Discovery Canyon has taken over the top spot in the 3A football rankings. (Pam Wagner)
Discovery Canyon has perhaps the best combinations of wins to date in Class 3A football this season. As a result, the Thunder now own the No. 1 spot in CHSAANow.com’s ranking.
Voting in 3A remained split again this week, continuing a season-long trend, but the Thunder received seven of the 13 first-place votes, and had 122 total points. Lutheran, No. 1 since the preseason, dropped to No. 2 with six first-place votes and 114 points.
Elsewhere in the classificatoin, Rifle moved up to No. 3, while Holy Family is now No. 4. The 3A poll added Conifer (No. 10) this week.
Ralston Valley moved up to No. 3 in the 5A poll this week. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
Cherry Creek is up to No. 6 after shutting out then-No. 9 Cherokee Trail. Regis Jesuit is No. 7, Overland No. 8 and Rocky Mountain is No. 9. Doherty rejoins the poll this week at No. 10.
In 4A, Pine Creek extended its stay at No. 1. The Eagles beat then-No. 5 Vista Ridge last week. That ranking didn’t add any teams this week, though Fort Collins moved up to No. 2 from No. 4.
Brush (2A), Paonia (1A), Dayspring Christian (8-man) and Arickaree/Woodlin (6-man) each stayed atop their respective polls this week.
Newcomers included Gunnision (No. 9) and Bayfield (No. 10) in 2A; Rye (No. 10) in 1A; Sangre de Cristo (No. 10) in 8-man; and Pawnee (No. 7) in 6-man.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
Voted upon by coaches and select media members around the state. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding, except in 5A where they are used as part of the seeding criteria.
Ranked football teams had an outstanding weekend last week, and as a result, there wasn’t a whole lot of movement in the latest CHSAANow.com rankings on Monday.
Top-10 teams went a combined 54-11 last week, and only two of those losses came to unranked foes.
So it follows that all seven No. 1 teams remained the same this week. Leading their respective rankings are Valor Christian (Class 5A), Pine Creek (4A), Lutheran (3A), Brush (2A), Paonia (1A), Dayspring Christian (8-man) and Arickaree/Woodlin (6-man).
There wasn’t a whole lot of change elsewhere.
In 5A, the teams ranked Nos. 1-6 — Valor, Pomona, Grandview, Ralston Valley, Fairview and Regis Jesuit — didn’t budge.
The classification did add at Rocky Mountain at No. 10, and Overland jumped Cherry Creek for the No. 7 spot, but it was a quiet week otherwise. Regis Jesuit remains No. 9.
Pomona remained ranked No. 2 in 5A this week. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
The 4A poll added Greeley West at No. 8. The biggest mover there was Fort Collins bumping up to No. 4 this week.
Palisade rejoined the 3A poll at No. 10, while 2A added No. 10 Montezuma-Cortez. Platte Canyon (also No. 10) was 1A’s newcomer, and Flagler (another No. 10) joined the 6-man ranks.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
Voted upon by coaches and select media members around the state. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding, except in 5A where they are used as part of the seeding criteria.
Brighton softball is among the many contenders in Class 5A. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
A little more than three weeks ago, Eaglecrest softball went to Dakota Ridge and easily handled the Eagles.
The final was 8-1 that day. They’d already beaten Douglas County, a quarterfinal team last season, as well as Rock Canyon, another quarterfinalist in 2013. No one is going to anoint a state champion after three games — but Eaglecrest sure looked like a favorite at that point.
Well, here’s the state of Class 5A softball at this moment: Dakota Ridge is ranked No. 1, Eaglecrest is now No. 9. And both are still very much in contention for the No. 1 overall seed come next month.
The classification has been crazy. Consider that there ceased to be an unbeaten team in 5A softball on Sept. 11 — less than three weeks into the season.
But what makes it all the more confusing is the sheer amount of parity.
Chaparral shot up to No. 5 in this week’s ranking after 10-consecutive wins. The Wolverines dropped their first two games this week.
