Ranked football teams had an outstanding weekend last week, and as a result, there wasn’t a whole lot of movement in the latest CHSAANow.com rankings on Monday.
Top-10 teams went a combined 54-11 last week, and only two of those losses came to unranked foes.
So it follows that all seven No. 1 teams remained the same this week. Leading their respective rankings are Valor Christian (Class 5A), Pine Creek (4A), Lutheran (3A), Brush (2A), Paonia (1A), Dayspring Christian (8-man) and Arickaree/Woodlin (6-man).
There wasn’t a whole lot of change elsewhere.
In 5A, the teams ranked Nos. 1-6 — Valor, Pomona, Grandview, Ralston Valley, Fairview and Regis Jesuit — didn’t budge.
The classification did add at Rocky Mountain at No. 10, and Overland jumped Cherry Creek for the No. 7 spot, but it was a quiet week otherwise. Regis Jesuit remains No. 9.
Pomona remained ranked No. 2 in 5A this week. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
The 4A poll added Greeley West at No. 8. The biggest mover there was Fort Collins bumping up to No. 4 this week.
Palisade rejoined the 3A poll at No. 10, while 2A added No. 10 Montezuma-Cortez. Platte Canyon (also No. 10) was 1A’s newcomer, and Flagler (another No. 10) joined the 6-man ranks.
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.
Fossil Ridge softball is now ranked No. 3 in the 5A poll. (Pam Wagner)
Fossil Ridge moved up four spots in this week’s Class 5A softball poll from CHSAANow.com.
The Sabercats, who went 4-0 last week to improve to 12-1, are now No. 3.
Dakota Ridge remained on top of the 5A ranking again this week, though voting continues to be split. The Eagles got five of the 11 first-place votes, with No. 2 Brighton getting two and Fossil Ridge the other four.
The 5A poll got two new teams this week: No. 9 Grandview and No. 10 Grand Junction Central.
In 4A, Berthoud (No. 8) and Erie (No. 10) joined. That ranking continued to be led by Frederick.
Strasburg stayed atop the 3A poll, and rightfully so. The team beat then-No. 2 Sterling and then-No. 3 Valley as part of a 4-0 week.
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. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Arickaree/Woodlin is the new No. 1 team in the 6-man football poll this week. More photos. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Turns out a win over a No. 1 team does help you move up to the top spot.
Arickaree/Woodlin, No. 2 in CHSAANow’s 6-man football poll last week, moved up to No. 1 this week following its 60-30 win over Stratton/Liberty on Friday night.
Coach David Saffer was expecting the move after the game on Friday.
Saffer’s squad was the only new No. 1 team this week. Valor Christian (5A), Pine Creek (4A), Lutheran (3A), Brush (2A), Paonia (1A) and Dayspring Christian (8-man) all held firm atop their respective rankings.
Ralston Valley is up to No. 4 in this week’s 5A football poll. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
Valor held on to the top spot despite its loss to Chandler (Ariz.). But the Eagles are no longer a unanimous selection: they received 13 of the 18 first-place votes this week.
No. 2 Pomona, No. 3 Grandview and No. 4 Ralston Valley — which got three — also received first-place votes in 5A this week. Fairview rounds out the top five after bumping up one spot.
Regis Jesuit is sixth, Cherry Creek fell to seventh following its loss to Jordan (Utah), Overland moved up to eighth and Cherokee Trail fell to No. 9 after losing to Regis Jesuit. Doherty is the lone newcomer in 5A this week, and joins at No. 10.
Among the biggest movers this week was Fort Collins, which jumped up from No. 9 to No. 5 in the 4A poll following its win over Windsor last week.
The 4A ranking added Pueblo Centennial (No. 10), 3A added Berthoud (also No. 10) and St. Mary’s joined 2A (No. 9). In 1A, newcomer Rye is No. 10, and 6-man has two new teams this week: No. 9 Hanover and No. 10 Weldon Valley.
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.
Castle View jumped up to No. 3 in this week’s 5A softball poll. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Things remain crazy in Class 5A softball this season. For the first time this season, the No. 1 team in CHSAANow’s rankings stayed put, but five different teams received first-place votes.
It speaks to the season as a whole, where seemingly every week another ranked team is upset.
So while No. 1 Dakota Ridge actually extended the gap its has on No. 2 Brighton this week, things remained shaky behind them. Castle View moved from No. 8 to No. 3, Chaparral went from unranked to No. 5 and Fossil Ridge from No. 9 to No. 7.
Dakota Ridge (six), Brighton, Chaparral, Mountain Range (two) and Fossil Ridge all received first-place votes this week.
The 4A poll continued to be led by Frederick and added Pueblo West (No. 7) and Woodland Park (No. 10).
In 3A, Strasburg extended its stay at No. 1. Cedaredge (No. 7) and Rocky Ford (No. 10) both joined this week.
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. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Nine minutes remained in the fourth quarter on Friday night, and Columbine led Bear Creek 28-7. The Rebels would win 43-42 an hour and five minutes later.
Wait, what?
Despite nearly letting the game slip through its fingers, Columbine battled through double overtime to outlast Bear Creek.
Columbine quarterback Jake Lowry. (Dennis Pleuss)
“I was proud of how our kids stepped up and did fight, and made plays at the end, just enough to win it,” Columbine coach Andy Lowry told ColoradoPreps.com’s Scoreboard Show after the game. “Our kids just never gave up and our offense just made plays at the end in overtime, and we squeaked one out.”
Bear Creek was shut out until five minutes remained in the third quarter, and actually trailed 21-0 at that point. But the Bears’ rally really didn’t start until six minutes remained in regulation, when they cut it to 28-14. After an onside kick recovery, and two more scores, it was suddenly tied up and heading to overtime.
