LAKEWOOD — Dakota Ridge football team wanted to win for a teammate — sophomore Christian Lyons — who couldn’t be on the field Thursday night at Jeffco Stadium.
“This whole Christian thing really took a life of its own. Our kids really fed off it,” Dakota Ridge coach Ron Woitalewicz said after the Eagles knocked off Heritage 24-14 in a Class 4A Plains League game. “We have a kid in the hospital fighting for his life. I told our guys that if you think you are tired and sore to think about Christian for inspiration.”
Players for Dakota Ridge wore orange socks in the “Think Orange” themed game to bring awareness of Leukemia. Lyons is currently in the hospital battling Leukemia.
Dakota Ridge (5-3, 3-0 in league) played inspired and nearly a perfect first half in taking a 24-14 lead. Heritage (5-3, 2-1) came in ranked No. 5 in the latest CHSAANow.com 4A football poll, but never led.
A pair of huge pass plays in the first half allowed Dakota Ridge to grab a 10-point lead at halftime. Junior quarterback Drew Dominic connected with fellow junior Kyle Scofield on a 78-yard touchdown pass with 3:31 left in the first quarter to give Dakota Ridge a 14-0 advantage.
“I saw two defenders and I just slipped right through them,” Scofield said describing his 78-yard touchdown catch on a post route. “I saw the ball floating in the air and I was just thinking to myself I had to catch this ball.”
It looked like Dakota Ridge would just take a 17-14 lead into the locker room, but a short pass near the sideline to senior Kennan Brown turned into a 51-yard touchdown with under a minute to play in the second quarter. Brown did most of the work juking a couple of Heritage defenders before getting into the end zone.
“The touchdown before halftime was obviously huge,” Woitalewicz said.
Heritage’s two second-quarter touchdowns came on a 23-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Chase Hansen to junior Tyler Zoesch and a 1-yard plunge by Hansen.
While Hansen played a big role in both Heritage scores, he was harassed all night by Dakota Ridge’s defense. The senior quarterback was dropped for a loss on sacks or negative runs 11 times. Hansen carried the ball 18 times for 15 yards.
Heritage senior Chayse Jimenez, left, hauls in a catch in front of Dakota Ridge’s Joe Setter. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“Our game-plan was to try to go man coverage, blitz and rattle (Hansen),” Woitalewicz said. “We stuck with it the whole game and got a lot of pressure.”
Dakota Ridge junior linebacker Anthony Salvi got beat in coverage on Hansen’s touchdown pass to Zoesch, but Salvi got his revenge on a key drive in the fourth quarter. Salvi sacked Hansen three times on a single drive as Dakota Ridge shut out Heritage in the second half.
“I think we changed it up a little bit in the end,” Salvi could say with a smile. “I got beat for the touchdown, but then they just let me go at the quarterback from the edge.”
While Dakota Ridge’s offense wasn’t able to score in the second half, the damage Dominic did threw the air (11-of-18 for 180 yards and two touchdowns) and junior Eric Palmer did on the ground (20 carries for 95 yards) was enough to get the win.
Brown sealed the victory with an interception of Hansen in the end zone on the final play of the game.
“I don’t think we shocked ourselves,” Salvi said. “We just played like we know how we are able to play.”
Dakota Ridge doesn’t have much time to reflect on Thursday’s game. The Eagles turn around and face area-rival and No. 2 Chatfield (6-1, 2-0) at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28 at Jeffco Stadium.
“If we win next week we win the league. It’s like a dream,” Woitalewicz said. “It’s going to be a big rivalry game. (Chatfield) is a great football team and (Chatfield coach Bret McGatlin) does a great job. We are going to have our work cutout.”
Heritage hosts Golden (1-6, 0-2) at 7 p.m. Oct. 27 before its regular-season showdown against Chatfield at 4 p.m. Friday at Jeffco Stadium.
Chatfield, Dakota Ridge and Heritage will be in a dogfight the final weeks of the regular season to make the 16-team field for the 4A state tournament.
Dakota Ridge junior Kyle Scofield (2) gets behind Heritage’s defense on a 78-yard touchdown catch. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Dakota Ridge junior Erik Palmer, far right, finds a hole during a 24-14 win over Heritage at Jeffco Stadium. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)