MONTROSE — Pueblo West went on the road and beat Montrose to clinch a spot in the Class 4A football semifinals.
The Cyclones built a 17-0 halftime lead, pushed it to 24-0 in the third, and then held off Montrose as it tried to rally in the second half.
“Montrose is a well-coached football team,” Pueblo West coach Clint Buderus said. “We were able to take advantage of good field position and get an early lead. We knew Montrose would not roll over. They battled back and were able to score a few quick touchdowns. Our defense played great and were able to get some big stops.”
Montrose cut it to 24-19 with seven minutes to play in the fourth quarter before Pueblo West answered with a rushing score with four minutes left.
“I’ve never been more proud of our team,” Montrose coach Brett Mertens said. “We were down 24-0 and our kids refused to quit. Montrose football is full of mentally and physically tough kids, and those kids are going to be successful in whatever they do in life. I will miss the senior class, but at the same time I am excited for the years to come. This is a great football community and I am extremely grateful for the support from so many people in this community.”
Matt Rudd had a 52-yard score for Pueblo West, and Chandler Mason threw two touchdowns.
Pueblo West will travel to No. 1 Pine Creek next weekend.
MONTROSE — Getting the first one out of the way is always the key. Montrose was happy to do just that in a 28-13 win over Brighton in the first round of the Class 4A football playoffs.
Tayne Ila got Montrose (10-1 overall) on the board with a two-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter.
Eli Evans added a 25-yard touchdown run to push the lead to 13-0 and give Montrose some breathing room.
Brighton (6-5) cut into the lead before halftime as Vershon Brooks pounded the ball into the end zone from a yard out.
The Bulldogs got more aggressive in the second half, trying to convert on fourth down, but a Jorge Cadena interception set up another Montrose touchdown.
“It was a great team effort,” Riley Barnhill said. “We all rallied and got it together.”
Each team added another score before the final horn sounded.
“I thought our kids played great tonight,” Montrose coach Bert Mertens said. “I thought we had a lot of kids step up and play multiple positions when we needed them to. It was a fun night and we are very happy to be able to play another week.”
Montrose awaits Saturday’s winner of Pueblo West and Golden.
Runner of the year: Cole Sprout, Valor Christian Coach of the year: Mark Stenbeck, Dakota Ridge
First Team
Name
Year
School
Gus McIntyre
Senior
Palmer
Ben Morrin
Senior
Dakota Ridge
Cole Nash
Senior
Chatfield
Connor Ohlson
Senior
Dakota Ridge
Cole Sprout
Senior
Valor Christian
Jacob White
Junior
Dakota Ridge
Parker Wolfe
Junior
Cherry Creek
Second Team
Name
Year
School
Wes Beckham
Senior
Rock Canyon
Derek Fearon
Senior
Rock Canyon
Cory Kennedy
Senior
Heritage
Caleb Mann
Junior
Liberty
Jack O’Sullivan
Senior
Mountain Vista
Scott Prieve
Junior
Palmer
Yasin Sado
Senior
Gateway
Honorable mention: Michael Beck, Junior, Heritage; Grant Bradley, Junior, Overland; Ben Conlin, Junior, Rampart; Kevin Conlon, Senior, Fort Collins; Will Daley, Senior, Denver East; Wiley Feiger, Senior, Fairview; James Gregory, Senior, Fort Collins; Lukas Haug, Junior, Boulder; Davis Helmerich, Senior, Mountain Vista; Parker Lee, Senior, Legacy; Ryan Montera, Junior, Legacy; Ben Piegat, Senior, Dakota Ridge; Edward Rush, Junior, Castle View; Luke Sundberg, Senior, Valor Christian; James Thomas, Junior, Broomfield; Harrison Witt, Junior, Mountain Vista.
MONTROSE — It took a tiebreaker, but No. 2 Montrose volleyball emerged as the champion of the Class 4A Region 2 tournament on Saturday.
Montrose opened the tournament with a 3-0 sweep of Longmont.
Longmont, the No. 35 seed, then beat No. 23 Eagle Valley 3-1.
Then, in the third match, Eagle Valley beat Montrose 3-1.
That put the region into a tiebreaker, with Longmont and Eagle Valley playing a one-set match, and the winner advancing to play Montrose. Longmont beat Eagle Valley 25-15 to move on.
In that match, the teams went back and forth early on. Montrose led 17-12 before a 3-0 run by Longmont made it 17-15. Montrose pulled ahead 22-16, and then went on to win 25-20 to earn the state berth.
“We had a great day and had to make it exciting by winning against Longmont and losing to Eagle Valley,” Montrose Coach Shane Forrest said. “The girls played great in the tiebreaker against Longmont and really controlled the game the entire time.”
