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.
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.
The preseason football rankings were released on Monday for all seven classifications. Leading their respective polls are: Stratton/Liberty (6-man), Sedgwick County (8-man), Limon (1A), Delta (2A), Pueblo South (3A), Pine Creek (4A), and Cherry Creek (5A).
The rankings, voted upon by coaches, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
