Bear Creek senior Slade Marceau (15) had a game-high 23 points, but it wasn’t enough as Douglas County beat the Bears. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
LAKEWOOD — Douglas County’s youth helped its boys basketball team grab a 87-80 road victory over Bear Creek on Monday night.
Douglas County sophomores TJ Boykins (19 points) and Davon Walker (18 points) led the way for the Huskies (3-3 record) in the non-conference victory over Bear Creek (2-3). However, it was Douglas County freshman Brendan Temple who sealed the victory scoring nine of his 14 points in the final four minutes to hold off a fourth-quarter rally by the Bears.
The Huskies led by as much as 22 points — 66-44 — with 3 minutes to play in the third quarter, but a handful of runs late in the third and in the fourth quarter allowed Bear Creek to get as close as 76-72 with 3:36 to play in the final quarter.
Bear Creek’s 6-foot-4 senior Slade Marceau scored a game-high 23 points. Juniors Manuel Perez (13 points), Landon Cornell (10 points), Nick Duran (five points), along with senior Walker Rumsey (16 points) got hot for the Bears in the second half to make a game of it.
Douglas County was able to hold on in the fourth quarter to end a two-game losing streak. The Huskies host Palmer on Wednesday this week before the holiday break.
You can call it the pre-holiday rush week for Bear Creek’s boys basketball team.
The Bears won’t have much time to finish off holiday shopping with three games this week before the winter break. Bear Creek started its busy stretch of three games in five days Monday night.
Guided by first-year coach Will Gosch, Bear Creek has road games against Kennedy (Tuesday) and Arapahoe (Friday) before nearly a two-week break between games. The Bears open their 5A Jeffco League schedule on the road against Arvada West on Thursday, Jan. 5.
The Bears are looking be at or above the .500 winning percentage mark for the first time in nearly a decade. The last time Bear Creek didn’t have a losing record at the end of the season was the 2007-08 season. The Bears went 12-12 under then coach Steve Hyatt.
The 2016 all-state football teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created following a lengthy process which included nominations from leagues, and then a vote of head coaches across the state.
Players were placed onto the first-team, second-team and honorable mention based upon the number of votes they received. In 5A-1A, spots were reserved for linemen and one kicker/punter, while 8-man reserved spots for linemen.
CHSAA does not determine who makes or doesn’t make the team; they are created entirely from the results of the coaches’ vote.
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Class 5A
(Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Player of the year: Dylan McCaffrey, Valor Christian
AURORA — Fossil Ridge is making this an annual thing.
For the fourth-consecutive season, the SaberCats advanced to the state softball semifinals in Class 5A. This time, the young squad did so with a 6-3 win over league foe Loveland at Aurora Sports Park.
“I know we only have two seniors, but there are some kids that because they’ve been to state (before), they get at-bats, they’ve had different roles,” Fossil Ridge coach Dave Philop said. “Now, when they get their chance, that’s paid off.”
Landyn Bruce exemplified Fossil Ridge’s successful youth on Friday. She was the winning pitcher, and also drove in a pair of runs.
“Maybe they think they don’t know any better because they’re so young,” Philop said. “They’re kind of naive. They know it’s tough, they know the moment’s big, but they’re not sure. That’s a little to do with it, because they are young.”
Still, the coach added, “They feel like they can win, and it was their turn. That’s probably a little bit more of it: They want to keep the tradition going as long as they can.”
Fossil Ridge will face another league foe, Broomfield, in Saturday’s semifinals at 10 a.m. Broomfield won their earlier matchup in September, 5-0.
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(2) Cherokee Trail 7, (7) Rock Canyon 4
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Chloe Knapp hit a walkoff grand slam in the bottom of the seventh to give the Cougars a dramatic victory.
Rock Canyon led 4-3 going into the final frame before Cherokee Trail was able to load the bases with no outs.
It was the second dramatic win of the day for the Cougars, who edged No. 15 Legacy 11-10 in the first round. Legacy had the bases loaded, but Cherokee Trail was able to get out of the jam.
Rock Canyon beat No. 10 Grand Junction Central 3-2 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Cherokee Trail will face Eaglecrest in the semifinals.
