The playoffs are now truly underway in Conference 5A, 4A and 3A. Playing the first round of games last week in 5A and 4A while 3A, thanks to Old Man Winter who visited last Thursday and Friday was only able to complete the regular season schedules.
Now all three classifications – and including 3A – the first round of the postseason has been completed in 5A and 4A resulting in a sixteen-team bracket.
There are a number of interesting narratives to track here is a list of games on tap to consider.
Class 5A
No. 11 Arapahoe (8-3) at No. 6 Legend (9-1), 7 p.m. on Friday at Echo Park Stadium.
Arapahoe High School’s football team is like Dallas Cowboys of 2021-23 – the Warriors defeat all the teams they are expected to defeat.
Now they have to define themselves as not being the Cowboys and unable to fold versus the best they come up against.
Sharp Arrowhead being on a wining streak of four games, has a grand chance of scripting it own success story against an exceptionally gifted Legend players.
Arapahoe does come into this contest with a ton of momentum, especially offensively, after winning a shootout against no. 22 douglas county 49-35 last week in the fist round.
The Price was right for the Warriors as Senior QB Mitchell Price threw for 144 yards and three touchdowns and junior running back Jayden Tackitt had 147 yards rushing and one score.
Price has caught passes for 20 touchdowns this season, Tackitt has 640 yards rushing and seven scores. Senior receiver Andrew Smart has been the team’s main target throughout the season and has pulled in 61 passes for 975 yards and 13 touchdowns.
That should be just the name of the game for Friday night as Price, Tackitt and Smart all have to pull out their best game.
Legend, however, has claimed seven straight wins after the match against Columbine – the 5A state champion – by 16-14 on Sept 6.
Titans their last played on nov 1 defeating Regis 31-3 in the final game of the regular season.
Senior quarterback Nicholas Farley has passed for 812 yards and nine touchdowns and rushed for another 274 yards and eight scores. RB Jaden Lawrence is the team’s leading rusher with 733 yard and 10 trenches. He also has 18 receptions for 226 yards and five more touchdowns.
This trio rejoicing and the Titans defense, which has only conceded 47 points this season and produced five goalles – what do they portend for the Warriors?
Class 4A
12. Vista Ridge (7-4) and 5. Broomfield (9-1), 10 a.m. Saturday
Vista Ridge began the state playoffs with the dominating 35-8 win over Highlands Ranch in the first round last week.
Vista has faced a very strong a schedule and, it is at 2-2 in the last four games including playoffs.
For Highlands Ranch, Vista has quarterback Zayden Stevens with 1,467 yards passing for 14 TDs. Leading rusher on RB Gabriel McFarland had 1,013 yards rushing and 11 TDs. Tight ends for the receivers are Jamir Ford with five touchdowns as a senior, and five for Aidan Vanaman as a junior.
In order for Stevens, McFarland, Ford and Vanaman to have any shot at pulling the upset over Broomfield it’s going to require a spectacular performance.
The individual Broomfield, of course, does not h ave such thoughts.
Ever since the green-light upset by Erie 13-3 on Sep 27 the Eagles have been flying high by outplaying their counterparts by winning the next five matches by a combined score of 5/237/29.
Junior QB Darien Jackson of Broomfield has passed for 1,554 yard and 19 touchdowns. RB Colin Torres leads the rushing game with 903 yards rushing and 5 TDs. Receiver Mikhail Benner is with 350 yards and six TDs.
For Broomfield, a victory will go a long way toward proving that it is a bona fide state championship contender – not a pretender.
Class 3A
No. 9 Pueblo East 8-2 at No. 8 Discovery Canyon 8-2 1 p.m. saturday
Thisfixture has existed since 2014 and pits two familiar foes against each other. Their slugfest games up that tradition earlier this season when the Thunder secured a 32-14TION over the Eagles on september 7.
Despite the loud victory on Saturday, Thunder will meet a different Eagles on Nov. 16, which is an early season team.
After losing to DC 20-14, East put together a 7-1 record – and the only time Northfield handed a defeat was on Sept 20, 28-27 in a fitted overtime.
Eagles created its own offense with a number of star players beginning with QB Dolphka Lewis. He threw for 1,113 yards and 15 TDs and rushed for another 964 yards and 18 TDs during the sophomore.
Lewis has also assembled a suspenseful weapon to feed the Eagles’ offence in rusher Justus Freeman, who has amped up 1,147dashes and 10 goals. Combine in a skilled reception group led by Izaiah Trujillo, who has scooped 39 catches and 649 yards with 12 touchdowns, and it becomes apparent as to why the Eagles will be a hard nut to crack come Saturday.
If DC which is on a seven game winning streak wants to be partying this weekend, the Thunder must get significant contribution from QB Hayden Jones and RB Devon Baker.
Jones has passed for 831 yards and has 15 touchdowns, he has also run for 759 yards and 16 touchdowns. Meanwhile, Baker has 640 rush yards and seven rush TDs.
I believe that if Jones and Baker execute the calling and the Thunder defense responds positively it will be a celebration of the party in Washington but there is evidence that East wants to and indeed has capabilities of achieving an upset.
