(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
DENVER — Trailing by two scores, Smoky Hill football roared back with 24 unanswered points to seize control of its huge league matchup against Denver East on Friday evening.
The Buffaloes would use that momentum swing and turn it into a 30-20 victory, improving to 7-0 in the process. More important: The Buffaloes are now 6-0 in the 10-team Metro 10 League, the lone remaining unbeaten. They control their own postseason destiny from this point.
“That’s one of the great wins I would tell you I’ve ever had in terms of grit,” said veteran coach Tom Thenell, in his first year as Smoky Hill’s coach, but third decade as the head of a program. “Grit and determination. They just turned the tide. It’s a great bunch of kids.”
Denver East raced out to a 14-0 lead early in the first quarter on two passing touchdowns from sophomore Myles Patterson. The lead held up through halftime.
During the break, Smoky Hill junior Vincent King implored the team to calm down and have fun, according to senior David Hoage. Thenell referenced former NBA player and coach Rudy Tomjanovich: “Don’t underestimate the heart of the champion.”
“That’s about all I could say to my guys: ‘You guys want to be champions, you’re going to have to come out in the second half with heart and win this second half,'” Thenell said.
The defense led the way, starting with a safety off a poor snap with 2:04 remaining in the third quarter.
“I just think it juiced our confidence, flipped a switch there,” Thenell said of the safety.
Smoky Hill turned the ensuing possession into points when 5-foot-8, 175-pound running back Obasanjo Sanni plunged in for a 1-yard score. It was 14-9 at that point — eight seconds remained in the third quarter — and Smoky Hill had all the momentum.
“I felt the momentum before the touchdown even happened,” Hoage said. “As a team, we go off people’s vibes. … The touchdown, it made us strive to be better.”
Denver East got the ball back, but Smoky Hill forced the Angels to punt. And then Smoky Hill’s Chase Lyons partially blocked that punt. It went about 20 yards in the air, where Hoage caught it, and returned it for a score.
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
“I couldn’t have done it without Chase getting that punt block in,” Hoage said. “I love playing with him. He sets the tone, and we make big plays happen. It wasn’t my touchdown, it was a defensive touchdown. It was all of ours. We share it as a team.”
Suddenly, a sluggish start for Smoky Hill had been erased. The Buffaloes led 17-14 after a two-point conversion.
They didn’t stop there.
Smoky junior Xavier Gulick intercepted a pass on the next drive and returned it for a score. It made the score 24-14 with 10:48 to play, off 24 unanswered points. Smoky Hill’s defense and special teams had scored 16 of those points.
“Our defense turned the game around,” Thenell said.
Denver East responded quickly with an 80-yard touchdown from Patterson to Elijah Ewing, but the extra point missed, to cut the lead to 24-20.
Smoky Hill’s offense chewed up some clock, leading to a 26-yard field goal from Elisha Brown that made it 27-20 with 4:26 to go.
The Buffs’ defense then came up with a big stop, forcing a turnover on downs, and Brown added another field goal with 51 seconds left to put the game out of reach.
“We have a kicker that right now, field goal-wise, he’s as good as anybody out there,” Thenell said. “He was money in the clutch.”
In terms of a league win, it was about as big as they come. Both teams entered 5-0 in league play, so Smoky Hill is now alone in first place in the Metro 10. They also own now a head-to-head tiebreak over Denver East, one of two one-loss teams in the league.
In short, they will control whether or not they make the postseason via the league’s automatic berth.
“It’s huge,” Thenell said. “We’re in the driver’s seat. When you can control your own destiny, that makes your life in athletics easier.”
Added Hoage: “League champions? That’s what we want to be.”
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)