After Eaglecrest’s 3-0 start, the Raptors lost to Brighton. Two games later, Brighton lost to Columbine. Columbine turned around and lost to Mountain Vista. Mountain Vista then fell to Cherry Creek. Two games after that, Cherry Creek lost to Lakewood, which then lost to Chatfield.
Dakota Ridge is currently the No. 1 team in the state. They have won four games in a row, but have the loss to Eaglecrest and another to Mountain Range. Two games after beating Dakota Ridge, Mountain Range lost to Fossil Ridge.
Another 5A contender: Mountain Range. (Pam Wagner)
“When the committee sits down to figure out head-to-head, it’s going to be: ‘What week?’” joked Bud Ozzello, CHSAA’s assistant commissioner who administers softball. “That’s how good this classification is.”
So who will end up as the No. 1 seed? Who knows. What’s clear is that there’s no clear-cut favorite.
Dakota Ridge has a win over Legend, which beat Douglas County, which has beaten Columbine, which has topped Brighton, which owns a win over Grandview, which beat Eaglecrest — which, of course, beat Dakota Ridge.
The classification has become a snake eating its own tail.
Ultimately, what this regular season is proving is that it likely won’t even matter much who gets the No. 1 overall seed. Or the Nos. 8, 9 or 10, for that matter.
Because in order to reach the state tournament, and move on once there, “You’re going to have to battle,” Ozzello said.
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Short stuff
The first of the new championship trophies were delivered last week: boys golf. The rest have since been delivered, and now dot CHSAA’s hallways until their championship dates.
Berthoud football is off to a 3-0 start, and ranked No. 10 in 3A this week. This may be a case of those special graduating classes that come through schools at one time or another. According to John Hall of the Berthoud Surveyor, this year’s junior class was a stellar bunch dating to their youth, including winning the Northern Colorado Championship.
Due to low numbers, Deer Trail will forfeit its game to Peetz this week. Deer Trail was down to five guys.
Pinnacle’s football team beat Jefferson 55-18 last week, and in doing so snapped an 18-game winning streak. Their last win came in Sept. 2012.
Castle View’s Savannah Heebner threw a perfect game in a 14-0 win over Highlands Ranch last week. She struck out 10 in five innings, and is now 10-1 with a 0.77 ERA in 11 games. She has four shutouts.
It was quite the weekend for Fairview’s athletic department. The volleyball team won the Bruins Classic on Saturday, capped by a 2-1 win over Cherry Creek. On Monday, the volleyball team cracked the 5A rankings at No. 8. Also over the weekend, the boys tennis team also tied Cherry Creek in winning the Cherry Creek Invitational. That followed a win over Cherry Creek in a dual earlier in the week.
Steamboat Springs JV boys soccer goalie Andrew McCawley scored a goal off a long punt. Here’s video.
Following Valor Christian’s loss last week, 8-man’s Dayspring Christian owns the state’s longest football winning streak at 16 games.
After going 3-4 last week, Colorado football teams are now 20-11 against out-of-state competition this season.
Three Broncos players visited local football programs on Tuesday. Corey Nelson stopped by Horizon, Ben Garland went to Legacy, and Montee Ball was at Gateway.
Colorado boys lacrosse has two highly-ranked sophomores in the Class of 2017. Per Inside lacrosse, Mountain Vista’s Colin Munro (a North Carolina commit) is No. 4 nationally, while Fossil Ridge’s Jake Frane (Notre Dame) is No. 17.
Mullen turned to Matt Guglielmo to coach its girls soccer team. He’s also the school’s boys coach.
Valor Christian alum Max McCaffrey had two touchdowns for Duke football in its win over Kansas last week. He’s now the team’s leading receiver this season with 178 yards.
Grandview alum Kevin Gausman was part of the Balitmore Orioles squad which clinched the AL East on Tuesday.
A Colorado legislator is considering a proposal which “would require public schools to change Indian-themed mascots that the Native American community found offensive.” The threat of losing state funding would hang over those schools which don’t change it, according to the proposal.
