ARVADA — It was a bit of a scary first half on Halloween at the North Area Athletic Complex for the No. 4 ranked Pomona Panthers.
While Pomona’s defense allowed rival Arvada West only one first-down in the first half, the Panthers’ offense only mustered up a 26-yard field by senior Joevannie Rosales and 3-yard touchdown run by senior Jack Pospisil. Pomona held a 10-0 lead at halftime.
Pomona senior Jack Pospisil (2) rolls out to get off a pass as Arvada West junior Xavier Nail (10) closes in. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“We started off slow with a lot of penalties and mistakes. That held us back,” Pomona junior Chase Muller said. “In the second half we played good.”
Muller was the spark Pomona’s offense needed. The two-way player — running back and safety — scored on touchdown runs 45, 25 and 28 yards in the second half to power the Panthers to a 33-14 victory.
While A-West (1-3, 0-3 in Class 5A Jeffco) has perhaps closed the gap between the Wildcats and Panthers, Pomona (4-0, 3-0) still completed the sweep for the Arvada City Championship title between Arvada West, Ralston Valley and Pomona.
“Their (A-West’s) Columbine game was close. They lost against Mullen because of a couple of big plays,” Pomona coach Jay Madden said after coaching in his 300th career game. “They have fought hard all year. I think Brad (Pyatt) has done a great job. They came after us.”
Pomona’s defense came after A-West sophomore quarterback Ethan Cook, who was getting his first start under center for A-West. Facing one of the best defensives in the state that already has a pair of shutout victories under its belt, Cook struggled early.
The sophomore did break-up the shutout bid with a 21-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Andrew Martinez with 3 minutes left in the third quarter.
Pomona junior Junior Gonzales (52) and senior Juju Howard (41) apply pressure on Arvada West quarterback Ethan Cook (8). The Panthers’ defense was stout in the 33-14 victory over the rival Wildcats. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“He (Cook) is going to be a great quarterback. I’ve got a lot of confidence in him,” A-West coach Brad Pyatt said. “He has a bright future.”
Pomona did get the final lick in on Cook. Seniors Juju Howard and Marcus Geypens combined for a sack of Cook in the end zone for safety in the fourth quarter.
“The defense is really playing well. It’s exciting,” Madden said. “It’s fun to watch and makes calling offensive plays a lot easier. You know your defense can go out there and get a stop.”
Pomona has plenty of player makers on defense. Senior Jayson Barber had an interception that set up Muller’s second touchdown run in the third quarter.
“We have so much talent on this team,” Muller said.
Pomona has a short week, hosting Mullen (1-2, 1-2) on Thursday, Nov. 5, at NAAC. The regular season has been building toward a showdown against No. 3 Columbine (4-0, 3-0) on Thursday, Nov. 12, at Jeffco Stadium.
However, Madden knows his team can’t look past Mullen.
“I’m happy with where we are at, but we have to make sure we understand the Mullen is the big game,” Madden said. “We can’t be thinking about Columbine. Mullen is the big game. We proved today that if we don’t come out with everything we’ve got we can be in a dogfight.”
A-West is on a three-game losing streak after a Week 1 victory, but Pyatt is excited about the future of the program.
“I’m proud of how we fought,” Pyatt said. “Our culture is changing. We are losing games, but we are battling.”
Arvada West sophomore quarterback Ethan Cook (8) attempts to hold off Pomona senior Connor Walklett (54) from getting a sack during the first quarter Saturday afternoon at the North Area Athletic Complex. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Jay Madden is a no nonsense guy. And that’s exactly why he’s good at what he does. In any given year, Madden’s Pomona Panthers are likely to contend for a Class 5A state championship. They hit paydirt with a big win over Eaglecrest in 2017, but have had a shot at a state title in several other seasons.
Madden has his team off to a solid start this season at 3-0 and that includes a close win over then No. 6 Ralston Valley last week. A tough game with Columbine is still ahead but being 3-0 against tough 5A competition is no fluke. As a result, Madden has been named the Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week.
