It’s that time of the week where we rewrite the state football record book.
Longmont Christian quarterback Luke Puchino broke the state record for pass attempts in a loss to Justice last week when he threw the ball 71 times.
Fairview quarterback Johnny Feauto. (Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Two days earlier, Fairview quarterback Johnny Feauto tied the state record for completions with 39.
And those were just two of the record-book-worthy performances this week.
Puchino, a sophomore for the 8-man team, broke the previous record of 65 attempts set by Plainview’s Robbie Parker on Oct. 26, 1990. Puchnino’s record came on Saturday, nearly 24 years to the day of Parker’s performance.
“When I looked at the stat book (after the game), I was baffled,” said first-year Longmont Christian coach Josh Mendenhall. “When you’re in the middle of the game, you don’t think about that type of stuff.”
Puchino was 31-of-71 on Saturday for 505 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions. The seven scores are now tied for the second-most in state history, the 505 yards are tied for the tenth-most, and the 31 completions are tied for No. 14 all-time.
Mendenhall has implemented a pass-first system in his first year.
“He’s perfect for that,” Mendenhall said of Puchino. “He’s got a great head for the game. He’s only a sophomore, but I think he has the mind of a senior. … He set pretty much all of our school records this season, as far as single-season.”
Justice won the game, 70-50.
“They were in our boat – small and they like to throw, too,” Mendenhall said. “We matched up well with them. The past few games, pretty all season, we’ve been outsized and pretty much gotten dominated on the line. We were both passing teams, so the clock wasn’t moving as much.”
Longmont Christian tight end Cameron Jauregui caught 17 of Puchino’s passes for 290 yards and five touchdowns. The five scores are tied for No. 3 all-time, while the 17 catches are No. 7, and the yards are No. 8.
“We weren’t always trying to look for him, but he just gets open,” Mendenhall said of Jauregui. “If he’s open, we’re going to throw it to him.”
Feauto, meanwhile, had already etched his name into the state record book with his 536 yards of total offense against Grand Junction on Aug. 30. Last Thursday, he added a few more entries in going 39-of-56 with 544 yards and five touchdowns in Fairview’s 5A win against Legacy.
The completions tied a state record held by former Fairview quarterback Taylor Tharp (2002) and former Smoky Hill quarterback Robert Felberg (who set his record against Fairview in 2007).
The senior’s 56 attempts are tied for the seventh-most in state history, while the 544 yards are the fifth-most.
Though the game was completed on Thursday, we had to wait to confirm all the marks with Fairview until Sunday, as that’s when the Knights take official stats off the game film.
For a few hours on Sunday morning, Feauto’s yardage total sat 535, but later the coaching staff realized they missed a nine-yard completion which resulted in a fumble. So his mark is officially 544.
Fairview ended up with 572 passing yards as a team because wide receiver Tim Ryan also had a 28-yard completion. That’s the second-most in state history.
More could be on the way for Feauto during this crazy year, especially playing in the explosive Knights’ offense which averages a Class 5A-best 44.3 points and 497 yards per game.
Elsewhere last week:
Holy Family quarterback Chris Helbig was 21-of-26 on Friday. His 80.8 completion percentage is now No. 7 all-time.
Lyons wide receiver Austin Myers caught 14 passes for 314 yards and four touchdowns on Friday. The receiving yards are No. 4 all-time, the 14 catches are tied for ninth.
Between Feauto, Helbig and Air Academy’s Adam Brown, the state’s season record of 4,184 passing yards may fall. Brown sits at 3,316 yards (which is already No. 6 all-time), Feauto has 2,901 and Helbig is at 2,849. D’Evelyn’s Owen Burke also has 2,701 passing yards. Trouble is, Brown will need to throw for 868 yards this week as Air Academy won’t make the 4A playoffs. Feauto is in the 5A playoffs, Helbig and Holy Family are likely to make the 4A playoffs, but it doesn’t look like D’Evelyn will make the 3A field. So it may be up to Feauto and Helbig.
Fort Collins trailed Broomfield 21-10 at halftime, but rallied for a 30-21 win on Friday night.
“At halftime … it wasn’t really a matter of X’s and O’s and we kind of knew that from a coaching standpoint,” Fort Collins coach Eric Rice told Colorado Preps’ Scoreboard Show. “It was just more a matter of not finishing plays that we had the opportunity to.
“And so our very spirited message at halftime to the guys was, ‘Sometimes winning a football game is about playing with heart and just playing with a lot of courage.’ I really think that’s all it really took for us to get better in the second half.”
The third-ranked Lambkins actually led 10-7 with five minutes to play in the second quarter, but Broomfield struck for two quick touchdowns in a span of two-and-a-half minutes to take a 21-10 advantage into halftime.