If you missed it Wednesday, our Brian Miller detailed the story of Hugo Falco, a Brazilian exchange student who is playing 6-man football at Stratton/Liberty.
Hugo Falco, second from right, is an exchange student from Brazil who joined Stratton/Liberty’s 6-man football team. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he town of Stratton has a population of less than 700, so at first glance coming from a city in Brazil that has more than 3.7 million people must generate something of a culture shock.
But Stratton High School sophomore Hugo Falco wanted it that way. When given the opportunity to be part of the student exchange program, Falco sought out a smaller town to gain new experiences.
“It’s so different,” said Falco, who comes to Stratton from Recife, located in the northeastern part of Brazil. “I’m still getting used to it but so far I’m really liking it.”
Part of Falco’s desire to come to the United States was also the opportunity to play sports not familiar to most Brazilians, like American football. That’s how he found himself becoming a member of the Stratton/Liberty co-op in 6-man football, playing running back and safety for the Knighted Eagles.
“He picked it up really quick,” Stratton/Liberty coach Toby Kechter said. “He’ll stick his head in there with anybody. He’s tough, he’s not scared.”
Hugo Falco. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Falco is 5-foot-6, 130 pounds, but that hasn’t prevented him from diving into the sport. He loves it so far, and is eager to try baseball for the first time in the spring.
“The exchange program is more to learn new things,” he said. “It’s really good to try different stuff you don’t have back in your country.”
Falco’s varsity experience was limited to a few handoffs in the first two games of the season, though he has played in each of the team’s first two junior varsity games. The Knighted Eagles, the defending state champions in 6-man, were ranked first in the state before falling to No. 2 Arickaree/Woodlin 60-30 on Friday evening.
Kyle Loeffler rushed for 156 yards and three touchdowns for Arickaree/Woodlin and Trent Loeffler tossed three touchdown passes.
Stratton/Liberty has been without the services of all-state senior running back and linebacker Kyle English, who will miss the season after injuring his knee in the team’s opener against Idalia. Cordell Burton has filled in nicely in his absence.
“It was disappointing,” Knighted Eagles sophomore Marshall Hornung said of the loss. “But I think we can definitely learn from our mistakes and get a lot better.”
Hornung and his family are serving as the host family for Falco, who arrived on Aug. 17. Marshall said he’s enjoyed having Falco around and his teammates quickly took to him as well, though there has obviously been a learning curve when it comes to teaching Falco the sport.
Falco’s previous experience with American football was limited to watching the NFL, but the 6-man game hasn’t thrown him off much. He said if anything it’s a little simpler and he enjoys it more.
His favorite part of the sport so far? Getting to deliver a hit.
Hugo Falco attempts to make a tackle last Friday. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
“I was really surprised how well he took to it,” Hornung said. “Somebody who is new to football doesn’t really want to initiate contact, but he’s done really good at running the ball and not being afraid.”
Stratton/Liberty only has 16 players on its squad, and the high school has 87 students, which was an adjustment in itself. But Falco admits the best part about being at the school is getting to know so many new people.
He added that the Hornung family has been great and have helped him out a great deal, and Marshall said that Falco’s personality has been a perfect fit.
The education of a new country goes both ways, though Hornung said it isn’t as different as some might think.
“He’s shown us some of the differences, but he’s also shown us in all reality that isn’t much different than how we live,” he said. “Some aspects are very different and other are just alike.”
Typical of a 6-man setting, cars ring the field during Stratton/Liberty’s football game with Arickaree/Woodlin last Friday. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Arickaree/Woodlin is the new No. 1 team in the 6-man football poll this week. More photos. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Turns out a win over a No. 1 team does help you move up to the top spot.
Arickaree/Woodlin, No. 2 in CHSAANow’s 6-man football poll last week, moved up to No. 1 this week following its 60-30 win over Stratton/Liberty on Friday night.
Coach David Saffer was expecting the move after the game on Friday.