Previous stops: Golden defensive coordinator 1992; Alameda assistant coach (1993-94); Alameda head coach (1995); Dakota Ridge head coach (1996-2000); Mullen head coach (2001-02); Pomona head coach (2003-present).
[divider]
Question: Why do you coach?
Madden: Because I love helping kids accomplish things they didn’t think they could do.
Q: Whether it’s winning state title or seeing a kid maybe breakthrough at a certain level, what’s the most satisfying part of coaching for you?
Madden: Just watching kids grow and much they mature and how much they get out of this experience. It’s not about state championships and that stuff. To me, it’s about watching kids become better people and better football players.
Q: Who had an influence on you that made you want to become a coach?
Madden: My dad was a head coach was my dad was coaching high school for 35 years. So my dad would be number one. And then Ed Kintz, my high school coach, and Gary Klatt, my high school coach, would be the other two.
Q: Through all the time that you’ve been doing this, what’s your measurement of success, especially if it’s not about state titles; what makes a team successful in your eyes in each individual year?
Madden: Maximize your potential. Try to win one more game than you should. And as our goal every year with this team is a nine-win team, we want to try to win 10 games. If we’re six-win team. We want to try to win seven. We want to maximize our potential, no matter what that might be.
Q: With this year being obviously the most unusual of years you’ve probably coached, would it be safe to say that these kids will get a learning experience playing high school football that is unique to any other class that you’ve taught?
Madden: Absolutely. This has been the craziest time of our lives, obviously, but these kids have had to be so resilient and as coaches we’ve had to be resilient because the roller coaster ride we’ve been on is hard to handle. Certainly you have to step up, you can’t just roll over, so you’ve got to step up and make it happen.
Q: What do you think it’s like from your kids, from your kid’s perspective, what do you think it’s like to be coached by you?
Madden: Demanding. Fun. We want to build relationships that last forever. I want them to know how extremely proud I am of them.
(Steve Oathout)
Q: Who comes to your mind when I ask you who who’s the most memorable kid that you’ve ever coached and not necessarily from what they were able to do on the field. But if someone were to ask you about kids that you’ve coached previously, who always jumps in your mind and why?
Madden: Wow. Clint Parker. Just an incredible, incredible human being. And we lost him way too young. So that’s why he pops into my mind the most.
Q: When you have a situation like that, how do you use it to make sure the kids are truly appreciative of the chances that they’re given when doing something they love like playing high school football?
Madden: We have an award named the Clint Parker Dog Soldier Award, so that’s the kids we talk about being unselfish and being there for each other. And I think they’ve had to do that a lot this year. So that’s why having Clint as our backdrop is pretty good.
Q: What’s the toughest thing for you to do from a coaching? What’s the most difficult aspect of the job, which then also would probably make it the most rewarding?
Madden: I love it all. The only thing that bothers me is the paperwork and the all that kind of junk that we have to deal with eligibility and all that stuff. As far as coaching goes, I love it all.
Q: What’s your favorite thing to do on a daily basis when it comes to coaching your kids?
Madden: Just the interaction in the weight room that we haven’t had this year, you know, get to know people and, I love film. I just love to sit down and watch film and try to figure out how to stop people and how to score points. I also just love implementing it every Monday and Tuesday.
Q: What was the most memorable part of that state championship win a couple years ago? It was quite a thriller with you guys and Eaglecrest.
Madden: Yeah, I think we were up by 14 and then next thing you knew we were down by 14. Watching Ryan Marquez get that last first down was something I’ll definitely never forget.
Q: What are you hoping your former student-athletes, whether it’s today, whether it’s 20 years down the line, if you’re no longer coaching by then, what do you want them to remember the most about you?
Madden: Just how passionate I was about them and the game of football and trying to help them become better people.