Fort Collins responded with a touchdown on its opening drive of the second half — a 5-yard run from Kyler Sigsbee capped it.
William Bridges then gave the Lambkins a 24-21 lead later in the third quarter, and Sigsbee added another touchdown, his third of the game, with 7:16 remaining in the game to seal things.
“Really, really proud of our kids for showing their true character that they’re bunch of fighters and they got a lot of heart and they got a lot of courage and found a way to get a win tonight,” Rice said. “I actually look at tonight, and being down at halftime, as a very positive thing for us in the long run, because we might find ourselves in the playoffs here in a couple of weeks down at halftime, and we’re going to be able to draw back on this experience and say, ‘We’ve been there before.’”
The win sealed the Class 4A Northern League title for the Lambkins.
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5A: Overland 50, Cherokee Trail 48 (OT)
A back-and-forth game all night long, it was fitting that this one ended up in overtime.
The game featured seven ties or lead changes, but it was Ahjon White’s score on fourth-and-goal from the 2 and Austin Conway’s subsequent two-point conversion that proved to be the difference.
Overland had leads of 14-0, 22-14, 28-20 and 36-28. Each time, Cherokee Trail battled back. The Cougars actually took at 42-36 lead in the fourth quarter, but it was Overland’s turn to respond. Josh Wright’s 20-yard touchdown with 5:26 to play tied the game.
Overland had a chance to win it with 2.8 seconds to play, but missed a field goal and the teams went to overtime.
In OT, the Trailblazers got the ball first and White scored his fourth total touchdown of the night on the fourth-down try. Conway then got the conversion on a run. It was Overland’s fifth two-point attempt of the night; they ended up converting three of them.
Cherokee Trail also scored on a fourth-and-goal from the two, but couldn’t convert for two.
Cherokee Trail’s Izaiah Lottie had a big night with three touchdowns.
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1A: (8) Centauri 42, (6) Monte Vista 6
The Falcons cruised to an easy win over the Pirates.
“We played well and we played together and we were able to get a big victory against a league rival and a good team,” coach Kyle Forster told the Scoreboard Show after the game. “Our first four games were against four quality teams. Three of them are in the top-4. We learned a lot early, and we were able to put it together tonight.”
Centauri closed the regular season with five-straight wins.
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Short stuff
The playoff brackets for classes 5A, 2A, 1A, 8-man and 6-man are due out Sunday. There’s no exact time set for a release, but brackets will publish on CHSAANow.com as they are finalized. Expect late morning, mid-afternoon.
The latest Wild Card point standings won’t publish until either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
Speaking of Wild Card points: Manual was the beneficiary of a forfeit from Ridge View Academy earlier this week. It moved them all the way up to No. 9 in the 2A Wild Card points. But following a loss to previously winless Machebeuf on Friday night, Manual dropped to No. 15. It must hold on tight in hopes it makes the 2A playoff field.
Lyons wideout Austin Myers had 314 yards receiving in a win over Clear Creek on Friday night, according to BoCoPreps.com. That’s the fourth-highest single-game mark in state history.
Northridge upset 3A No. 9 Berthoud, 32-20.
Also in 3A, No. 6 Rifle held off Glenwood Springs 20-13. “As usual, we traveled well,” Rifle coach Damon Wells told the Scoreboard Show. “It was a full house. It was pretty loud. I think sometimes in the mountains in Colorado on Friday nights in the fall, it’s a pretty special environment.”
2A’s top-ranked team, Brush, rolled to a 43-29 win over No. 10 Eaton.
St. Mary’s, No. 9 in 2A, won a rivalry game with Manitou Springs, 28-18. St. Mary’s went 1-8 last season; they’re now 7-2 in 2014. “These kids are riding high right now, playing well,” coach Nic Olney told the Scoreboard Show.
Here’s another good turnaround: Littleton is 5-4 after beating Ponderosa 21-19. The Lions started 1-4. They won the 4A Plains League as a result. “This is our second fall being together,” coach Kurt Krantz told the Scoreboard Show. “The kids are believing in what we’re doing. They’re starting to understand what this is about.”
Rangeview won the 5A South Metro League with a 29-7 win over Heritage. “I really like where our team’s at,” coach Dave Gonzales told the Scoreboard Show. “We kind of found our identity tonight. That’s kind of the team we’ve been waiting on to show up for a few weeks. Finally, everybody’s healthy and we’re kind of in a good little run.”
A few top-10 matchups in 8-man: No. 2 Caliche beat No. 5 Merino 37-14; No. 4 Akron beat No. 10 Sedgwick County 60-21; and No. 7 Granada beat No. 6 Springfield 28-12.
6-man’s crossover games began play. Among the winners were Arickaree/Woodlin (66-0 over Miami-Yoder), Walsh (83-32 over Flagler), Fleming (48-6 over Otis) and Peetz (79-32 over Stratton/Liberty). Peetz’s win assures the classification of a new champion this year. Stratton/Liberty won the 2013 crown.