Saffer’s squad was the only new No. 1 team this week. Valor Christian (5A), Pine Creek (4A), Lutheran (3A), Brush (2A), Paonia (1A) and Dayspring Christian (8-man) all held firm atop their respective rankings.
Ralston Valley is up to No. 4 in this week’s 5A football poll. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
Valor held on to the top spot despite its loss to Chandler (Ariz.). But the Eagles are no longer a unanimous selection: they received 13 of the 18 first-place votes this week.
No. 2 Pomona, No. 3 Grandview and No. 4 Ralston Valley — which got three — also received first-place votes in 5A this week. Fairview rounds out the top five after bumping up one spot.
Regis Jesuit is sixth, Cherry Creek fell to seventh following its loss to Jordan (Utah), Overland moved up to eighth and Cherokee Trail fell to No. 9 after losing to Regis Jesuit. Doherty is the lone newcomer in 5A this week, and joins at No. 10.
Among the biggest movers this week was Fort Collins, which jumped up from No. 9 to No. 5 in the 4A poll following its win over Windsor last week.
The 4A ranking added Pueblo Centennial (No. 10), 3A added Berthoud (also No. 10) and St. Mary’s joined 2A (No. 9). In 1A, newcomer Rye is No. 10, and 6-man has two new teams this week: No. 9 Hanover and No. 10 Weldon Valley.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
Voted upon by coaches and select media members around the state. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding, except in 5A where they are used as part of the seeding criteria.
Nine minutes remained in the fourth quarter on Friday night, and Columbine led Bear Creek 28-7. The Rebels would win 43-42 an hour and five minutes later.
Wait, what?
Despite nearly letting the game slip through its fingers, Columbine battled through double overtime to outlast Bear Creek.
Columbine quarterback Jake Lowry. (Dennis Pleuss)
“I was proud of how our kids stepped up and did fight, and made plays at the end, just enough to win it,” Columbine coach Andy Lowry told ColoradoPreps.com’s Scoreboard Show after the game. “Our kids just never gave up and our offense just made plays at the end in overtime, and we squeaked one out.”
Bear Creek was shut out until five minutes remained in the third quarter, and actually trailed 21-0 at that point. But the Bears’ rally really didn’t start until six minutes remained in regulation, when they cut it to 28-14. After an onside kick recovery, and two more scores, it was suddenly tied up and heading to overtime.
“I give Bear Creek a lot of credit for just fighting and playing hard,” Lowry said. “Their coaches did a good job, and they made a lot of plays. We just couldn’t finish in that fourth quarter.”
After blowing the late lead, “We were down a little bit,” Lowry said, “but we just talked to (the team) about how this is a good challenge for us to be able to grow up and face some adversity and have to fight for something.”
Both teams scored in the first overtime, and then Bear Creek converted on its offensive possession in the second. So did Columbine — but the Rebels opted to go for two, and Columbine’s junior quarterback, Jake Lowry, kept the ball to convert for the win.
“My coaches were calling for it, saying, ‘Go for two! Go for two!’” Andy Lowry said. “We just hadn’t stopped them for quite a few possessions in a row. The offense was doing well, and they were over-loading one side, and we just decided to put it in Jake’s hands.
“He made a great play and got in the end zone. You just hate to miss an extra point or something like that and end something that way, so we kept it in our offense’s hands.”
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4A: (9) Fort Collins 13, (8) Windsor 12
Windsor led 6-0 at halftime and later 12-7 in the fourth, but Fort Collins quarterback Kyler Sigsbee found Dawson Johnson for the winning 5-yard score with six minutes remaining.
The Lambkins’ defense recovered a Windsor fumble on the ensuing drive, and Fort Collins was able to run the clock out.
“We we kind of using this as a barometer to find out where we rank among the 4A elite, because we definitely consider Windsor an elite 4A team,” Fort Collins coach Eric Rice told the Scoreboard Show. “I’m really glad our kids passed the test tonight.”
Later, he added, “When you hold a team like Windsor, which has a potent offense and is good at what they do, to 12 points, you’ve got to be happy about that.”