Jeffco Preps With Pleuss is a monthly roundup of Jeffco prep highlights hosted by Dennis Pleuss, Jeffco Public Schools’ sports information director. Prep football action started up in early October. We’ve got highlights from four games — Columbine vs Arvada West, Pomona vs Lakewood, Central of Grand Junction vs Dakota Ridge and Wheat Ridge vs Chatfield — from the first few weeks of the 6-game regular season. Boys tennis season wrapped up with Lakewood and Ralston Valley having good showings at the Class 5A state tournament at Gates Tennis Center in Denver. Cross country season also concluded with the Jeffco League Championships that led into the state meet held in Colorado Springs.
Legend picked up a major top-10 win on Friday night.
The Titans, ranked No. 10 in Class 5A, built on a hot start en route to a 31-7 road upset of No. 7 Regis Jesuit.
The win was led by seniors Kalen Shoemaker and Connor Eise, who each had two touchdowns: Shoemaker with one throwing and one rushing, and Eise with two on the ground.
Legend is now off to a 3-0 start for the second consecutive season, and the win marked a program first for the Titans, who had yet to beat Regis Jesuit. The schools met each of the past two seasons.
Five minutes in, Legend took a 7-0 lead when Eise snuck in on the left side from 1-yard out.
Then early in the second quarter, on third down, Shoemaker rolled to his right and threw back left, finding Carter Helfrich on a 10-yard score that made it 14-0.
A few minutes after that, Shoemaker dashed 90 yards on the ground to make it 21-0.
Regis scored just before halftime to cut the lead to 21-7 when Dervin Taylor scored up the middle from 10 yards out.
Legend added a 25-yard field goal from Caden Smith, and it was 24-7.
In the fourth, Eise capped the scoring with a 25-yard touchdown.
[divider]
6-man: (1) Fleming 32, (5) Prairie 8
Scoreless at halftime, and a one-score game after three quarters, Fleming broke things open to come up with a major top-5 win on Friday night.
“We did some things well, and there’s some things we definitely have to work on, but I guess we did enough well,” Fleming coach John King told the Scoreboard Show.
A defensive struggle through the first two quarters, Fleming scored two touchdowns in the first minute of the third quarter to go up 16-0.
“We finally kind of settled down and started executing better offensively, and then really had all the momentum in the world,” King said. “The next two possessions in a row, we turned the ball over. We could have really taken the game over, but we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot and let them hang around.”
Prairie scored two minutes after that, making it 16-8 heading to the final frame.
Fleming scored on the third play of that fourth quarter, pushing their lead to 24-8, and added a final score with 4:31 to play on fourth down.
“It was a really nice battle for us,” King said. “We had some kids who are starting for us the first time this year.”
[divider]
2A: (3) Sterling 31, (5) Platte Valley 21
Kaeden Sheets threw four touchdowns as Sterling held off a rally from Platte Valley to win the top-5 battle.
Sheets’ big night started off with three first-quarter touchdowns, two to Tucker Myers, as the Tigers built an 18-0 lead.
Platte Valley rallied. McDaniel had a 2-yard run with 4:35 left in the third, and two minutes after that, McDaniel hit Lauer for a 12-yard score to make it 24-21.
In the fourth quarter, Peyton Rose sealed the game with an 8-yard run.
Gunnison won its first varsity game since 2016, 20-7, over Cedaredge.
In double overtime, Windsor beat Erie 38-32. “Different players stepped up at different times and made big plays,” Windsor coach Chris Jones told the Scoreboard Show. “It was a wonderful team effort on defense.” The Wizards are now 3-0.
8-man No. 1 Sedgwick County won its 20th consecutive game, the longest streak in the state, with a 60-14 win over No. 10 Haxtun.
In their first game of 2020 following a two-week quarantine, 4A No. 3 Pine Creek beat 5A Chaparral 17-7.
In the annual Whistle Game, 2A No. 4 Lamar beat rival La Junta 43-14 after building a 28-0 lead. “We started out pretty fast. We were able to grab some pretty big chunks there,” coach Jason Tice told the Scoreboard Show.
3A No. 4 Lutheran was impressive in a top-10 game for the second consecutive week, this time beating No. 7 Palisade 54-24.
