Smoky Hill football coach Tom Thenell won the 200th game of his career on Friday night when his Buffaloes beat Adams City.
Thenell, who has also coached at Bear Creek and Mullen, is now 200-112 in his career, which began in 1992.
Smoky Hill, now 8-0 this season, beat Adams City 51-7. In two years at Smoky, Thenell is 18-1 at a program that hadn’t won more than four games from 2007-2017.
The Buffaloes are now also 7-0 in the Metro 10 League with two games to play. But with wins over both Prairie View and Far Northeast, who are 5-2 in league play, Smoky Hill has clinched the league title, assuring themselves of a second-straight playoff berth.
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2A: (2) Sterling 24, (3) Platte Valley 6
Sterling jumped out with two quick touchdowns, including a fumble return for a score, in the first quarter, and turned that momentum into a huge win.
“We knew coming in all week who the opponent was and what was at stake tonight,” Sterling coach Rob Busmente told the Colorado Preps Scoreboard Show. “Our kids did a great job during the week of preping during practice.”
Busmente added that the game was “from start to finish, probably one of our most complete games that we’ve played this season.”
Of the two early touchdowns he said: “Jumping out fast and creating some momentum early was a positive, and we were able to maintain that level through the rest of the game.”
Sterling is now 6-1, with the lone loss coming out-of-state to Scottsbluff, Neb. The Tigers are in first place in the Patriot East at 3-0.
Cherry Creek made a statement with a huge top-10 win in the tough Metro East League.
The Bruins built a 21-0 lead in the second quarter, and only continued to extend their lead in the second half.
Julian Hammond III threw two touchdown passes for the Bruins, who also got rushing touchdowns from James Walker II and Jayle Stacks. Chase Penry and Connor Page had receiving touchdowns.
With the win, Cherry Creek pushed its record to 8-0 overall, and 3-0 as the lone remaining unbeaten in the Metro East.
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2A: (5) Delta 35, (7) Basalt 6
It was all Delta as the Panthers raced out to a 28-0 halftime lead en route to the big win.
Brandon Butler had two rushing scores in the win, and Nolan Bynum rushed for a score and passed for another.
Delta is now 6-1 this season, including 2-1 in the 2A Western Slope League.
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6-man: (2) Fleming 63, (9) Briggsdale 14
Fleming locked up the North League championship with the big win.
“Especially the second half, we just started executing well,” Fleming coach John King told the Scoreboard Show. “Sticking with our blocks longer, and people on the back side, really trying to work hard and take their angles. It just kinda started clicking.
“We kind of wore them down a little bit,” King added. “We have really good depth this year for 6-man.”
Fleming is now 8-0 overall, and 5-0 in the North.
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Notables:
In a big 6-man matchup, No. 1 Kit Carson topped No. 10 Granada 56-40.
In 8-man, Sargent upset Dove Creek 26-24.
Lamar beat La Junta in the Whistle Game for the first time since 2014 with a 20-14 win.
COLORADO SPRINGS — For the briefest of moments, it looked like senior night for Hayden Cooper was going to end on a missed field goal. But as the ball sailed wide of the goal post, The Classical Academy realized it had been saved by a whistle.
Elizabeth had called a timeout.
With two-tenths of a second on the clock, his second attempt was good giving Class 2A No. 10 TCA a thrilling 10-9 over No. 8 Elizabeth.
“I was thankful I got that extra kick in,” said Cooper. “I was so dialed in and ready, I just wanted to make that so bad.”
Cooper said that one of the Elizabeth players was screaming Cooper’s number leading up to the kick.
“That boosted me,” said Cooper. “That made me want to make it even more. So many things were going through my head but when that snap went off, everything was dialed in. It was great.”
Prior to Cooper’s made field goal, Elizabeth (5-2 overall, 2-1 2A Tri-Peaks) had been called for a penalty, which moved the ball up to the 26-yard line. Penalties played a large role as both teams accrued more than 50 yards each due to penalties.
“I don’t know what happened today,” said Titans head coach Justin Rich. “I don’t know if we were sloppy or weren’t clean. We probably were but we can’t have penalties like that and win so we’re lucky to get out of this one, but I can’t explain the flags.”