“I give Bear Creek a lot of credit for just fighting and playing hard,” Lowry said. “Their coaches did a good job, and they made a lot of plays. We just couldn’t finish in that fourth quarter.”
After blowing the late lead, “We were down a little bit,” Lowry said, “but we just talked to (the team) about how this is a good challenge for us to be able to grow up and face some adversity and have to fight for something.”
Both teams scored in the first overtime, and then Bear Creek converted on its offensive possession in the second. So did Columbine — but the Rebels opted to go for two, and Columbine’s junior quarterback, Jake Lowry, kept the ball to convert for the win.
“My coaches were calling for it, saying, ‘Go for two! Go for two!’” Andy Lowry said. “We just hadn’t stopped them for quite a few possessions in a row. The offense was doing well, and they were over-loading one side, and we just decided to put it in Jake’s hands.
“He made a great play and got in the end zone. You just hate to miss an extra point or something like that and end something that way, so we kept it in our offense’s hands.”
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4A: (9) Fort Collins 13, (8) Windsor 12
Windsor led 6-0 at halftime and later 12-7 in the fourth, but Fort Collins quarterback Kyler Sigsbee found Dawson Johnson for the winning 5-yard score with six minutes remaining.
The Lambkins’ defense recovered a Windsor fumble on the ensuing drive, and Fort Collins was able to run the clock out.
“We we kind of using this as a barometer to find out where we rank among the 4A elite, because we definitely consider Windsor an elite 4A team,” Fort Collins coach Eric Rice told the Scoreboard Show. “I’m really glad our kids passed the test tonight.”
Later, he added, “When you hold a team like Windsor, which has a potent offense and is good at what they do, to 12 points, you’ve got to be happy about that.”
Not only did Arickaree/Woodlin position itself to take over the top spot in the poll on Monday, the squad also knocked off the defending 6-man champions.
“This is probably the biggest win since we restarted the program four years ago,” Arickaree/Woodlin coach David Saffer told the Scoreboard Show. “The seniors this year have come from the bottom and worked their way up, so it was a very good win for us.
“We also understand that we’ve got a long season ahead of us, and we’ve got to keep going week-by-week here.”
On the presumptive No. 1 ranking, Saffer said, “We’ve got a target on our backs. We’ve just got to stay focused and keep working.”
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5A: (6) Fairvew 35, Horizon 28
Horizon nearly pulled off its second-straight upset.
Nearly.
A week after knocking off then-No. 6 Chatfield, Horizon battled with Fairview all night on Friday. Ultimately, though, the Knights secured the win.
Horizon actually led 21-7 early in the second quarter, but Fairview rallied to tie things with 3:56 to play before the half. Then, quarterback Johnny Feauto found Tim Ryan for a 20-yard touchdown with 17 seconds left in the half to give the Knights the lead.
“Yeah, he’s our version of Johnny Football,” Fairview coach Tom McCartney joked on the Scoreboard Show. “He’s a tremendous player, he’s the point guard on the basketball team, he was on the baseball team that was in the Elite 8. He loves the center of attention, he loves competition. He just makes a ton of plays for us, and we’re fortunate to have Johnny Football.”
Oh, but Horizon wasn’t done. The Hawks tied it up early in the fourth on a touchdown pass of their own.
Jason Harvey then provided the heroics. His 14-yard run with 1:39 to play proved to be the difference — but only after the Knights’ defense stopped Horizon on fourth-and-2 from near midfield.
“It was a good stop there to try to get that thing secure,” McCartney said.
“The second half was just hard-fought, two teams going at it. … We just found a way.”
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1A/2A: (2) Buena Vista 21, (10) Manitou Springs 0
Buena Vista, a 1A school, held serve at home against 2A Manitou Springs.
“What got us going, I would say, is our defense and how they stayed disciplined,” Buena Vista coach Matt Flavin told the Scoreboard Show. “I told them we needed to stay disciplined, and they responded and stayed with the gameplan even though they came out and started running the ball on us.
“That kind of got a spark in us to keep going. They got the offense going, as well.”
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Notes
In a rematch of last year’s 1A championship game, No. 1 Paonia handled No. 4 Centauri 44-0.
Mountain View beat Loveland 24-21 on Jayce Melby’s 24-yard field goal with six seconds left.
Falcon also got a late field goal to beat Pueblo West 16-14. Falcon’s 16 points were actually unanswered after trailing 14-0.
With Valor Christian’s loss, Dayspring Christian now solely owns the longest winning streak in the state at 15 games. The defending 8-man champions play Soroco on Saturday.
Poudre took down Monarch, 7-2. Monarch actually had a chance from the 9-yard-line with 0.4 seconds to play, but couldn’t score.
Eaglecrest, a 5A program, upset 4A No. 3 Denver South 12-6.
Overland rolled Legend, 54-0. The Trailblazers are now 4-0. As recently as 2011, they opened 0-4.
Boulder running back T.J. Jones rushed for 300 yards in his team’s 42-22 win over Thornton, according to BoCoPreps.com.
5A No. 4 Grandview rushed for six touchdowns in its 49-27 win over Arapahoe.
4A No. 4 Montrose rebounded from its first loss with a 55-0 win over Fruita Monument.
In a top-10 4A matchup, No. 9 Holy Family took care of No. 7 Palisade. Said coach Mike Gabriel to the Scoreboard Show: “We really needed it after last week. We played a little less than what we were capabale of last week, so this is a big win for us.”
There were three other top-10 games in 6-man this week besides the 1-2 showdown: No. 3 Eads 52, No. 8 Cheyenne Wells 6; No. 6 Peetz 53, No. 7 Prairie 0; No. 9 Flagler 46, No. 10 Kit Carson 22.
