(Photos: Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com; Josh Watt/CHSAANow.com)
When a two-time defending Class 4A state champion gets knocked out in the semifinals before getting a chance to contend for a third title, it becomes a major learning experience.
Todd Miller and his Pine Creek Eagles learned the hard way a year ago that they just weren’t good enough. And after a couple of early-season losses this year, Miller knew that his team still wasn’t good enough.
Yet, Pine Creek will be playing in the 4A title game on Saturday against Broomfield, hoping to win its third championship in four years.
“You deal with things in different ways,” Miller said. “As a coaching staff, we got together and said we’ve got to better. We have to do things better. You can’t take things for granted.”
So that’s what they did.
Senior quarterback Brock Domann had seen first hand what it took to win a state championship and to do on a stage as big as Sports Authority Field at Mile High.
He believed.
And when a team’s senior leader believes, it’s easy for that trickle-down effect to take hold. In what Miller called the turning point of the year, Pine Creek topped Vista Ridge 39-14 and there was no looking back.
(Josh Watt/CHSAANow.com)
And after missing the state title game last year, Domann was going to take Miller’s words to heart and not take anything for granted.
“(It means) a lot more,” Domann said. “Especially as a senior too. Last year we had a ‘what if’ season and this year we came out hungry. We had some troubles early on, but we’ve really come together.”
Domann has nearly 2,500 yards of total offense to go with 31 total touchdowns. He’s provided the steady hand for Pine Creek in the effort to turn around their early struggles.
But it’s the play of freshman David Moore III that has been the difference maker. Moore has rushed for 1,384 yards and 17 touchdowns this season.
Which only means that Saturday’s game with a battle truly fought in the trenches.
Broomfield will be countering with its own 1,300-yard rusher in Jalon Torres. He has been the driving force behind the team’s offense and coach Blair Hubbard knows that the ground game will be a major factor in bringing back a state title.
“I think the running game will be very important for both teams,” he said. “Jalon has done a great job learning our offense and knowing what we want from him.”
Like Miller, Hubbard is so stranger to coaching for a state title. He won three of them at Faith Christian, most recently in 2009.
When he was hired by Broomfield in the offseason, he gathered his team together and showed them pictures of Sports Authority Field.
That is where the state title game is going to be played.
This is the goal.
(John Priest/CHSAANow.com)
After going 5-5 the year before, the upperclassmen were ready to embrace that goal.
“I really have to give credit to our seniors,” Hubbard said. “They embraced the newness. They were hungry for some new things.”
And their appetites were satisfied. Now, with 48 minutes of game time remaining in the season, both teams are hungry once again.
But only one will walk away completely satisfied.