After moving up to No. 1 this week, Roosevelt beat Thompson Valley 42-0 in 3A.
In 5A, Douglas County beat Doherty 27-24 on a last-second field goal.
ARVADA — Pomona senior Joevannie Rosales made the biggest field goal in recent memory for the Panthers on Friday night at the North Area Athletic Complex.
The soccer player turned kicker for Pomona — No. 4 in the CHSAANow.com Class 5A football rankings — booted a 40-yard field goal as time expired to give the Panthers a 17-14 victory over rival and No. 6 Ralston Valley.
Ralston Valley junior quarterback Zach Friedman (7) gets off a pass despite pressure from Pomona junior Deion Maes. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“I had all the confidence in the world. He (Rosales) has the talent to do it,” Pomona coach Jay Madden said seconds after Rosales was mobbed by teammates after hitting the game-winning field goal. “He has only been playing football for 20 days. He wouldn’t even be playing football if there was a soccer season.”
Rosales led Pomona’s boys soccer team with 14 goals last Fall as a junior. With the COVID-19 pandemic moving boys soccer to the spring, Rosales decided to try his hand at kicking a football this season.
“He was kicking in PE class one day. I told him he at least has to try it,” Madden said of Rosales. “Now he does this in the biggest rivalry game in Jeffco, maybe the whole state. That was awesome.”
The final kick had plenty of distance and drew off the right upright, just like Rosales had planned.
“It was scary,” Rosales said about first coming out to play football. “It took a little while to getting used to. Now, I feel pretty good. I could get better.”
Pomona (3-0, 2-0 in 5A Jeffco) was just good enough to get past Ralston Valley (2-1, 1-1). The Panthers never trailed after taking a 7-0 lead at halftime on a 2-yard touchdown run by senior quarterback Jack Pospisil, but the Mustangs finally ended a 10-quarter scoreless streak for Pomona’s defense.
Ralston Valley tied things up 7-7 after junior Luke Resendez intercepted Pospisil to give the Mustangs great field position on Pomona’s 27-yard line midway through the third quarter. Junior quarterback Zach Friedman scored on a 2-yard run to tie things at 7-7.
“It’s alway a battle against RV,” Pomona junior running back/linebacker Chase Muller said. “We made some big plays in the second half. That is what really won us the game.”
Ralston Valley senior Tyler Roybal fights for yardage against Pomona’s defense during the first half Friday at the North Area Athletic Complex. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Muller capped off a 10-play, 80-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to close out the third quarter and put Pomona up 14-7.
Ralston Valley answered again with Friedman hitting senior Devin McNearny with a 53-yard pass to get the Mustangs into Pomona territory. Friedman connected with senior Charlie Carlston on a 14-yard touchdown pass with 4:49 left in the fourth quarter to knock the game at 14-14.
It looked like the rivalry game would be headed into overtime, but Pomona’s offense converted on three separate third-downs to keep the eventual game-winning drive alive. Senior AJ Zamora had a big 12-yard run where he was able to get out of bounce to stop the clock and conserve a timeout.
Pospisil had a huge 12-yard completion to junior Isaiah Alvarez to get into field goal range.
“Our kids deserved to win this game,” Madden said after the emotional victory.
Pomona ended a 2-game losing streak against Ralston Valley with the win. The Mustangs shut out the Panthers last year during Ralston Valley’s run to the 5A state semifinals.
Pomona is scheduled to be back at NAAC on Saturday, Oct. 31, to face another rival in Arvada West (1-2, 0-2). The Wildcats lost a close one at Mullen on Friday night, 20-17.
Ralston Valley has Lakewood (0-3, 0-2) next up. The Mustangs host the Tigers at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, at NAAC.
Pomona senior Ben Cruz (24) rips off a 35-yard run during the second quarter to set up the Panthers’ first touchdown Friday night against rival Ralston Valley. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
There were quite a few changes to this week’s football rankings, with Dakota Ridge (4A), Roosevelt (3A), Resurrection Christian (2A), and Fleming (6-man) taking over atop their respective classifications.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
