Standley Lake football coach Don Morse, far right, talks to his offense during a timeout in the fourth quarter Thursday night at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada. The Gators beat Montbello 31-21 in the Class 4A Mountain League opener for both squads. Standley Lake moved to 6-0 for the first time since 2007 with the win. (Dennis Pleuss)
ARVADA — Standley Lake football is only concerned about the immediate present and future.
The Gators, ranked No. 6 in this week’s CHSAANow.com Class 4A football poll, hadn’t been 6-0 to start a season since 2007. Until Thursday night.
A 31-21 victory over No. 5 Montbello at the North Area Athletic Complex kept Standley Lake (6-0, 1-0 in 4A Mountain League) perfect this season, while the resurgent Warriors (5-1, 0-1) suffered their first setback.
“It has been awhile, but we could care less,” Standley Lake junior defensive end Grant Gladstone said of the Gators’ 6-0 record. “We are just looking to the next game.”
Gladstone played a big part in the Gators sewing up their win against the visiting Warriors. Montbello rallied with 14-unanswered points after trailing 31-7 midway through the third quarter. Warriors’ quarterback A.J. Thompson had a 41-yard touchdown run and 4-yard touchdown pass to senior Marquille Jones, trimming Standley Lake’s lead to 31-21.
However, Gladstone and defensive line teammate Trey Jarvis combined for a pair of sacks of Thompson late in the fourth quarter to clinch the victory.
Montbello senior quarterback A.J. Thompson breaks away from Standley Lake defenders Matt Fujinami (15) and Connor Durant (81) on a 41-yard touchdown run in the third quarter Thursday. Thompson also threw for a pair of touchdowns, but it wasn’t enough as Standley Lake handed Montbello its first loss of the season, 31-21. (Dennis Pleuss)
“(Thompson) was running all over me a couple of times today,” Gladstone said. “Trey Jarvis was doing a good job squeezing him toward me. I got my chances.”
Jarvis entered the game with eight sacks this year. The attention given to Jarvis allowed Gladstone to make some plays.
Another defensive standout for Standley Lake was junior Connor Durant. After his three-touchdown performance last week in a 28-0 victory against Green Mountain, Durant made a leaping interception with 4:28 left in the fourth quarter deep in Gators’ territory.
The Gators’ running game by committee was effective with juniors Anthony Moore and John Perez each scoring two touchdowns on Thursday. Seven different players have scored rushing touchdowns for Standley Lake through six games.
“We don’t have that star running back,” Standley Lake coach Don Morse said. “We have a bunch of kids who are average or above average. They all have different abilities, so we like to shuffle them in and out. It’s worked out pretty well for us so far.”
Standley Lake hopes the remainder of the season works out better for the 2007 squad. The Gators lost four straight games to Wheat Ridge, Ralston Valley, Dakota Ridge and ThunderRidge to miss the postseason six years ago.
The conference road includes Broomfield next Friday at NAAC, followed up by Golden and George Washington before finishing up the regular season against the defending 4A state championship — Monarch.
Morse believes four Mountain League squads could make the playoff field this season.
Montbello has a tough task next week when it hosts Monarch (5-1) next Saturday afternoon at Evie Dennis Sports Complex.