No. 3 Valor Christian beat No. 2 Cherry Creek in a big 5A game on Friday. Complete recap. (Photos: Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com; JackEberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
A complete schedule and scoreboard for football’s top-10 teams during Week 8 in the 2015 season.
Columbine football is the new No. 1 in Class 5A football. (Lance Wendt/LanceWendt.com)
Following a 42-35 win over Pomona Friday night, combined with Cherry Creek’s 28-20 loss to Grandview, Columbine takes over the top spot in this week’s Class 5A CHSAANow.com football rankings.
Cherry Creek falls to No. 2 as a result of their loss to the Wolves. This week, they square off against No. 3 Valor Christian in a rematch of last year’s 5A state championship game. The Bruins walked away with a 25-24 win. Cherry Creek also won last year’s regular season meeting 33-17, a game in which the Bruins didn’t allow a single point in the second half.
No new teams were added to the 5A poll this week, but with its upset win over Cherry Creek, Grandview jumped from No. 9 to No. 4.
Like they have all season long, the Pine Creek Eagles firmly held on to the No. 1 spot in 4A. Like the 5A poll, no new teams were added in 4A.
Durango was able to beat Palmer Ridge 48-35, helping them jump up to No. 5 in the rankings. The Demons travel to Colorado Springs this week for a league game against the No. 1 Eagles.
This will be the fourth time this season that Pine Creek will be facing a team also ranked in 4A’s top five. They won the three previous games by a combined score of 107-38.
Pueblo East remains a strong favorite in 3A and is still ranked as the top team in that class. Both Roosevelt and Rifle garnered first place votes thanks to weekend wins over other top 10 teams. Roosevelt topped Holy Family in a shootout, 64-63 and Rifle edged Palisade 13-7.
No new teams broke into the 3A poll this week.
Kent Denver remains No. 1 in 2A. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
A great week for Kent Denver continues in this week’s 2A poll. After Scott Yates recorded his 300th win, the Sun Devils held on to the No. 1 spot in 2A.
There were two new additions to this week’s 2A rankings as Moffat County comes in at No. 9 and Bennett breaks in at No. 10.
Buena Vista is still holding on to the top spot of the 1A rankings, but Resurrection Christian is nipping on their heels, trailing by only two points.
Meeker, who dropped out of the 1A poll last week, returns at No. 8.
Sedgwick County is still the top team in the 8-man rankings. There was little movement in that poll, but undefeated Vail Christian did make it’s way into the top 10, landing at No. 9.
Although Fleming is still the No. 1 team in 6-man, there was movement near the top of that poll. Kit Carson topped Eads 22-8 Friday night causing those two teams to swap places.
Kit Carson now sits at No. 2 while Eads fell only one spot to No. 3.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
Grandview upset top-ranked Cherry Creek on Friday, ending the Bruins’ 13-game winning streak with a 28-20 win.
The Wolves, ranked No. 9 in Class 5A, led 28-0 in the fourth quarter thanks in large part to a varied night from Hayden Blubaugh, who had a rushing touchdown, receiving touchdown, and passing touchdown on a trick play.
“Hayden Blubaugh ran the ball very well, our defense set us up with some short fields, and really held Creek at bay for the first three quarters,” Grandview coach John Shultz told the Colorado Preps Scoreboard Show on Friday night. “It was just one of those games where everything we planned for worked. The kids executed very well and the defense played great.”
But Cherry Creek started to rally late in the game. Grandview was attempting a short field goal with about six minutes to play when the Bruins blocked the kick and it was returned 96 yards for a score by Marquise Davis.
“As a head coach, I probably made a really poor decision,” Shultz said of the field goal attempt. “We had the ball on the 3, and I chose to kick a field goal.”
After a series of penalties, Cherry Creek kicked off from Grandview’s 30-yard-line, and attempted an onside kick because of it. The Bruins recovered at the 1, and scored on the next play. It was 28-12 at that point.
“All of a sudden, it was 28-12 and we had to work real hard in the last five minutes,” Shultz said.
Cherry Creek then got a fumble recovery, and added another score — though that one came with 2 seconds to play. Grandview held on for the big win.
“Luckily our kids hung in there, defense hung in there and finished the game off,” Shultz said.
The Wolves dominated the game for much of the night until the final frenzied scoring from Cherry Creek.
“We are honestly just trying to get better every week and keep kids focused,” Shultz said. “The sky’s the limit for them. Obviously, they did some great stuff tonight, but we’re really growing as a football team since the summer.”
Grandview was the last team to beat Cherry Creek, doing so last October. The Bruins, of course, went on to win the 5A title.
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3A: (4) Roosevelt 64, (6) Holy Family 63
In what was arguably the game of the night, at least from an offensive perspective, Holy Family and Roosevelt combined for 127 points and 1,243 total yards. Ultimately, Roosevelt got a late two-point conversion and game-sealing interception to get the win.
