Lakewood is No. 9 in this week’s 5A football ranking. More photos. (Tom Hoganson)
Lakewood, coming off a big win over Montrose, has joined the Class 5A football poll this week.
The Tigers beat Montrose, then ranked No. 2 in 4A, on Saturday. Monday, they entered CHSAANow.com’s ranking at No. 9.
Elsewhere in 5A, Valor Christian remained the unanimous No. 1 team, but things changed behind the Eagles. Cherokee Trail (No. 2), Pomona (No. 3) and Grandview (No. 4) all moved up one spot this week after Cherry Creek, last week’s No. 2, fell to Pomona.
Creek is No. 5 this week, and is followed by Fairview, Ralston Valley, Regis Jesuit, newcomer Lakewood and Overland.
Denver South is ranked No. 3 in this week’s 4A poll. More photos. (Pam Wagner)
The 4A ranking also added one team in No. 10 Longmont, which was ranked in the preseason. Pine Creek maintained its spot at No. 1. Pueblo South moved up to No. 2 after Montrose’s loss, and Denver South bumped up to No. 3. Montrose is fourth this week, and Vista Ridge is fifth.
In 3A, Erie joined at No. 10. Lutheran continued its stay at No. 1, and Delta remained just behind at No. 2. Discovery Canyon bumped up to No. 3 after its big win over Holy Family last week.
The 2A poll added No. 8 Bayfield, while 1A added No. 7 Cedaredge and No. 9 Platte Canyon. Granada (No. 7) joined the 8-man ranking, while 6-man added No. 8 Cheyenne Wells and No. 9 Flagler.
The No. 1 teams in each of those classifications remained the same. Those are Brush, Paonia, Dayspring Christian and Stratton/Liberty, respectively.
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.
It had been more than two seasons since Central (Grand Junction) had won a football game. Friday night, the Warriors ended a 21-game losing streak with a 41-32 win at Vista PEAK in Class 3A.
The Warriors led 20-8 in the second quarter, but it quickly turned into a back-and-forth game. Vista PEAK took a 32-27 lead in the third quarter, but Tonka Littlefawn scored on a 36-yard run to give Central the lead for good at 34-32 with 9:54 to play in the game.
Central then sealed it five minutes later when Littlefaw added a 15-yard score to make it 41-32 following a bad snap on a punt.
Littlefawn finished with three scores. Justin Eller and Kian McAdam also had touchdowns.
The Warriors’ last win came 46-26 at Hinkley on Nov. 3, 2011. It was on the same field — at Aurora Public Schools Stadium.
Regis Jesuit, for the second week in a row, found itself locked in a battle late in the fourth quarter. This time, the result went the Raiders’ way.
A week after losing 27-14 to No. 2 Cherry Creek, Regis Jesuit had to put away rival Mullen, a team that refused to go away. The game featured seven ties or lead changes.
Mullen led 21-20 at halftime and 34-27 late in the third quarter, but Regis Jesuit tied it at 34 with less than a minute to play in the third.
Alex Barnes then scored on a 14-yard run to give Regis the lead at 41-34 with 10 minutes remaining in the game, and the Raiders added another score six minutes later.
But Mullen wasn’t done. Jovan Tafoya hit Ryan Manning on a 40-yard pass for a touchdown with two minutes to play, and the Mustangs drove down for one final chance in the final minute but couldn’t convert on fourth-and-12 from inside the 20.
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3A: (9) Roosevelt 20, Loveland 15
Loveland seemed to have pulled the upset — but Roosevelt scored the winning touchdown with 14 seconds left.
Loveland led 15-14 at the half, and it stayed that way for nearly the entire second half. But Roosevelt got the ball with 3:18 to play, and slowly marched its way down the field. Then, with 19 seconds left and facing third down and goal at the 1, the Roughriders’ Christian Majzack scored the winning touchdown.
Adrian Pastrana then had a game-sealing interception on Loveland’s ensuing drive.
This one came down to a goal-line stand at the end. Florence held firm, and held on to win.
Faith Christian had four shots at the end zone from inside the 10, but Florence didn’t bend. The last stop came with one second remaining.
“We took a timeout just to regroup them,” Florence coach Jeremy Nix told ColoradoPreps.com‘s Scoreboard Show. “The boys … just bowed their necks and got after it. We rode the ‘D’ that far, so we were at the point where we could’ve called a timeout to try to save some time, but we had confidence in them and they showed up at the end there.”
Discovery Canyon rallied from a 20-17 deficit at halftime to pull off the upset on the road.