Coming into tonight’s game, Cardinals senior quarterback Vincent Weber had 546 passing yards and 250 rushing yards. The Titans’ defense was able to keep Weber quiet, with Elizabeth’s only touchdown coming on blown coverage.
“We just wanted to stay in coverage,” said Rich. “(We wanted to) be really strong on the edge and try to get (Weber) to pitch or string it out and I think we did that all night too. He’s good, I think defensively we executed everything that we wanted to execute, and we gave them a field goal and had a busted coverage.”
That led to Elizabeth taking a late 9-7 lead even with a defensive effort that the Titans (5-2, 3-0) were generally pleased with.
“Our defense altogether, we played great,” said Cooper, who had an interception just before halftime. “I wish we could have kept the penalties to a minimum, that really hurt us a lot. But overall we did great just pinning them in and keeping them from getting big yards.”
Rich praised his team’s resilience, saying that they could have given up toward the end of the game.
“We gave up a score late, they could have given up there,” he said. “We were 4th and long, they could have given up, then we got a 1st down. This group has shown all season that they believe and they’re going to try to find a way to win and they got it done. I couldn’t be prouder.”
The win puts TCA in control of the Tri-Peaks league ahead of next week’s road game against defending 2A champion La Junta.
Fruita Monument 29, Golden 20, Hinkley 17, Ponderosa 8, Longmont 6, Wheat Ridge 6, Skyline 5, Vista Ridge 5, Greeley West 3, Monarch 2, Air Academy 1, Mesa Ridge 1, Windsor 1.
Dropped out
Hinkley (10).
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Palmer Ridge (16)
5-1
194
1
W
2
Mead (4)
6-0
173
2
W
3
Pueblo South
5-1
165
3
W
4
Discovery Canyon
5-1
111
4
W
5
Conifer
6-0
100
8
W
6
Frederick
6-0
85
6
W
7
Durango
4-2
55
9
W
8
Lutheran
4-2
51
7
L
9
Green Mountain
4-2
47
5
L
10
Harrison
5-1
27
–
W
Others receiving votes:
Holy Family 21, Thomas Jefferson 21, Erie 19, Pueblo Central 19, Palisade 15, Roosevelt 11, Northridge 10, Fort Morgan 9, Pueblo East 8, Battle Mountain 6, Evergreen 4, Littleton 3, Eagle Valley 1.
Dropped out
Palisade (10).
Class 2A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Rifle (18)
6-0
223
1
W
2
Sterling (2)
5-1
189
4
W
3
Platte Valley (1)
5-1
180
3
W
4
Resurrection Christian (2)
5-1
169
5
W
5
Delta
5-1
125
2
–
6
Faith Christian (1)
5-1
124
6
W
7
Basalt
6-0
114
7
W
8
Elizabeth
5-1
53
–
W
9
Eaton
4-2
48
9
W
10
The Classical Academy
4-2
42
10
W
Others receiving votes:
Lamar 14, Englewood 13, La Junta 12, Alamosa 9, Bennett 2, University 2, Aspen 1.
Dropped out
La Junta (8).
Class 1A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Strasburg (16)
6-0
178
1
W
2
Limon
5-1
151
2
W
3
Holyoke (2)
6-0
134
3
W
4
Florence
6-0
124
4
W
5
Colorado Springs Christian
5-1
95
7
W
6
Meeker
5-1
83
6
W
7
Centauri
5-1
81
5
W
8
Wray
5-1
38
8
W
9
Hotchkiss
5-1
32
10
W
10
Highland
3-3
22
9
L
Others receiving votes:
Flatirons Academy 15, Rye 14, Peyton 8, Buena Vista 7, Burlington 5, Grand Valley 3.
Dropped out
None.
8-man
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Sedgwick County (11)
7-0
145
1
W
2
Fowler (3)
6-0
134
2
W
3
Sanford
6-0
115
7
W
4
Merino
5-1
85
5
W
5
Mancos
5-1
76
3
L
6
Dayspring Christian Academy
5-1
66
4
L
7
Vail Christian (1)
6-0
57
8
W
8
Pikes Peak Christian
4-1
46
9
W
9
Caliche
4-2
30
6
L
10
Dove Creek
5-1
18
10
Bye
Others receiving votes:
Rangely 11, West Grand 10, Elbert 9, Holly 7, Hoehne 6, Sargent 6, Soroco 4.