Roosevelt rushed for 595 yards on 73 attempts as a team, and got four touchdowns each from Cameron Hurtado and Carlos Ortega. Hurtado had 234 rushing yards.
Holy Family quarterback Chris Helbig, as usual, had a monster game with 475 yards passing and four touchdowns. He also had two rushing touchdowns, and a receiving score on a trick play. In total, he had 549 yards of offense.
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5A: ThunderRidge 14, (3) Regis Jesuit 10
The Grizzlies scored a touchdown with 38 seconds left to pull off one of the biggest upsets in 5A so far this season.
The low-scoring game was 7-7 in the fourth quarter, and Regis went ahead on a field goal.
But ThunderRidge got the late score to pull the upset.
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1A: (10) Burlington 27, (8) Wiggins 20 (OT)
Burlington rallied from down 20-7 at the half to force overtime, then won it in the extra frame.
“It was a whale of a game, and my hat’s off to Wiggins. They played really well,” Burlington coach Glynn Higgs told the Scoreboard Show. “The second half was really intense, really physical. … Obviously, we’re terribly excited to get that win, whether it was in regulation or in overtime.”
“It wasn’t your typical 6-man game,” Kit Carson coach Jim Trahern told the Scoreboard Show. “In the first quarter, neither of us could get any offensive rhythm. Both defenses dominated.”
Kit Carson junior Jaxon Crawford had a 52-yard interception return with 6 seconds left before the half.
“That was kind of the key play of the game,” Trahern said.
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4A: (6) Durango 48, (7) Palmer Ridge 35
Durango quarterback Terrence Trujillo had four total touchdowns, including three passing, in the big top-10 win.
Sterling quarterback Michael Mitchek hit Isaac Harris for a touchdown with 30 seconds to play to give the Tigers a dramatic victory.
Eaton had taken a 17-12 lead early in the fourth quarter, and the two teams battled for much of the fourth quarter before Sterling’s late score.
Sterling is now 6-1.
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Notables:
Arapahoe, ranked No. 7 in 5A, snuck by Grand Junction 17-14. The Warriors are now 7-0 and could move up in the rankings based on Grandview’s upset. The Wolves’ lone loss this season is to Arapahoe.
3A No. 10 Mead got a good win over Berthoud, 21-18. “One of the best wins that I’ve been a part of as a coach,” Mead coach Jason Klatt told the Scoreboard Show. “It was just amazing to see our kids step up and play probably our best game against a quality opponent.”
In 1A, Peyton upset No. 6 Rye 22-21.
Another 1A upset: Meeker 38, Cedaredge 12.
Big top-10 game in 8-man, as No. 2 Akron came away with a 43-14 win over No. 8 Haxtun. Also, it was No. 10 Merino over No. 6 Dayspring Christian, 58-14.
In 6-man, No. 8 Peetz beat No. 5 Pawnee 45-21. And No. 9 Cheraw beat No. 10 Cheyenne Wells 58-39.
In the Mountain Bowl, an annual 3A battle, Evergreen beat Conifer 30-20 behind five turnovers. “It was a great win,” Evergreen coach Rob Molholm told the Scoreboard Show. “We made some big plays on offense when we needed to.”
8-man’s West Grand beat Pikes Peak Christian 40-0, giving coach Chris Brown his 304th victory. Brown is now two wins shy of tying the state record for career victories.
With few upsets happening over the weekend, the CHSAANow.com football rankings didn’t see too much movement, although a few new teams did manage to break in.
Cherry Creek remained atop the Class 5A rankings after taking care of business against Overland Friday night. Pine Creek received all 16 first place votes in 4A after cruising to another victory, this one over Air Academy.
The story remained the same for the other classes with Pueblo East (3A), Kent Denver (2A), Buena Vista (1A), Sedgwick County (8-man) and Felming (6-man) all hanging on to their places at No. 1.
Fairview football is No. 10 in Class 5A this week. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
In 5A, Fairview returned to the top-10 for the first time since falling out back on Sept. 21. A 47-46 double-overtime victory against Rocky Mountain helped get the Knights back into the polls.
No new teams entered the 4A ranking, but Dakota Ridge did leap two spots to No. 5 after a last-second field goal got them a win over this week’s No. 10-ranked Ponderosa Mustangs. Greeley West fell three spots to No. 8 after a tough loss to No. 3 Windsor.
The Classical Academy joins the 3A ranking at No. 9. This is the first time the Titans, winners of five-straight games, have been ranked in the top-10 this season.
After falling out of the rankings three weeks ago, Faith Christian rejoins the 2A poll at No. 10. The Eagles looked impressive in their 44-0 win over Bishop Machebeuf Friday night.
