Pomona and Valor Christian will face off for the 5A championship. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Note: All three state championship games can be seen on the NFHS Network.
(1) Valor Christian vs. (2) Pomona
Pomona and Valor Christian certainly aren’t strangers this season. The two teams who will meet for the Class 5A football championship Saturday already played once this year. It was the Panthers who came away with a 28-14 win.
Just like last season, Valor has a rematch with a team that beat them in the regular season. And gold is on the line.
But, like he’s shooing a fly away from his face, Eagles coach Rod Sherman swats away the hype of a rematch or the fact that it’s Valor Christian’s seventh appearance in a state title game.
“This is about this group of seniors playing in this state championship game,” Sherman said. “This team is unique; different from other teams that we’ve had.”
And Sherman is right. The Valor teams of the past stormed through the competition en route to state championships and were forced to overcome little adversity. The Eagles came into the season as the No. 1-ranked team in the state, but fell in just their second game of the year, which happened to come against Pomona.
They also lost the next week to Bentonville (Ark.), giving them a 1-2 record through the first three games of the season.
But since the back-to-back losses, the Eagles have been playing sound football. They ran through the gauntlet of the Centennial League, going 5-0 and winning by an average of 16.4 points per game.
Sherman will be the first to point out that it’s the work of the team and not an individual, but’s hard to ignore the standout season that junior quarterback Dylan McCaffrey has enjoyed.
“Dylan’s really grown throughout this year,” Sherman said. “I think some specifics as to the areas he’s grown this year are his pocket presence, subtle pocket movements; knowing when he can get a first down with his feet.”
But his arm isn’t bad either. McCaffrey has thrown for 2,606 yards this season with 26 touchdowns. With a 116.6 passer rating, he is one of the elite gunslingers in state, if not the nation.
But sometimes it’s not all about flash through the air. Pomona’s sophomore quarterback Ryan Marquez doesn’t have the high-flying numbers that McCaffrey does, but he does a great job of getting the ball into his playmaker’s hands and commanding a tough, physical offense that has proven it can overcome a tough Valor defense.
“He’s a great competitor,” Pomona coach Jay Madden said. “He’s the skinniest quarterback in the state of Colorado, but he has the ability to make you miss. His dad went to Pomona. I was looking at the fact sheet and the first time Pomona made the state championship or the state playoffs was in 1982 and his dad was a senior.”
Madden insists that the win over Valor early in the season means nothing this week. Both teams have gone through so much since that first meeting that it feels like forever ago.
Instead, the Panthers will focus on just playing this one game and rallying the community around the school as they look to win the state title.
“Pomona is family,” Madden said. “We’ve been (in a state title game) a lot and there’s a lot of state runner-up banners there. We need to put up a few more state championship banners.”
The 5A state championship game is scheduled to kick off at 2 p.m. Saturday and will be televised on Altitude.
(3) Windsor vs. (13) Loveland
Loveland coach Wayne McGinn, left, and Windsor’s Chris Jones. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
At first glance, there wasn’t an overwhelming feeling that neither Loveland or Windsor would get to the Class 4A state title game.
But that’s why they play the games.
After starting the regular season 2-4, the Indians went 3-1 down the stretch (the one loss was to Windsor) to make the playoffs. And that’s when the run to the title game began.
The Indians first topped No. 4 Vista Ridge, who had played sound football all year. After a 49-21 win over Durango, they had one more sizable road block ahead of them. They had to face the defending 4A champion, Pine Creek.
They did just that. They beat the Eagles 26-14 to earn their ticket to Sports Authority Field.
“It was perfect for us,” coach Wayne McGinn said. “The weather didn’t affect us at all. The guys were ready to play. It was a great game.”
The Indians will look to take the 4A title behind a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in quarterback Ayden Eberhardt and running back Charles Dunkleman.
They’ll also try to contain the Wizards with a defense that stifled a couple of standout 4A quarterbacks in Vista Ridge’s Elway Tubbs and Pine Creek’s Brock Domann. He sites Dunkleman, who also plays inside linebacker as a big part of that defensive unit.
“Charles is one that comes and plays every day,” McGinn said. “He does it on both sides of the ball so he’ll be coming off and sucking air.”
The Wizards also have a potent ground attack that they hope can carry them to a title. Quarterback Brad Peeples found the end zone 19 times on the ground as he was running for nearly 1,300 yards this season.
But the Oct. 22 game against Loveland proved to be trouble for Peeples. On 21 carries, he only mustered 64 yards, but did score the lone touchdown of the game.
If the Wizards can’t get anything going offensively, like last time, they will have to rely on their defense, which shut out the Indians.
“Our defense has had an outstanding season thus far,” Wizards coach Chris Jones said. “Each week we tweak our personnel and (we) have these guys ready for the new scheme.”
If the first game is any indication, the battle for the 4A title will be physical and low scoring. Kick off between Loveland and Windsor is at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
(2) Roosevelt at (1) Pueblo East
(Mark Adams)
If Roosevelt is going to unseat Pueblo East as the Class 3A champions, they’ll have to do it in the Eagles’ back yard.
But if numbers are an indicator, the Roughriders can do it. They’ve put up impressive scoring numbers this year, scoring 50 or more points in half of their regular season games. They’ve done it most with a running attack that has produced a total of 4,715 rushing yards.
Quarterback Cameron Hurtado hopes to set the tone on Saturday like he did last week against Delta. Hurtado ran for 129 yards and two touchdowns as Roosevelt won 30-23 to punch their ticket to Dutch Clark Stadium.
But the Eagles are defending champions for a reason.
Even under first-year coach Lee Meisner, the Eagles are looking primed for a repeat. Meisner has been on staff with Pueblo East for the last few seasons, but this will be his first time steering the ship in a championship game.
“It is a little different,” Meisner said. “But overall, we kind of have a feel that we’ve been here before and we know what to expect.”
It helps to have a veteran presence in the form of quarterback Danny Martin. The senior not only leads the Eagles in rushing with 1,363 yards, but he can also air the ball when needed. His 1,478 passing yards and 14 passing touchdowns, along with Martin’s experience from a year ago, make him a triple threat that Meisner hopes can lift the Eagles to another championship.
“It’s huge,” Meisner said. “It’s the perfect storm for a coach. You preach all year, fundamentals and doing things right, and to have that testament of last year, if we all buy into the same goal and the same idea, it will come to fruition for us.”
The Eagles and Roughriders square off at 1 p.m. Saturday at Dutch Clark Stadium.