COLORADO SPRINGS – Once again, Paul Roberts had no peers at the Class 2A state cross country meet.
The junior won his third title in a row with a dominating 16.131-second time, which also was a new 2A record at the 3.2-mile course at the Norris Penrose Event Center.
(Tracy Renck/CHSAANow.com)
“There really wasn’t any more pressure on me this year,” Roberts said. “I’ve been here before and our team just needed to come out here and race well. We wanted to come out here and take care of business, that was our goal, and that’s what we did.”
Corey Lewenkamp of Custer County Central was second at 17:02.30.
“My coaches said to sit with the pack a little bit for the first mile and just make sure you get to the top of the hill feeling good,” Roberts said. “Then they said go as hard as I could that last half. I felt like everybody on our team went out and did that.”
Roberts’ effort powered Lyons to its third state title in a row. Roberts’ teammate Matt Dillon was fifth.
Roberts acknowledged he has already been thinking about what it would mean to be a four-time Colorado state cross country champion.
“My goal since I was an eighth grader was to win four high school state championships,” Roberts said. “That’s a goal I want to reach.”
In the Class 4A race, Palmer Ridge also doubled its pleasure.
Eric Hamer, a senior, claimed his inaugural state title with a Class 4A record time of 16.17.7 seconds on the challenging course.
“It wasn’t my plan, I just wanted to go out and run the best that I could,” Hammer said about setting a new record. “This was about me doing my part and it feels great to help the team win. My coaches were yelling at me how much do you want second place to have to earn it. So, I just ran as fast as I could.”
Cheyenne Mountain’s William Mayhew, a fellow senior, was second at 16:49.7.
Thanks to Hamer’s victory the Bears won the team title with 94 points, this was their first state boys cross country title since the school opened six years ago. Niwot was second in the team race with 106 points.
“My coaches had a vision for me to win state and I accomplished this goal,” said Hamer, who was sixth a year ago.
Like Hamer, SkyView Academy’s Ben Butler also won the 3A race in a class record-breaking fashion with a 16.18.20-second performance.
“That’s awesome,” Butler said after he was informed he set a 3A record. “The preparation was there, but the difference was I came in here with the thought of winning in my mind. I wanted to stay humble, but at the same time I wanted to believe it was possible and it happened for me.”
Butler, a junior, finished fourth in the 2A state race last year. SkyView Academy is based in Highlands Ranch.
(Tracy Renck/CHSAANow.com)
The 5A race didn’t see any records get broken, but that didn’t dampen the excitement of Pomona’s Marcelo Laguera.
The senior won his first state championship with a time of 16.19.40
“Last year my body broke down and I finished like 71st,” Laguera said. “I just worked really hard to get back here and to win state means everything. All those days of training and hard work I put in paid off. It is an amazing feeling.”
Laguera said he took the lead for good in the race at the 2-mile mark. Thornton’s Joshua Joseph was second at 16:42.8 seconds.
“This course was brutal and all that mattered was who got to the line first,” Laguera said.
Mountain Vista won the 5A boys team title with 114 points, followed by Fort Collins at 156 points.
The lead pack at the 5A girls race. (Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)
COLORADO SPRINGS — Lauren Gregory, a sophomore phenom at Fort Collins, entered Saturday’s cross country State Championships at the Norris-Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs as the 5A defending champion. She was undefeated on the season and relatively untouched.
Gregory was projected to win and did in dominant fashion with a time of 18:55, 30 seconds ahead of Fairview’s Maya Browning and the field.
What wasn’t expected was for her teammates to join her on the podium as champions, but the Lambkins surprised with 113 points, five points ahead of second place Monarch. See the full results here.
Fort Collins’ Lauren Gregory. (Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)
All Fort Collins had to do was unseat a Monarch team attempting to become the first 5A girls cross country program to win four state titles in a row. Fort Collins, 2010 state champions and a top-two team finisher at the State Meet every year since 2007, had placed second to Monarch the previous three seasons.
The Lambkins certainly faced a daunting task, especially after a relatively shaky regular season by the program’s lofty standards.
“We were not picked to win today,” Fort Collins first year coach Mike Callor, who won one boys and one girl’s state title at Dakota Ridge, admitted. “We knew we had it in us, but the kind of season we had. We started out really rocky and it was tough. It was the toughest state title I’ve ever been a part of honestly. We were hoping that all those finished feeling they had given it everything they had. If they did that and ran the plan, something special was certainly possible.”
Gregory, seniors Heather Holt (8th place), Devynn Miller (21st place), Kiri Michell (50th), and junior Claire Hooker (54th) brought home their 7th state championship in girls cross country, third most of any school in the state behind The Classical Academy (10 titles) and Lake County (9).
