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Windsor broke up a two-point conversion attempt in overtime to seal a wild 56-55 win over Skyline and wrap up the Northern League championship on Friday.
The fifth-ranked Wizards had led 49-33 with 5:47 remaining, but Skyline came storming back to tie the game at 49 following two touchdowns and two-point conversions.
Windsor scored first in overtime — quarterback Connor Apodaca faked a handoff up the middle and ran to an open end zone to his left — but No. 10 Skyline again responded. The Falcons’ Nathan McGregor hit Austin Robison on a play-action pass on fourth-down.
Skyline then went for two, its fourth such attempt of the game. This time the pass was broken up in the left side of the end zone. According to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, it was senior Bryce Kellum who had the big play.
The result was a Windsor win, and a conference championship. The Wizards are now 8-1 this season, and 4-0 in their league. Every other Northern team has at least two league losses.
Skyline is now 7-2, including 2-2 in the Northern.
“It was awesome,” Kellum told the paper of the win. “Just awesome.”
Windsor led 35-20 at halftime, a lead secured by a key interception from junior Tayt Gallatin in the end zone.
Noah Montague had two rushing scores for the Wizards, including a 91-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. Isaiah Salazar also rushed for two touchdowns, according to the Coloradoan’s Kevin Lytle.
Skyline’s star running back Jeremy Hollingsworth had two touchdowns. McGregor had four total touchdowns, including a pass to Jack Wathen with 15.7 seconds left in regulation that helped tie the game.
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6-man playoffs:
Top-seeded Stratton/Liberty rolled to a 52-6 win over No. 16 Briggsdale.
No. 7 Kit Carson advanced to the quarterfinals with a 46-12 win over Cotopaxi.
The remaining six first-round games are on Saturday.
3A No. 7 Canon City locked up at least of share of the Southern League with a 48-7 win over Woodland Park. The Tigers also hold a potential tiebreaker with a win over Discovery Canyon last week.
5A No. 4 Columbine is now in the same position in the Mount Cameron Conference, sitting at 4-0 after a 50-0 win over Mountain Range on Friday. The Rebels hold a potential tiebreaker over Fairview (which is 3-1 in league play).
In 8-man, No. 3 Merino beat No. 9 Haxtun 39-24.
No. 8 Burlington edged No. 5 Limon 29-28. “It was a great ballgame that could’ve gone either way,” coach Glynn Higgs told the Colorado Preps Scoreboard Show.
8-man No. 2 West Grand cruised to a 52-0 win over No. 6 Gilpin County.
Another top-10 clash in 8-man, where No. 10 Sargent rolled past No. 8 Mancos 54-14.
A week after beating sixth-ranked Silver Creek, Erie football has another top-10 feather in its cap.
On Friday night, the Tigers, now ranked No. 3 in Class 3A, beat No. 4 Berthoud 33-7.
“Playing in the Tri-Valley (League), it doesn’t get any easier,” coach Chad Cooper told the Colorado Preps Scoreboard Show after the game. “I told our kids to enjoy this one tonight, but tomorrow morning we’re back to work and getting ready for Holy Family.
“It’s kind of similar to a playoff run where you can’t let down,” Cooper continued. “It’ll be good to kind of prepare us for the playoffs. You can’t have any let downs in the playoffs. It’ll be a great test for us.”
Erie’s Jacob Mansdorfer hit Alex Mathis with a touchdown pass just before the end of the first half to push the Tigers’ lead to 20-7.
Noah Roper rushed for two second-half touchdowns, and also recovered two fumbles on defense. He returned one of those for a touchdown. Roper had 165 yards rushing.
“Noah, obviously, is a talented kid. He kind of does it all for us,” Cooper said. “He runs extremely hard and is able to grind on people, too, with the style that we have on offense.”
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6-man: (5) Prairie 44, (1) Peetz 41
Prairie got the go-ahead score with 11.8 seconds remaining to secure the upset of previously unbeaten Peetz.
“It was just a dive to the right to Trenton Holzworth, one of our seniors, and he was able to power through a couple of kids and was able to get the ball in,” coach Justin Kerns told the Scoreboard Show of the winning score.
Prairie is now 6-0 this season.
“The players here are excited, the kids are excited,” Kerns said.
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2A: (3) Platte Valley 42, (6) Sterling 21
Tied at 21 at halftime, Platte Valley reeled of 21 unanswered points in the second half to secure a big win and move to 6-0 this season.
