Cherry Creek and Valor Christian met earlier this season. (Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)
DENVER — It could be very easy to see how the chess match between Dave Logan and Rod Sherman has already begun. With each question that was directed at both of them, Logan slyly slid the microphone to his opponent’s side of the table, letting the Valor coach be the first to share his thoughts with the gallery of players, administrators and media.
Logan’s Bruins ended an impressive 28-game in-state winning streak for the Eagles with a 33-17 win over Valor back on Oct. 17. When the two teams take the field again on Saturday, there is much more at stake than a winning streak.
They’ll be playing for gold and the right to walk away as champions.
Cherry Creek coach Dave Logan. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Each team will have something to prove in Saturday’s 5A state championship game. Cherry Creek hopes to show that under Logan, their team is no joke and the win over Valor was no fluke. The Eagles hope to prove that it was.
“Valor is an extremely talented team, and I do chuckle from time to time when I hear people talk about how they’re not nearly as good as they were last year,” Logan said. “That comes from people who don’t go to games or don’t view tape or — with all due respect — just don’t know football.”
And if there’s any fair judge, it would be Logan. He is searching for his seventh state title as a head. He won one with Arvada West (1997), one with Chatfield (2001) and four with Mullen (2004, 2008-10). It also helps that the Eagles have never lost a postseason game, standing 26-0 all-time.
But the Bruins have shown that they have the talent, not just to hang with Valor, but to beat them. To do it again, they’ll have to rely on their playmakers, starting with running back Milo Hall. The senior back was the Centennial League’s best runner this year, tallying 2,086 rushing yards and finding the end zone 27 times.
“(With Hall) it’s a very different run game than we saw last week with Grandview,” Sherman said. “You have to make your tackles. If you miss tackles (he) can get it to the house every single time. He’s rushed fro close to 200 yards a game during the playoffs.”
Hall’s 194 yards against Valor was a key component in the Bruins walking away the winners. When Valor trailed late and their defense was having a hard time bottling up Cherry Creek’s running game, they found themselves with an out-of-sync offense and more importantly, little time left on the clock.
Such was the burden of playing against the Bruins. But the Eagles are not without their own weapons. Eric Lee Jr. has been called by Logan as the best athlete in the state. Lee has committed to the University of Nebraska to play as a defensive back, but while suiting up for Valor, he has proven to be a dangerous weapon with the ball in his hands.
Valor Christian’s Eric Lee Jr. makes an interception in the 5A semifinals. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
Lee Jr. ranks second on the team in receiving yards, but has become one of quarterback Dylan McCaffrey’s favorite targets when looking for a big strike.
“I feel like we have a lot of good chemistry,” Lee Jr. said. “It’s something that’s been improving throughout the whole season.”
Saturday will be the last chance for those two to improve on that chemistry. Both teams are shooting for a win and to walk away as champions, but Sherman was quick to point out that in the grand scheme of things, it’s about the journey far more than it’s about winning.
That attitude has trickled down his players. Rather than looking at this game as a chance for revenge, they simply look at it as important football game.
“We’re just trying to win another championship and just have to play another great team in the process of that,” Lee Jr. said. “We got to play Grandview again and we didn’t give them our best game (in a regular season loss). What we learned from the Grandview and Creek losses is how to fight in the second half. We’re ready to show Creek we’ve improved a lot since the last time they saw us.”