the third quarter and put Pomona up 14-7.
Ralston Valley answered again with Friedman hitting senior Devin McNearny with a 53-yard pass to get the Mustangs into Pomona territory. Friedman connected with senior Charlie Carlston on a 14-yard touchdown pass with 4:49 left in the fourth quarter to knock the game at 14-14.
It looked like the rivalry game would be headed into overtime, but Pomona’s offense converted on three separate third-downs to keep the eventual game-winning drive alive. Senior AJ Zamora had a big 12-yard run where he was able to get out of bounce to stop the clock and conserve a timeout.
Pospisil had a huge 12-yard completion to junior Isaiah Alvarez to get into field goal range.
“Our kids deserved to win this game,” Madden said after the emotional victory.
Pomona ended a 2-game losing streak against Ralston Valley with the win. The Mustangs shut out the Panthers last year during Ralston Valley’s run to the 5A state semifinals.
Pomona is scheduled to be back at NAAC on Saturday, Oct. 31, to face another rival in Arvada West (1-2, 0-2). The Wildcats lost a close one at Mullen on Friday night, 20-17.
Ralston Valley has Lakewood (0-3, 0-2) next up. The Mustangs host the Tigers at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, at NAAC.
Pomona senior Ben Cruz (24) rips off a 35-yard run during the second quarter to set up the Panthers’ first touchdown Friday night against rival Ralston Valley. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
There were quite a few changes to this week’s football rankings, with Dakota Ridge (4A), Roosevelt (3A), Resurrection Christian (2A), and Fleming (6-man) taking over atop their respective classifications.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