Not only did Arickaree/Woodlin position itself to take over the top spot in the poll on Monday, the squad also knocked off the defending 6-man champions.
“This is probably the biggest win since we restarted the program four years ago,” Arickaree/Woodlin coach David Saffer told the Scoreboard Show. “The seniors this year have come from the bottom and worked their way up, so it was a very good win for us.
“We also understand that we’ve got a long season ahead of us, and we’ve got to keep going week-by-week here.”
On the presumptive No. 1 ranking, Saffer said, “We’ve got a target on our backs. We’ve just got to stay focused and keep working.”
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5A: (6) Fairvew 35, Horizon 28
Horizon nearly pulled off its second-straight upset.
Nearly.
A week after knocking off then-No. 6 Chatfield, Horizon battled with Fairview all night on Friday. Ultimately, though, the Knights secured the win.
Horizon actually led 21-7 early in the second quarter, but Fairview rallied to tie things with 3:56 to play before the half. Then, quarterback Johnny Feauto found Tim Ryan for a 20-yard touchdown with 17 seconds left in the half to give the Knights the lead.
“Yeah, he’s our version of Johnny Football,” Fairview coach Tom McCartney joked on the Scoreboard Show. “He’s a tremendous player, he’s the point guard on the basketball team, he was on the baseball team that was in the Elite 8. He loves the center of attention, he loves competition. He just makes a ton of plays for us, and we’re fortunate to have Johnny Football.”
Oh, but Horizon wasn’t done. The Hawks tied it up early in the fourth on a touchdown pass of their own.
Jason Harvey then provided the heroics. His 14-yard run with 1:39 to play proved to be the difference — but only after the Knights’ defense stopped Horizon on fourth-and-2 from near midfield.
“It was a good stop there to try to get that thing secure,” McCartney said.
“The second half was just hard-fought, two teams going at it. … We just found a way.”
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1A/2A: (2) Buena Vista 21, (10) Manitou Springs 0
Buena Vista, a 1A school, held serve at home against 2A Manitou Springs.
“What got us going, I would say, is our defense and how they stayed disciplined,” Buena Vista coach Matt Flavin told the Scoreboard Show. “I told them we needed to stay disciplined, and they responded and stayed with the gameplan even though they came out and started running the ball on us.
“That kind of got a spark in us to keep going. They got the offense going, as well.”
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Notes
In a rematch of last year’s 1A championship game, No. 1 Paonia handled No. 4 Centauri 44-0.
Mountain View beat Loveland 24-21 on Jayce Melby’s 24-yard field goal with six seconds left.
Falcon also got a late field goal to beat Pueblo West 16-14. Falcon’s 16 points were actually unanswered after trailing 14-0.
With Valor Christian’s loss, Dayspring Christian now solely owns the longest winning streak in the state at 15 games. The defending 8-man champions play Soroco on Saturday.
Poudre took down Monarch, 7-2. Monarch actually had a chance from the 9-yard-line with 0.4 seconds to play, but couldn’t score.
Eaglecrest, a 5A program, upset 4A No. 3 Denver South 12-6.
Overland rolled Legend, 54-0. The Trailblazers are now 4-0. As recently as 2011, they opened 0-4.
Boulder running back T.J. Jones rushed for 300 yards in his team’s 42-22 win over Thornton, according to BoCoPreps.com.
5A No. 4 Grandview rushed for six touchdowns in its 49-27 win over Arapahoe.
4A No. 4 Montrose rebounded from its first loss with a 55-0 win over Fruita Monument.
In a top-10 4A matchup, No. 9 Holy Family took care of No. 7 Palisade. Said coach Mike Gabriel to the Scoreboard Show: “We really needed it after last week. We played a little less than what we were capabale of last week, so this is a big win for us.”
There were three other top-10 games in 6-man this week besides the 1-2 showdown: No. 3 Eads 52, No. 8 Cheyenne Wells 6; No. 6 Peetz 53, No. 7 Prairie 0; No. 9 Flagler 46, No. 10 Kit Carson 22.