“Tonight was a little bit of a heart-attack game,” Discovery Canyon coach Shawn Mitchell told the Scoreboard Show afterward.
The Thunder actually led 14-0 early before surrendering the lead in the second quarter. But they then reeled off 28-straight points in the third quarter to seize control of the game.
“It was a little bit of a roller-coaster ride for the coaches, to say the least,” Mitchell said.
The third quarter scoring spree was sparked by Blake Lawrie’s touchdown return on the opening kick of the second half.
“Boy, that really helped us,” Mitchell said. “That kind of got spirits back up again, because I think at the end of the second half, they were wondering, ‘Oh, what just happened?’ I think it was, ‘OK, we’re back where we need to be.’”
It was the second-consecutive big win for Discovery Canyon, which beat Silver Creek in Week 1.
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8-man: (9) Springfield 36, (4) Hoehne 6
Springfield pulled off the upset at home.
“Both of us grounded and pounded against each other, just kept hitting and hitting and we knew one of us was going to wear out,” coach J.J. Quick told the Scoreboard Show after the game. “We knew our game was to do what they normally do: just keep pounding and banging up front.”
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Notables
Cedaredge upset 2A No. 10 Olathe on Friday night. The final was 2-0, and no it wasn’t a forfeit. Weather played a role, with the lone points coming on a safety from a snap through the endzone.
Rifle, No. 5 in Class 3A, beat Jefferson 64-6. The Bears have outscored their first three opponents by a combined 182-19.
Lakewood, a 5A team, knocked of 4A No. 2 Montrose 47-35 on the road. Montrose kept trying to creep back into the game, but Lakewood seemingly scored a touchdown to answer each score. We’ve got photos of the game here.
Fountain-Fort Carson beat Legacy in overtime, 20-14.
Durango trailed 14-0 but then scored 34 unanswered points en route to beating Aztec (N.M.) 34-28 on the road.
Montrose and Grand Junction exchanged leads five times before the half on Friday night. The Tigers trailed 22-20 at the break, but would go up 50-22 with 10:42 to play. They’d have to hold on, though, in winning 58-45. At one point, Fruita cut it to 50-45 with 2:25 to play.
Aspen running back Ryan Fitzgerald had 343 yards and two touchdowns on 33 carries in his team’s 23-14 win over Steamboat Springs.
In 8-man, No. 6 Merino beat No. 5 Simla 18-16.
Alameda edged Skyview in overtime, 56-55. Nick Wotton had five touchdowns and 297 yards in the losing effort.
2A No. 8 Lamar beat 1A No. 2 Centauri, 20-8.
Valley’s Victor Delgado rushed for three touchdowns as his team beat Fort Lupton 31-0.
Rocky Mountain Lutheran’s Zach Schlittenhart had 231 yards and four touchdowns rushing on just 11 carries as his team beat Justice 64-28.
Lutheran beat Frederick 52-7. Quarterback James Willis threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns. Eight of his passes went to Joshua Clausen, who had 157 yards and two touchdowns. Through two games, Clausen has 376 receiving yards. It’s very early, but he’s on pace to break the single-season receiving yardage record, set just last season by Fairview’s Sam Martin (1,860).
There were a number of major movers as CHSAANow released the first football rankings of the regular season on Monday.
New Wheat Ridge football coach Dan Reardon. (Tracy Renck)
Pueblo East (Class 3A), Discovery Canyon (3A), and Wheat Ridge (4A) all made big jumps after being unranked in the preseason.
Pueblo East had the biggest climb, and wound up at No. 3 in the 3A poll after winning its first two games. The Eagles beat Longmont, No. 4Â in the preseason 4A poll, in Zero Week, then topped Coronado, the defending 3A champion which has since moved up to 4A, in Week 1.
Discovery Canyon is No. 6 in 3A this week. Last Thursday, the Thunder beat Silver Creek, the 3A runner-up a season ago which has also moved up to 4A.
And Wheat Ridge, also off to a 2-0 start under new coach Dan Reardon in 4A, has won its games by a combined 91-0. The Farmers are No. 5 in this week’s 4A poll.
In total, those moves were just a microcosm of the new rankings, which saw massive change. All seven polls got at least one new team, with 4A and 6-man getting four new members, and 3A adding three.
There’s also a new No. 1 team in 2A, where Brush takes over for Platte Valley.
The least amount of change occurred in 5A, where Valor Christian continues its stranglehold on the No. 1 spot following its physical win over Pomona. The Eagles received all 13 first-place votes.
Teams Nos. 2-4 stayed the same behind them: Cherry Creek (which beat Regis Jesuit), Cherokee Trail and Pomona. Grandview joined the top five this week, bumping up three places from its preseason No. 8 spot.