Said Madison Satterly, a senior: “Our team got fired up by how we all knew we wanted to win and knew it was do or die for us and we were gonna let nothing touch the ground,” Madison Satterly said. “We all played as a team and never let up. It feels amazing to be able to go to state. Montrose hasn’t been since 2016 and we worked our butts all season to get where we are now.”
Adden Isabel Stollsteimer: “Our team came together after the loss today and the moment Macy Boulden had her huge block in the last set, we knew we would fight to go to state. It feels like the top of the world to take this team that worked so hard all season to meet our goal of going to state. I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls to go to state with.”
North Park raced out to a 20-6 lead, weathered a second-quarter comeback from Granada, and then scored three third-quarter touchdowns in pulling off the upset.
According to Colorado Preps, it is just the second postseason victory in program history as No. 11 North Park advanced in the 6-man playoffs over the No. 6 Bobcats.
“It’s huge for us — we’ve just got to keep taking steps forward,” coach Chad Carlstrom told the Colorado Preps Scoreboard Show. “I think the program’s in the right spot. The kids are excited. The young kids are excited. That’s just building a little bit of a tradition. I hope I’ve done that.”
North Park had six rushing touchdowns in the game, including three from Destry Schmidt, two from Cordell Garriott and one from Brock Follett.
“We just overpowered them on our running game,” Carlstrom said. “We’ve got three dynamic running backs that they all provide something different, that change of pace, and our blocking up front has been solid. It makes it tough to figure out who’s going to get the ball and which way we’re going to go.”
Dominic Coleman, just a sophomore, led the way for Granada with four total touchdowns, two rushing and two passing.
In other 6-man playoff games on Friday:
No. 1 Kit Carson beat No. 16 Peetz 73-7.
No. 4 Fleming beat No. 13 Deer Trail 72-27.
[divider]
Playoff brackets
The 8-man, 1A, 2A, and 5A state playoff brackets will be seeded and released on Sunday. The 3A and 4A brackets are due out on Nov. 9.
Ponderosa (6-3) got the only score of the game midway through the fourth quarter, and set up a showdown for the 4A Metro League title with Heritage next week.
“It was just a total team effort,” Ponderosa coach Jaron Cohen told the Scoreboard Show. “When we needed it, our offense got a drive to score, and they got a couple of first downs to ice it.”
Mustangs quarterback Jack Hanenburg scored on a three-yard rush with eight minutes remaining to provide the game’s only points. It was set up by a great scramble and throw on third down from Hanenburg, Cohen said.
“Jack got behind our big boys and got it in,” Cohen said.
Montrose nearly responded but a Ponderosa defender tracked down a Montrose player at the five, and then the Mustangs’ defense held firm on 4th-and-goal from the 1.
Montrose is now 8-1 this season.
[divider]
1A: (2) Holyoke 14, (3) Limon 12
Holyoke (9-0) scored twice in the first half for a 14-0 lead, then held off a fourth-quarter rally from Limon (7-2) to secure the North Central League title.
“It was a very exciting game,” Holyoke coach Dustin Sprague told the Scoreboard Show. “It was a championship game, and our kids came up with some big plays.”
Blake Mosenteen opened the scoring with a 6-yard rush in the second quarter, and then Miles Sprague added a 61-yard dash for a two-score Holyoke lead.
Things stayed 14-0 until the fourth quarter, when the Badgers scored with nine minutes remaining. A two-point conversation attempt was no good, making the score 14-6.
Kory Tacha then added a rushing touchdown for Limon with three minutes left, but the Badgers couldn’t convert a two-point attempt to tie the game.
“This is what we set out to do,” Sprague said. “But we didn’t come this far just to come this far.”
[divider]
5A: (10) Cherokee Trail 36, (9) Eaglecrest 32
In a wild game, Cherokee Trail (7-3) rallied from a huge 29-0 hole in the third quarter to pick up a big win over the Raptors (7-3).
The Cougars scored 21 unanswered points in the later part of the third to cut the Eaglecrest lead to 29-21 going to the fourth. The Raptors added a field goal, and went up 32-21 with nine minutes left in the fourth.
Then Jayden Lavigne hit Samuel Hart for a 45-yard touchdown pass, and the Cougars converted a two-point attempt to make it 32-29.
Lavigne then found Donovan Swift with three minutes remaining on a 34-yard TD to give CT its first lead of the game — and it proved to be the winning score.
Lavigne finished with three touchdown passes.
[divider]
5A: (1) Cherry Creek 44, (7) Grandview 21
Cherry Creek built a quick 17-0 lead, and the Bruins were up 20-7 at halftime en route to the win.
Grandview did cut it to 20-14 early in the third quarter following a blocked punt, but Cherry Creek reeled off 24 unanswered points into the fourth to make it 44-14.
The Bruins finish the regular season 10-0. Grandview is 8-2.
