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The 2020 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 from the results of the coaches’ vote.
Because there will be two football seasons during the 2020-21 school year, this is the all-state football team for Season A. There will be a separate all-state football team released for Season C.
WINDSOR — In the craziest of years, Brighton football seemed to battle through challenge after challenge and emerge from their regular season finale with a level of joy that normally comes with a championship victory.
The Bulldogs might make the Class 4A playoffs. They might not. But following their 14-12 win over No. 9 Windsor on Friday night, coach Jeffrey Giger made sure his boys knew they had earned the right to consider themselves champions.
Since Week 1, the Bulldogs (5-1 overall, 4-1 4A Northern) have had to play on the road. That was no different in Friday’s clash with the Wizards (4-2, 3-2). Draped in their home red uniforms, Brighton was represented as the “home” team, but played on the field of their opponents.
Challenge accepted. Win well deserved.
“As far as I’m concerned, they’re champions,” Giger said. “With the exception of one quarter against Broomfield, we should be undefeated. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. What they went through together, the way they stuck together, it was a playoff atmosphere every week and they getting better and playing better through all of this.”
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Friday was no different. The Wizards got on the board early with a touchdown run from Cason Kingsbury but the Bulldogs soon responded as Nate Griffeth found Eli Bowman in the end zone. Bowman grabbed the ball at its highest point to get the Bulldogs ahead 7-6.
“Nate was under pressure and he just had to throw it up,” Bowman said.
It panned out and Brighton held the lead into halftime. But the slow, methodical Windsor offense stuck again as Dax Polka scored on 4th and goal from the two-yard line. The two-point conversion failed, giving Windsor just a 12-7 lead.
Throughout the third quarter, the Bulldogs offense couldn’t generate positive yards and after punting from deep in their own territory, Windsor was just a few plays away from a back-breaking score.
Noah Canale had other ideas as he jumped a pass from Wizards quarterback Jake Coakley, giving Brighton its first real sign of life in the second half. Giger once again turned to the combination of Griffeth and Bowman and the two connected for their second touchdown of the game.
“That interception really changed things,” Bowman said. “It gave us the momentum back.”
Now all they had to do was put together a couple of defensive stands to seal the win. The Bulldogs finally found a way to slow the Windsor running attack, forcing the Wizards to punt the ball the away with 4:29 left.
“Defensively we’ve given up some plays this year,” Giger said. “I think we’re a little better than what the stats say.”
Windsor also held strong defensively, but couldn’t generate another scoring drive and walked off its own field while watching the designated home team celebrate a potentially season saving win.
But the Bulldogs didn’t do anything they thought they were incapable of. For every curveball that the COVID-19 pandemic has tossed their way, they’ve responded in kind and have something to be proud of regardless of what their schedule looks like on Monday.
“This game was definitely a program changer,” Griffeth said. “We’re just trying to put our school on the map. We don’t get a lot of respect around the state but this game will definitely change that.”
Palisade’s rushing attack held off a monster game from Allen Ortiz, and the Bulldogs beat Green Mountain in a 3A top-10 battle.
Gabe Harrison had two scores to lead Palisade’s offense, while Franklin Barks and Julio Rodriguez also scored on the ground as the eighth-ranked Bulldogs beat seventh-ranked Green Mountain 31-24.
The Bulldogs are now 3-1 this season, with tough games against Conifer and Eagle Valley remaining.
“It’s tough, you’ve got to win to stay in, I know that,” Rammuno said.
Green Mountain’s Ortiz had four receiving touchdowns, twice scoring from 80 yards out. He also had touchdown catches of 56 and 22 yards.
“Boy, there’s a lot of talent on the field,” Rammuno said. “Green Mountain’s got a fine football team.”
The coach added that his team’s own passing attack helped to open the ground game.
“We were able to have some balance offensively,” Rammuno said. “We were able to get the ball in the air a little bit, which really opened up our option game. Tremendous effort by our guys.”
Down 6-0 after the first quarter, Palisade scored twice in the second to go up 14-6 at halftime. The second score came via a 28-yard score by Harrison.
In the third quarter, Rodriguez pushed the lead to 21-12 with his touchdown.
Later in that same frame, the third of Ortiz’s scores cut it to 21-18, but Palisade, and Harrison, responded. His second TD made it 28-18 late in the third.
The score stayed that way until Rudolfo Dexter made a 40-yard field goal with four minutes to play, pushing the lead to 31-18.
Ortiz’s final score made it 31-24 with two minutes to play, but Palisade recovered an onside kick and ran out the clock.
Palisade’s defense had two interceptions in the win.
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4A: (9) Fountain-Fort Carson 35, (8) Pueblo West 21
A close game throughout, the Trojans get a key touchdown from Q Jones with 5:54 to play that made it 35-21.
Fountain-Fort Carson led 20-7 after the first quarter, but Pueblo West slowly chipped away that that lead. It was 20-14 midway through the third quarter, and later 27-21 early in the fourth.
But Jones’ 15-yard score seemed to put the game away:
Sanford turned an 18-6 first-half lead into a big top-10 win.
After the half, Sanford’s defense made a stop and the offense responded.
“We came out and had a really good stop on their first possession,” Sanford coach Joe Cary told the Scoreboard Show. “Our offense started clicking a little bit better. We started figuring out some different things on how to go at them. The had two great, big linebackers that were really tough in the middle, so we had to figure out how to go around them. We had a few things that we did, and it seemed to work.”
Sanford is now 4-0 this season, but Cary thinks they haven’t yet reached their potential.
“I still don’t think we’ve seen our team play at the level that we want them to,” the coach said. “We’re not content with where we’re at. We’re going to keep pushing to try to get to that level.”
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6-man: (4) Granada 67, (7) Cheraw 60
It was a shootout in a big top-10 matchup.
Cheraw led 60-45 in the fourth quarter, but Granada was able to rally for the win.
“It was a very, very wild football,” coach Traegon Marquez told the Scoreboard Show. “A fun one to be a part of. But ‘wild,’ I think, is a mild way to put it.”
In a tight contest, 5A No. 6 Fairview beat previously unbeaten Legacy 43-32. Liam O’Brien threw for 267 yards and rushed for another 134. He had three total touchdowns.
1A No. 2 Strasburg beat rival Bennett 42-0. “Bennett came to play, but we did some really good things,” coach Brian Brown told the Scoreboard Show. “They kind of stopped some of our big-play offense, but we really showed a very diverse offense tonight.”
Moffat County had a big upset of 2A No. 9 Woodland Park, 27-23.
Longmont QB Keegan Patterson had another big game. He was 29-of-41 with 316 yards and four touchdowns as his Trojans beat Greeley West 43-21. Photos from the game are available here.
The 2020 all-state softball teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These team were created following a process where the coaches voted upon a list of nominees. Players who were named first-team all-league are eligible for the all-state ballot.
Coaches also voted specifically for player and coach of the year.
Down 2-1 heading to the bottom of the sixth inning, Broomfield rallied for a 4-2 win over Brighton in the first round of the Class 5A state tournament.