Wiggins and Crowley County join the 1A polls at No. 8 and No. 9, respectively. It’s the second time this season that each team has made into the top-10.
Akron made the biggest jump in the 8-man rankings, going from No. 4 to No. 2. The Rams beat Dayspring Christian 30-7 Saturday to earn the boost.
No new teams joined the 6-man poll and the order of the team remained unchanged for the most part.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
No. 10 Cherokee Trail faced No. 9 Grandview in a big 5A matchup on Friday. (Matt Minton/JacksActionShots.com)
A complete schedule and scoreboard for football’s top-10 teams during Week 6 in the 2015 season.
Ponderosa has rejoined the 4A football poll this week at No. 9. (Matt Daniels/MattDanPhoto.com)
There was some shakeup to the Class 4A football rankings on Monday, with Ponderosa and Aurora Central joining the poll.
The Mustangs (4-1) are back in CHSAANow.com’s 4A ranking at No. 9, while Aurora Central (5-0) joined for the first time at No. 10.
Pine Creek continued to lead the 4A poll following its big win over then-No. 2 Vista Ridge, and is now a unanimous pick with all 17 first-place votes. The Eagles, two-time defending champions, have won 30 games in a row.
Longmont returned to its No. 2 spot after dropping to No. 3 last week, and Windsor is up to third. Vista Ridge fell to fourth, and Greeley West remained in the top 5.
Also this week, there is a new No. 1 team in 8-man, where Sedgwick County has ascended to the top despite having fewer first-place votes than former No. 1 Dayspring Christian. Both teams are 5-0.
The 8-man ranking added Holly (No. 7) and Dove Creek (No. 8) this week.
The other top-ranked teams around the classes include Cherry Creek (5A), Pueblo East (3A), Kent Denver (2A), Buena Vista (1A) and Fleming (6-man).
There were no new teams added to the 5A poll, though Pomona did return to the top 5 at No. 5. Regis Jesuit also jumped Valor Christian for the No. 3 spot.
In 3A, Lewis Palmer (No. 9) was the lone newcomer, but the 2A and 1A polls did not add any new teams. The 6-man ranking added Cheyenne Wells (No. 10).
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
Ashton Riley scores the game-winning touchdown for Cherry Creek on Friday. More photos. (Matt Minton/JacksActionShots.com)
Ashton Riley had a 1-yard score in overtime to give No. 1 Cherry Creek a 16-13 win over No. 10 Cherokee Trail on Friday night.
The win kept the Bruins’ winning streak intact, and extended it to 12-straight games. That figure is the second-longest current streak in the state.
Cherokee Trail played the defending champions as tough as anyone has this season. The Cougars actually had a chance to win the game as time expired in the fourth quarter, but a 41-yard field goal missed.
In overtime, Cherry Creek forced Cherokee Trail to settle for a field goal on the first possession. Then, after an incomplete pass, Riley ran nine yards to the 1-yard-line. The next play, he scored.
Riley had 16 carries for 65 yards and the score. Marquise Davis added 106 yards on eight carries, and a touchdown, for Cherry Creek.
Cherokee Trail was led by its defense. Michael Ward had two interceptions, and Anthony Holmes and Dan Turner also had picks. In fact, one of Wards’ interceptions went for the Cougars’ lone score.
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3A/4A: Pueblo Central 27, Pueblo Centennial 24
In the 115th edition of this rivalry, known as the Bell Game, Pueblo Central got four total touchdowns from Mike Ranson to reclaim the Bell.
It was Pueblo Central’s first win in the past six meetings between the two teams, who have been playing since 1892. The game is Colorado’s oldest rivalry.
Ranson had two passing touchdowns, and two rushing.
AJ Sena had three rushing scores for Pueblo Centennial, including one to make it 27-24 with 1:48 to go.
“Late in the game, I looked in their eyes, and there wasn’t any doubt,” Durango coach David Vogt told the Colorado Preps Scoreboard Show. “It was great.”
“We haven’t beaten them since I’ve been here, and it was kind of a statement for this program to get over that hump with Montrose,” Vogt said. “They’ve been the dominant football program in this region. So it was a great victory for our boys, and for the program.”
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3A: (9) Delta 35, (4) Rifle 21
Delta stormed out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, thanks in large part to two Jonny Ponce touchdowns, and then went on to beat Rifle.
“It was a big win,” Roosevelt coach Noland Eastin told the Scoreboard Show. “It was a crazy night with the rain. … The weather came in and kind of played havoc at the beginning from kickoff time. But, man, it was a big win and it was a great night on homecoming.”
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6-man: Holly 31, (9) Springfield 30
Holly pulled off one of the bigger upsets of the night, even though it trailed 14-11 at halftime.