[divider]
1A: (7) Florence 13, (5) Colorado Springs Christian 10
Florence (8-1) stormed back from a 10-0 halftime deficit to secure the win, and the Tri-Peaks League title.
“That’s a dang good football team, and we were just able to grind it out,” coach Jeremy Nix told the Scoreboard Show.
The Huskies tied the game in the third quarter with a passing score and a field goal, and then took the lead with a 27-yard field goal from Jenkins Phillips with less than a minute to play to win.
Here’s video of the winning kick, from KOAA:
HS FOOTBALL GAME WINNER: Florence sophomore Jenkins Phillips nails the biggest kick of his football life, a 27-yard GW FG. This gave the Huskies a 13-10 win over @CSCSLIONS to win the Tri-Peaks title. @KOAA#coprepspic.twitter.com/kR5v0Nj1GS
Peyton Brones had a rushing touchdown for CSCS (7-2).
[divider]
8-man: (1) Sedgwick County 60, (9) Merino 0
Sedgwick County (9-0) cruised to an unbeaten regular season.
The Cougars led 32-0 at halftime, and had six rushing scores and two passing in the win.
Merino ends the regular season 6-3.
[divider]
Notables:
In a top-10 1A matchup, No. 6 Meeker beat No. 8 Hotchkiss 42-26 to win the 1A Western Slope League. “We’re excited about having the opportunity to get out there and compete next week,” coach Shane Phelan told the Scoreboard Show. “We’ll see where it goes from there.”
Yuma upset 1A No. 10 Wray 27-7 in their rivalry game, the Harvest Cup.
In another rivalry contest, No. 9 Basalt got a last-second stop on fourth down to preserve a 17-14 win over Aspen.
Loveland took a 1-0 lead on a goal by David Pettit eight minutes in. Montrose’s Aiden Harrell tied the game with about three minutes left in the first half. Then, Sean Alex put Montrose ahead 2-1 in the second half, and that was the final.
“They scored first on a rebound,” Montrose coach Cassie Snyder said. “We kept our composure and intensity during the game. We outplayed them. We lost a little composure toward the end, because Loveland was desperate to score.”
“Both teams wanted it,” Loveland coach Chad Arthur said. “End of the day, their efforts were slightly better.”
Montrose will now play top-seeded Battle Mountain on Tuesday.
Voted upon by coaches around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Class 5A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Chaparral (7)
16-2
96
1
2-0
2
Cherokee Trail (2)
16-2
81
3
2-0
3
Legend
15-3
79
2
2-0
4
Broomfield (1)
18-0
64
4
2-0
5
Rampart
17-1
63
5
3-0
6
Valor Christian
16-1
55
6
2-0
7
Fort Collins
20-2
43
7
7-0
8
Chatfield
14-4
24
9
2-0
9
Grandview
12-6
20
8
1-1
10
Windsor
15-4
10
10
3-2
Others receiving votes:
Eaglecrest 6, Fairview 4, Cherry Creek 2, Ralston Valley 2, Horizon 1.
Dropped out
None.
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Pueblo County (8)
21-1
97
1
2-0
2
Lewis-Palmer (3)
13-5
96
2
2-0
3
Montrose
16-3
74
7
2-0
4
Mead
16-3
70
8
5-0
5
Coronado
12-6
58
3
1-1
6
Discovery Canyon
13-5
54
5
2-0
7
Pueblo West
14-5
50
4
2-1
8
Palmer Ridge
11-6
38
6
0-1
9
Woodland Park
15-1
21
9
1-0
10
Erie
14-7
18
10
3-2
Others receiving votes:
Silver Creek 12, Glenwood Springs 11, Mullen 2, Thomas Jefferson 2, Battle Mountain 1, Cheyenne Mountain 1.
Dropped out
None.
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Lutheran (11)
16-0
110
1
6-0
2
Sterling
20-0
97
5
5-0
3
Eaton
15-3
83
2
1-0
4
Alamosa
20-3
77
6
0-0
5
Colorado Springs Christian
20-1
65
3
1-0
6
Cedaredge
17-1
46
–
2-0
7
Faith Christian
13-3
41
4
1-0
8
Bayfield
14-4
32
–
1-0
9
Lamar
18-4
25
8
2-2
10
Englewood
15-2
15
–
2-0
Others receiving votes:
Fort Lupton 10, SkyView Academy 10, Coal Ridge 8, Riverdale Ridge 8, Bennett 7, University 6, Eagle Ridge Academy 5, Platte Valley 5, Strasburg 5, Brush 4, Frontier Academy 1.
Dropped out
University (7), Platte Valley (9), Resurrection Christian (10).