More photos. (Tim Visser/TimVisserPhotography.com)
Chatfield remained at No. 6, Fairview moved up three spots to No. 7, Regis Jesuit fell to No. 8 and Ralston Valley remained at No. 9.
The lone newcomer in 5A is Overland, which joined at No. 10.
In addition to Wheat Ridge in 4A, new teams include No. 8 Vista Ridge, No. 9 Falcon and No. 10 Fort Collins. Pine Creek remained atop that poll following its escape of Falcon’s upset bid.
Besides Pueblo East and Discovery Canyon, D’Evelyn also joined the 3A ranking. Lutheran stayed atop that poll after its overtime win in Texas last week.
2A added No. 9 Eaton, while 1A added No. 7 Meeker. Paonia is still No. 1 in 1A.
The 8-man ranking added No. 8 Akron and No. 9 Springfield. Dayspring Christian continues to lead that pack.
Finally, 6-man added No. 6 Prairie, No. 7 Pawnee, No. 8 Walsh and No. 10 Cotopaxi. Stratton/Liberty remained in the top spot.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. During the regular season, polls will be 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.
Valor Christian is the preseason No. 1 in 5A. (Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)
Defending champions head six of football’s seven preseason CHSAANow.com rankings, which were unveiled Monday morning.
The lone exception is Lutheran in Class 3A — which saw both its champion (Coronado) and runner-up (Silver Creek) move up to 4A this cycle.
In fact, that ranking was also the most split of any other, with both Lutheran and preseason No. 2 Delta both getting three first-place votes. Lutheran got the No. 1 nod with 65 total points. Delta had 53 points.
Lutheran was eliminated in the first round of the 3A playoffs last season, while Delta made the semifinals. Lutheran is entering its first season under new coach Blair Hubbard, formerly of Faith Christian.
Other preseason No. 1 teams are Platte Valley (2A), Paonia (1A), Dayspring Christian (8-man) and Stratton/Liberty (6-man).
The rankings are voted upon by coaches and select media members, and are the official polls of the Association. During the regular season, rankings will be released each Monday.
ThunderRidge 31, Overland 16, Monarch 7, Legend 5, Douglas County 3, Grand Junction 3, Mullen 2, Doherty 1, Fountain-Fort Carson 1.
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
PTS
1
Pine Creek (11)
110
2
Montrose
81
3
Pueblo South
75
4
Longmont
67
5
Denver South
53
6
Broomfield
43
7
Standley Lake
36
8
Dakota Ridge
28
9
Pueblo Centennial
26
10
Windsor
25
Others receiving votes:
Pueblo West 18, Vista Ridge 17, Loveland 13, Fort Collins 5, Coronado 3, Palmer Ridge 2, Wheat Ridge 2, Falcon 1.
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
PTS
1
Lutheran (3)
65
2
Delta (3)
53
3
Holy Family
52
4
Rifle (1)
40
5
Roosevelt
33
6
Evergreen
25
7
The Classical Academy
19
8
Palisade
16
9
Lewis-Palmer (1)
15
10
Vista PEAK
11
Others receiving votes:
Fort Morgan 9, Northridge 9, Pueblo East 7, Mead 4, Conifer 3, Discovery Canyon 3, Erie 3, Frederick 3, Woodland Park 2, Eagle Valley 1, Pueblo Central 1.
Class 2A
RK
TEAM
PTS
1
Platte Valley (5)
66
2
Faith Christian (1)
64
3
Brush (1)
54
4
Manitou Springs
41
5
Kent Denver
38
6
Florence
31
7
Strasburg
24
8
Bennett
23
9
Lamar
16
10
Olathe
9
Others receiving votes:
Gunnison 7, La Junta 4, Sterling 4, Eaton 2, Middle Park 1, Moffat County 1.
Class 1A
RK
TEAM
PTS
1
Paonia (4)
63
2
Centauri (2)
58
3
Limon (1)
53
4
Buena Vista
49
5
Resurrection Christian
40
6
Burlington
36
7
Monte Vista
30
8
Yuma
13
9
Wray
10
10
Cedaredge
8
Others receiving votes:
Platte Canyon 6, Colorado Springs Christian 5, Meeker 4, Holyoke 3, Hotchkiss 3, Rye 2, Front Range Christian 1, Wiggins 1.
Wild Card points help determine the postseason fields in 3A, 4A and 5A, with 4A and 5A also using them for seeding. Find a more detailed breakdown here.
Baseball’s Wild Card point standings for April 17 are below.