“It was one heck of a game up here for homecoming week, that’s for sure,” coach Troy Hoffman told the Scoreboard Show.
Hoffman praised his team’s effort on defense, which forced four turnovers.
“The kids created some opportunities and some turnovers,” Hoffman said. “We just needed to do that, play a little more aggressive in the second half, and when you get four turnovers, a lot of times good things happen for you, and it sure did for us tonight.
Senior Zach Waite had four touchdowns, including runs of 55 and 50 yards, and Ernseto Rios and Trevon Wehrman also score the the Mustangs.
Platte Valley had more than 400 yards of total offense.
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2A: (5) The Classical Academy 27, (8) Salida 19
TCA rallied from down 13-7 late in the second quarter to get an important top-10 win.
Jenson Hall had two rushing touchdowns for the Titans, and Cade Bethany accounted for two total touchdowns.
Brayden Luft added a receiving touchdowns.
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Notables
(Sedgwick County/NFHS Network)
8-man No. 1 Sedgwick County cruised to an easy win over No. 3 Haxtun, 44-0.
Centauri is 6-0 in 1A after beating Monte Vista 27-2. The Falcons, No. 4, got another big night out of their defense. “That’s been our strength this year,” coach Kyle Forster told the Scoreboard Show. “Our defense has done a great job when we needed them to.”
In 2A, Basalt got a big rivalry win over No. 10 Aspen, 48-22. Noah Williams had six touchdowns for the Longhorns. “Just a big, strong, very, very gifted athlete,” coach Carl Frerichs told the Scoreboard Show of Williams.
5A No. 4 Regis Jesuit beat Legacy 32-7. “I think this puts us in the driver’s seat” for the conference title, Raiders coach Danny Filleman told the Scoreboard Show.
Caliche snapped a two-game losing streak and knocked off No. 8 Dayspring Christian in 8-man, 18-13.
8-man No. 10 Gilpin County is 5-1 following a 48-0 win over Soroco.
6-man No. 8 La Veta cruised to a 52-19 win over Sierra Grande in an afternoon contest.
Platte Canyon moved to 5-0 this season following a forfeit by Front Range Christian. The Huskies are ranked No. 7 in 1A.
No. 6 Merino got a narrow win over Akron in 8-man, 28-26.
Paonia, No. 6 in 1A, is 5-1 after beating Hotchkiss 28-21.
Deer Trail picked up its first win of the season when Cheraw forfeit Friday’s 6-man game due to lack of players. It snaps a 13-game losing streak for Deer Trail.
Denver North beat Vista PEAK 15-13 in 3A, and is now 6-0 this season.
Wray is now 3-3 following a 40-8 win over Wiggins in 1A. Cade Hillman had 227 yards and two touchdowns, while Manny Heurta added three scores.
3A No. 9 Harrison is 6-0 after a 46-0 win over Sierra.
Springfield upset No. 2 Holly in overtime, 32-26, in 8-man.
An impressive win for Northglenn over ThunderRidge in 5A. Northglenn is now 5-1.
Luke McCaffrey rushed for two touchdowns as Valor Christian got its first-ever win over Mullen on Friday night.
The Eagles, top-ranked in and two-time defending champions of Class 5A, beat the No. 4 Mustangs 31-7.
With senior Blake Stenstrom out due to a concussion, it was the first career start at quarterback for McCaffrey.
“Any player that comes into the game just wants to do everything that they can,” McCaffrey told Altitude TV after the game. “I don’t really focus on the snaps, just making the snaps count. I really just went out there and tried to do everything I could.”
Valor Christian was 0-2 against Mullen in the short history of their rivalry, having lost to the Mustangs last season and in 2012.
“It was incredible, just to do something that nobody at Valor has done before,” McCaffrey told Altitude. “That was one of our themes all week, just focusing on that: do what’s never been done, and do everything you can for your brothers.
“I thought each and every player contributed. … It was special to see.”
The Eagles’ Joshia Davis had a key touchdown late in the first half when he scored off an option pitch with three seconds remaining. Davis had set the Eagles up at the 2-yard-line with a long run just before the half.
Valor Christian travels to play at Greater Atlanta Christian next week, while Mullen continues a tough early slate of its own by playing No. 5 Regis Jesuit. The Mustangs lost to No. 2 Pomona in Zero Week.