Class 2A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Denver Christian (9)
19-0
90
1
2-0
2
Union Colony Prep
16-2
77
2
0-1
3
Meeker
17-2
67
3
2-0
4
Limon
15-5
54
5
2-0
5
Simla
16-4
47
10
3-0
6
Fowler
14-4
44
6
0-1
7
West Grand
17-2
43
7
2-0
8
Wiggins
15-5
39
4
1-1
9
Dolores
16-3
12
9
2-0
10
Sedgwick County
15-6
9
–
4-0
Others receiving votes:
Rye 6, Telluride 6, Ignacio 1.
Dropped out
Rye (8).
Class 1A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
La Veta (7)
19-0
95
1
2-0
2
Kit Carson (2)
17-2
86
3
1-1
3
Fleming
17-2
85
4
2-1
4
Merino (2)
17-2
76
2
1-1
5
Briggsdale
16-3
73
5
3-0
6
Genoa-Hugo/Karval
17-2
71
6
3-0
7
Otis
13-6
36
8
2-0
8
Springfield
13-4
35
9
2-0
9
Prairie
12-7
25
7
2-4
10
South Baca
15-3
11
–
2-0
Others receiving votes:
Mile High Academy 8, Weldon Valley 2, Dove Creek 1, Stratton/Liberty 1.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Class 5A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Chaparral (9)
14-2
107
1
0-0
2
Legend
13-3
90
2
0-0
3
Cherokee Trail (1)
14-2
82
3
1-0
4
Broomfield (1)
16-0
73
4
2-0
5
Rampart
14-1
70
5
1-0
6
Valor Christian
14-1
53
6
2-0
7
Fort Collins
13-2
42
7
2-0
8
Grandview
11-5
31
8
1-0
9
Chatfield
12-4
19
10
2-0
10
Windsor
12-2
15
–
2-0
Others receiving votes:
Eaglecrest 12, Fairview 8, Ralston Valley 3.
Dropped out
Eaglecrest (9).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Pueblo County (9)
19-1
115
1
3-0
2
Lewis-Palmer (3)
11-5
112
2
2-0
3
Coronado
11-5
77
6
2-0
4
Pueblo West (1)
12-4
68
4
1-0
5
Discovery Canyon
11-5
67
3
0-2
6
Palmer Ridge
11-5
65
5
1-1
7
Montrose
14-3
63
8
2-0
8
Mead
11-3
57
7
2-0
9
Woodland Park
14-1
24
9
3-0
10
Erie
11-5
20
–
2-0
Others receiving votes:
Thomas Jefferson 16, Silver Creek 14, Battle Mountain 6, Mullen 4, Cheyenne Mountain 2, Glenwood Springs 1, Skyline 1, Steamboat Springs 1.
Dropped out
Thomas Jefferson (10).
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Lutheran (8)
10-0
88
1
1-0
2
Eaton
14-3
70
5
2-0
3
Colorado Springs Christian (1)
19-1
59
4
2-0
4
Faith Christian
12-3
53
7
1-1
5
Sterling
15-0
51
2
1-0
6
Alamosa
20-3
44
3
2-1
7
University
9-7
26
10
0-2
8
Lamar
16-2
23
8
2-0
9
Platte Valley
11-4
19
9
2-0
10
Resurrection Christian
9-7
18
–
2-1
Others receiving votes:
Cedaredge 11, Valley 6, Bayfield 5, Centauri 4, Pagosa Springs 4, Delta 3, St. Mary’s Academy 3, La Junta 2, Middle Park 2, Peak to Peak 1.
Dropped out
Cedaredge (6).
Class 2A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Denver Christian (9)
17-0
90
1
2-0
2
Union Colony Prep
16-1
76
2
3-0
3
Meeker
15-2
59
5
2-0
4
Wiggins
14-4
53
3
0-1
5
Limon
13-5
52
6
3-0
6
Fowler
14-3
49
4
1-1
7
West Grand
15-2
43
7
1-0
8
Rye
13-4
20
10
2-0
9
Dolores
14-3
17
9
2-0
10
Simla
13-4
14
8
1-1
Others receiving votes:
Telluride 11, Sedgwick County 5, Highland 3, Ignacio 1.
Dropped out
None.
Class 1A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
La Veta (4)
17-0
75
1
1-0
2
Merino (3)
16-1
71
3
3-0
3
Kit Carson (1)
16-1
62
2
2-0
4
Fleming
15-1
60
5
2-0
5
Briggsdale
13-3
47
4
1-1
6
Genoa-Hugo/Karval
14-2
38
6
1-0
7
Prairie
10-3
29
7
0-1
8
Otis
11-6
21
9
1-0
9
Springfield
11-4
14
10
2-0
10
Dove Creek
16-1
9
–
2-0
Others receiving votes:
Mile High Academy 7, Flagler/Hi-Plains 2, Front Range Baptist 2, Sangre de Cristo 2, Weldon Valley 1.