(1) Broomfield 12, (9) Douglas County 4
Avery Bohn and Matti Morales each hit three-run home runs to lead the top seed back to the semifinals for the first time since 2014.
The game was close before Broomfield broke it open with a seven-run sixth inning.
The Eagles had beat No. 16 Cherry Creek 16-1 in the first round, while Douglas County eliminated defending champion Mountain Range 10-0.
(3) Eaglecrest 5, (6) Fort Collins 2
Fort Collins got on the board first, but Eaglecrest responded with three runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a lead it would never give up.
Fort Collins did cut it to 3-2 in the third inning, however, the Lambkins couldn’t get any closer. Eaglecrest added two more runs in the sixth.
The Raptors beat No. 14 Brighton 10-2 in the first round, while Fort Collins beat No. 11 Legend 5-3.
Broomfield is 17-2-0 this season. The Eagles will host No. 32 Denver East, No. 16 Legacy and No. 17 Castle View in Region 1.
Also hosting in 5A are Grand Junction Central, Cherokee Trail, Douglas County, Eaglecrest, Legend, Arvada West and Loveland.
Defending champion Mountain Range is the No. 26 seed.
Erie is the No. 1 seed in 4A. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
Erie is the lone remaining unbeaten team in any of the three classes at 19-0-0, and they are the No. 1 seed in 4A. They will host No. 32 Montrose, No. 16 Golden and No. 17 Berthoud in Region 1.
Other hosts in 4A include Mullen, Valor Christian, Pueblo West, Wheat Ridge, Mountain View, Silver Creek and Conifer.
Valor Christian is the defending champion.
In 3A, Strasburg sits in prime position as it tries to defend its title. The team will host No. 16 Meeker and No. 17 Limon in its Region 1.
Other hosts include Rocky Ford, Eaton, Brush, Lamar, The Academy, Basalt and Burlington. Valley also received a high seed, but isn’t hosting.
The 3A field expanded to 24 teams this season, the most its ever had.
Arvada West is up to No. 2 in 5A softball. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Arvada West is making a run at the top spot in the Class 5A CHSAANow.com softball rankings.
The Wildcats went 3-0 last week and jumped three spots to come in at No. 2 in this week’s poll. They now sit behind Broomfield who held on to the No. 1 this week.
Fossil Ridge is also making its way back up the rankings with a three-spot jump to come in at No. 5.
Eaglecrest (No. 7), ThunderRidge (No. 9) and Brighton (No. 10) are all new to the 5A poll this week.
Valor Christian remains the No. 1 team in the 4A rankings with Erie and Mullen also holding firm at No. 2 and No. 3 respectively.
Pueblo West (No. 4) and Silver Creek (No. 7) each jumped two spots from last week’s rankings.
There were no new teams in the 4A rankings.
Strasburg hangs on to the No. 1 spot in the 3A poll. In fact, the 3A rankings went unchanged as a whole from last week.
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 select media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Legacy 21, Loveland 20, Fort Collins 18, Rocky Mountain 18, Castle View 7, Hinkley 7, Mountain Range 7, Rock Canyon 7, Bear Creek 5, Grandview 5, Ralston Valley 5, Denver East 3, Mountain Vista 1.
Dropped out
Legacy (6), Rocky Mountain (9), Fort Collins (10).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Valor Christian (5)
17-0-0
104
1
3-0-0
2
Erie (6)
17-0-0
103
2
2-0-0
3
Mullen
11-3-1
75
3
3-1-0
4
Pueblo West
14-2-0
66
6
4-0-0
5
Wheat Ridge
13-5-0
62
4
2-0-0
6
Mountain View
15-2-0
55
5
2-0-0
7
Silver Creek
14-3-0
28
9
2-0-0
8
Air Academy
13-4-0
23
7
2-0-0
9
Elizabeth
14-3-0
18
8
3-1-0
10
Golden
13-5-0
14
10
2-0-0
Others receiving votes:
Frederick 13, Discovery Canyon 10, Pueblo County 9, Thomas Jefferson 9, Rifle 7, Conifer 4, Windsor 3, D’Evelyn 1, Evergreen 1.
