Football

LAKEWOOD — The traditional Lakewood-area rivalry opened up another football season at Jeffco Stadium on Thursday night.

If the Legend football team is to take the next step of its recent upward trend in 2022, it will come with the help of plenty of new faces.

Ask any small-school football coach in the state of Colorado, what is the best or most dominant league in the state and they will tell you without a second thought that it is the 8-man Plains League.

With reporters gathered out in front, Pine Creek coach Todd Miller reached across one of his stout linebackers in Brett Alvey, to hand the microphone to another big-bodied talent in Jerry Lydiatt.

A complete schedule and scoreboard for football’s top-10 teams during Week 1 of the 2022 season is below.

Jason Klatt has been there and done that over the years at Mead and when the inevitable preseason question came up at from the gathered media at CHSAA’s Media Day at Mile High, he was more than prepared.

Immediately after Lutheran fell in a heartbreaking 23-21 game against Fort Morgan in last year’s Class 3A semifinals, the Lions began preparing for this season. They only have one goal this season: to win a state championship.

For going on a couple of decades, the Grandview football program has been one of the state’s most consistently successful programs.

Over the past few seasons, Stratton football has become quite familiar with 6-man rival Cheyenne Wells. 

The preseason football rankings were released on Monday for all seven classifications. Leading their respective polls are: Stratton (6-man), Haxtun (8-man), Limon (1A) Eaton (2A), Mead (3A), Erie (4A) and Cherry Creek (5A).