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3A: (3) Holy Family 56, (8) Palisade 20
(@HF_Athletics/Twitter)
Holy Family went on the road and put on a show.
Palisade actually had rallied from an early 14-0 hole to tie the game at 14-14, but then Holy Family connected on a 50-yard touchdown pass from Stone Samaras to Kyle Helbig on 4th down and 1.
Samaras finished with four touchdown passes and a rushing score. Helbig had three receiving touchdowns.
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2A: (7) Sterling 42, (8) D’Evelyn 28
Sterling moved to 2-0 with yet another big top-10 win on Friday night.
The Tigers beat No. 6 Resurrection Christian in Zero Week.
“We’ve had a pretty good run these two games of being able to put together enough to win a football game,” coach Rob Busmente told the Colorado Preps Scoreboard Show after the game.
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4A/5A: Boulder 27, (9) Denver South 25
(Jeff Tucker/jefferywtucker.zenfolio.com)
Boulder won on the final play of the game after an 80-yard kickoff return set up a 1-yard touchdown.
On Friday, the Panthers jumped out to a 16-0 lead, and also led 18-6 at halftime. Denver South battled back and eventually took the lead, but last-second heroics from Patrick Fletcher on his return set up the winning touchdown by Shane Provost.
It was a great note to start the 2017 season for the Panthers. Last season, Denver South beat Boulder 56-17 to open the season. Boulder went on to finish 1-9.
“There was 12 seconds left and I wanted to score and I wanted to get that ‘W’ because I knew it would change the program and change the environment,” Fletcher told BoCoPreps.com of his kick return.
In a rematch of the 6-man title game, No. 3 Cheyenne Wells beat No. 1 Flagler 70-20. It’s complicated, but many of Flagler’s players played at Hi-Plains last season when Flagler dropped its program. This season, Hi-Plains dropped its program, and now many of those players are playing for Flagler.
In a big 5A game, No. 5 Regis Jesuit fought off No. 3 Cherry Creek, 25-20. The Raiders led 12-0 after the first quarter, but the Bruins slowly chipped away. They cut it as close to 19-14 in the fourth quarter but Kiahn Martinez had a TD that sealed the game with a minute to play for Regis.
2A No. 3 La Junta beat Gunnison 42-0, and 1A No. 1 Strasburg beat No. 8 Burlington 24-6. That extended each team’s winning streak to 14 games, which is the most in the state.
Caliche snapped a 15-game losing streak with a 50-28 win over Kiowa.
Another local rivalry: Fort Collins beat Fossil Ridge 17-6. Fort Collins finished minus-5 in turnover margin but still won. “Our defense stuck their neck out there, and they played hard the whole night,” coach Eric Rice told the Scoreboard Show.
In 1A, Monte Vista upset No. 9 Cedaredge 31-8. “We just kind of wore them out in the second half,” coach Manny Wasinger told the Scoreboard Show.
In 2A, No. 9 Faith Christian edged No. 6 Resurrection Christian 9-0.
4A No. 5 Windsor beat Vista Ridge 14-3 in the return of coach Chris Jones. Jones took a year off of coaching before returning to the sidelines this fall.
6-man: No. 6 Stratton/Liberty ran away from No. 7 Genoa-Hugo 51-14. “It was a weird 6-man game,” coach Toby Kechter told the Scoreboard Show. “Usually, it’s a two-or-three touchdown game and you’re nervous as heck, but our defense was so good that it just felt really good and our kids were really confident in what we were doing.”
8-man: No. 3 Hoehne edged No. 4 Sargent 30-27. “Things went our way in the end,” coach Gabe Dasko told the Scoreboard Show. “I just kept telling our kids: ‘You guys have got to learn to finish in the end.’ Our two big leaders, Jacob Yates and Trystan Moltrer, stepped up and made some big plays for us.”
Grand Junction beat local rival Grand Junction Central 21-0.
Buena Vista and Alamosa didn’t kick their game off until 9:32 p.m. due to a shortage of officials. They ended at 11:45 p.m., a 37-7 Alamosa win.
Kent Denver is No. 1 in 2A. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Six of the seven defending champions lead CHSAANow.com’s preseason football rankings.
The lone non-champion to head a classification’s poll is Kent Denver, which is No. 1 in Class 2A.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday during the regular season.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