The Wildcats responded following a big 64-7 loss to Sedgwick County last week.
“We had a couple kids out after our game with Sedgwick County, and I really kind of questioned them about how much heart we had, to come back and play a high-stakes game like this,” coach Dayne Eaton told the Scoreboard Show.
“We just want to get ourselves into the playoffs, and the best way to do that is win these pivotal games like we had tonight,” Eaton said. “It went down to the very end, and it went our way.”
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Notables
Weather had its way with some of the state. In Colorado Springs, it was wet and cold, and a giant fog hovered over the Pine Creek/Vista Ridge game all night. But the northern part of the state had it worse: lightning delayed a number of games, and some didn’t end until 10:34 p.m.
Fossil Ridge knocked off Poudre 17-14 on a 30-yard field goal as time expired in 5A action.
Canon City handled Air Academy 52-6 in 3A, but there was a bit of history in this one for the Kadets. Quarterback Cale Powers completed 33 of 55 passes. The 33 completions are tied for the 13th-most in state history, while the 55 attempts are tied for the 12th-most.
Another record book entry: Rye running back Trey Zupancic had five rushing touchdowns in the first half, which is tied for the third most in the state. Rye, No. 5 in 1A, beat Dolores Huerta 62-0.
Smoky Hill pull off a huge rally to beat Grand Junction 30-26. The Tigers led 26-7 late in the third quarter, but Smoky scored the game’s final 23 points. Tahir Hopkins had what proved to be the winning touchdown with 2:14 to play. Earlier in the day, Smoky Hill apparently set a world record for the loudest gym. Quite a crowd.
Rock Canyon entered Week 5 unbeaten at 4-0 and looking to make a statement against 5A No. 4 Regis Jesuit. But the Raiders had other plans, and won 58-14. Regis is now 4-1. Photos from that game are here.
In 2A, No. 4 Platte Valley beat No. 6 Eaton 26-6.
8-man No. 2 Sedgwick County handled No. 7 Haxtun 52-14.
Another top-10 showdown in 8-man: No. 5 Akron beat No. 3 Merino 42-0.
Dove Creek upset No. 10 Hoehne in 8-man, 28-24.
6-man No. 1 Fleming took care of No. 7 Peetz 64-24.
Also in 6-man: No. 2 Eads 66, No. 9 Cheraw 14; and No. 3 Kit Carson held off No. 6 Hanover 36-30.
Columbine and Mullen football played in a big matchup on Friday. Columbine won, thanks to a big second half. (Photos: Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com; Tim Visser/TimVisserPhotography.com)
A complete schedule and scoreboard for football’s top-10 teams during Week 5 in the 2015 season.
Buena Vista has taken over the top spot of the CHSAANow.com Class 1A football rankings following their 53-12 win over Centauri and former No. 1 Paonia’s 35-0 loss against Bayfield.
The Demons are the only new No. 1 seed after a week filled with few upsets.
Cherry Creek remains in the top spot of 5A as the Bruins had a bye this week. They traveled to Utah two weeks ago where they beat Jordan 38-35. They return to the field Friday night to take on Cherokee Trail.
After dropping out of the 5A rankings last week, Grandview is back in the poll at No. 9. Columbine remains at No. 2 after beating Ralston Valley 21-7 Thursday night. The Mustangs, ranked No. 3 last week, fell four slots following their loss.
In 4A, Pine Creek remains No. 1 after drubbing Pueblo West 47-7 Saturday. But the first time this season, they were not voted there unanimously.
The Vista Ridge Wolves gained two first-place votes after an impressive 40-28 win over Palmer Ridge, who stays in this week’s poll at No. 10. Vista Ridge is now No. 2, and faces Pine Creek on Friday.
There were no new teams that joined the 4A rankings.
Pueblo East is still the top team in 3A, although half the first-place votes went to other teams. The Eagles needed plenty of offense to get by Discovery Canyon Friday night. They took the game 47-36.
D’Evelyn returned to the 3A poll after falling out two weeks ago. They got a much-needed 49-30 win over Pueblo County Friday night.
Kent Denver remains the team to beat in 2A after they shut out Ridgeview Academy 40-0. Bayfield leapt over La Junta for the No. 2 slot after its big win over Paonia.
A 28-7 win over Roaring Fork got Gunnison back in the rankings at No. 10. The Cowboys are the only 2A newcomers this week.
In 1A, Buena Vista takes over the top spot with Resurrection Christian coming in at No. 2 and only trail the Demons by a single point in the voting.
Previously unranked Limon made the biggest jump this week as they land at No. 7.
There wasn’t a lot of movement in the 8-man rankings, but Hoehne does join the poll this week at No. 10.
There were no newcomers to 6-man, although Hanover (No. 6) and Peetz (No. 7) each moved up one slot 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.
