(Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)
On the first play from scrimmage for Holy Family, Michael Zeman took the handoff untouched for an 88-yard rushing touchdown.
It set the tone for the night, which ended in a 48-0 victory for No. 8 Holy Family.
“We really needed to have a game where we started fast this week,” said Holy Family head coach Michael Gabriel. “We were a little slow last week going on both sides of the ball so, just start fast on offense. On defense — to do what they did this week was really something that we needed to have happen.”
Zeman was unstoppable Friday night as he and the Tigers rolled the Thompson Valley Eagles. Zeman finished with 280 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns.
(Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)
“We wanted to mix both the run and pass into the game today, which we did pretty well,” Zeman said. “A lot of (the credit) goes to the line, being able to get me the running lanes and giving Stone time to pass.”
The Holy Family defense stymied Thompson Valley on just about every drive. Thompson Valley threatened to score on two drives, yet came up empty on both chances.
“Any time you can get a shutout, the confidence it gives to your defense and your offense is huge,” Gabriel said. “And we’re very happy with that.”
Late in the second quarter, Thompson Valley quarterback Braydon Besse scrambled 69 yards down to the Holy Family 11-yard-line. The ensuing snap was sent straight over the head of Besse for a 14-yard loss, and the Eagles were forced to settle for a field goal attempt.
Nicholas Williams shot through the line and blocked the kick to keep the shutout intact.
The defense found itself in trouble again with halftime looming after Thompson Valley drove down to the 13-yard-line. Besse dropped back with 6.7 seconds left and was intercepted in the end zone by none other than Zeman, who also plays on defense.
“We’ve been building up for this,” Zeman said. “Last year, our defense wasn’t where we wanted it to be, so this year we’re really focusing on everyone flowing to the ball and pursuit. Coming in this week, we knew we wanted to get after them on the ball.”
The defense came up big time and time again.
“We fuel off of our defense,” said wide receiver Joe Golter. “If our defense has energy, then our whole team has energy. With the goose egg tonight, that really fueled our offense and special teams as well.”
Not to be outdone by the stellar defensive play, the offense shined as well. Golter had 79 yards and three touchdowns on just four receptions.
“It’s just the way of our offense,” Golter said. “We have the potential to score every play. No matter what it is, we have the potential to score.”
“We have so many weapons, we have five returning starters that touch the ball,” Gabriel said. “One week it might be Mikey Zemen, another week it might be Joey Golter, Kyle Helbig, Travis Montoya. It’s a pick-your-poison kind of thing week to week. We’re very lucky to have all those kids.”
Sophomore quarterback Stone Samaras did his part with 172 yards and four touchdowns. Samaras has some big shoes to fill following the record-setting efforts of Chris Helbig.
“We haven’t put that on Stone much, he came in last year for us after Chris got hurt and did a good job,” Gabriel said. “We’ve worked real hard over the summer to get him prepared to do well. He hasn’t let us down, he’s done a really good job for us.”
Gabriel and the Tigers wanted to start off fast after not being able to do so against No. 1 Fort Morgan last week.
“We were just coming off a hard loss last week,” Zeman said. “We know we should have played better than we did, so we wanted to come back and get it. We wanted to come out and show what we really are and who we are.”
“We’ve started fast in every game but last week and we let teams back in and kind of hang around,” Gabriel said. “So, we wanted to get up, stay up, and put them away early.”
That strategy worked well for Holy Family as they executed Gabriel’s gameplan to a tee.
Thompson Valley (0-4) will look to rebound and get in the win column next week at Berthoud.
Holy Family (3-1) faces No. 3 Longmont (2-2) next week at home. The Trojans lost to Mead on Friday.
(Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)