Gregory was ecstatic about the team crown.
“It means so much more than the individual title,” Gregory said. “It’s incredible to know my team was right there with me and they get to celebrate with me. It’s amazing.”
In class 4A, Mountain View’s girls felt they had some unfinished business of their own. The Mountain Lions, one of the favorites to win the 2013 crown, finished fourth as cross-town rivals Thompson Valley won their 4th girls title in the past eight seasons. In 2011, Mountain View placed second as Thompson Valley won.
The Mountain Lions finally overtook their nemesis as three of their girls finished ahead of Thompson Valley’s number one. Mountain View, with 127 points, held off Thompson Valley (139), Palmer Ridge (144), and Evergreen (144).
Lauren Offerman (4th place), Riley Cooney (6th place), Abby Stewart (14th), Katie Benner (65th), and Alison Peters (66th) led the ladies from Loveland to their first state championship since 2004, and third title overall in the sport.
“To me personally, I could not be more excited for that group of young ladies,” Mountain View coach Kevin Clark said. “Those girls as freshman finished second to Thompson Valley. Our seniors, they were our backbone to make sure that we never lost sight. They wanted a shot at it too and I couldn’t be more excited for that group of girls.”
Air Academy junior Katie Rainsberger, after coming within a second of winning state two years ago and finishing second behind Niwot’s Elise Cranny in 2012 and 2013, captured her first crown in a time of 18:50. Denver North’s Kayla Young placed second in 19:03.
“It’s more joy than redemption,” Rainsberger said of winning the title. “Losing to Elise Cranny isn’t something that one should be ashamed of. She’s a role model, someone I can look up to, and we’re really good friends,” Rainsberger said of the Stanford Cardinal freshman.
In another fantastic team finish, Alamosa’s girls pulled a mild upset over 3A defending champion Salida, 91-95, as Mean Moose freshman Tara Sowards outleaned Salida’s Sydney Fesenmeyer in a time of 21:22.8 to 21:22.9 for sixth place. The state title was Alamosa’s first in girls cross country since they won 4A in 2009.
Estes Park sophomore Lily Tomasula-Martin (20:31) held off Basalt’s Hailey Swirbul (20:35) for the 3A individual championship.
In 2A, West Grand senior Tabor Scholl, a multiple time state champion in track, was looking for her first cross country title since winning 3A as a freshman in 2011. Scholl (19:59) delivered in dominant fashion as Lyons’ CeAnn Udovich placed second in 20:20.
“Winning it freshman year was such a privilege and an honor and I was really grateful,” Scholl said. “Working for it for two years just makes this year so much more special to know that I put in the work and it finally paid off.”
Lyons, for all their success in cross country and track, had never won a state title in girls cross country. That changed Saturday as the Lions held off Telluride by a slim margin, 20-24.
Elsewhere in 5A, Rampart continued to lead the way, and Grandview moved up three places from No. 5 to No. 2 after a week which included a win over then-No. 2 Eaglecrest.
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.
Regis Jesuit volleyball returned to the 5A poll this week. (Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)
Regis Jesuit has returned to this week’s CHSAANow.com Class 5A volleyball rankings.
The Raiders went 3-0 last week and are now 11-6 this season. They returned to the poll at No. 10. Regis Jesuit was last ranked on Sept. 1.
Elsewhere in 5A, Grandview moved from No. 8 to No. 5.
Each of the five No. 1 teams stayed the same this week. Those are Rampart (5A), Lewis-Palmer (4A), Eaton (3A), Resurrection Christian (2A) and Fleming (1A).
The 4A poll added Air Academy (No. 10), 3A added Faith Christian (No. 10), Cedaredge (No. 10) joined 2A and Norwood (also No. 10) was new to 1A.
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 media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Eaglecrest is No. 2 in this week’s 5A volleyball rankings. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
There was some upheaval in the Class 5A volleyball rankings this week as both Eaglecrest and Cherokee Trail moved into the top five.
The Raptors (10-2) jumped from No. 5 to No. 2 in CHSAANow.com’s poll, while Cherokee Trail went from No. 6 to No. 3.
Rampart received 11 first-place votes and remained atop the 5A poll. The ranking added Denver East at No. 10 this week.
Each of the other No. 1 teams remained the same this week, as well, including Lewis-Palmer (4A), Eaton (3A), Resurrection Christian (2A) and Fleming (1A).
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 media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
A complete schedule for the Class 3A regional softball playoffs. All games are Oct. 11, unless noted.
Note that the third game will only be played if the higher-seeded team (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) loses the second game. The winner of game two and game three will then be the state qualifiers.
If the higher-seeded team wins games number two, game number three will not be play and the two participants in game two will be the state qualifiers.
