(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
COLORADO SPRINGS — All week, TCA coach David Bervig got his team prepared to face Manitou Springs’ gritty rushing attack and single wing offense. What he saw on the field Friday night surprised him.
The injury-depleted CHSAANow.com No. 10-ranked Mustangs opted to attack through the air and the it took the No. 3 Titans by surprise. Luckily, they got more than they needed on the ground to come away with a 59-34 win over Manitou Springs.
With the win, the Titans (8-1 overall, 4-1 Tri-Peaks) finish second in league play but are very much in line to host their first game of the Class 2A playoffs.
“We have a lot of respect for them,” Bervig said. “And the way they executed was great. They were in spread and they kicked our butts. Good on them.”
That’s not to take anything away from what TCA was able to do. Austin Weingart was a beast in the ground game, going for 258 yards and scoring two touchdowns. After the Mustangs (6-3, 2-3) starting finding a touchdown scoring connection of Cole Sienknecht throwing to Lucas Rodholm, it was Weingart who killed the momentum.
“We just had to calm down and play our game,” Weingart said. “Because they clearly weren’t as good as us, so we just had to calm down, play our game and we were good to go.”
Manitou’s biggest struggle on the night came with depth. The Mustangs had 18 players suited up at the start of the game and ended up losing wingback and cornerback Uriah Waters to a migraine headache that forced him out of the stadium in an ambulance.
But the Mustangs continued to fight despite the loss of Waters and not having Davyn Adamscheck and Atticus Fredrickson in the lineup.
“I honestly don’t care about the score,” Sienknecht said. “I’m so proud of my team right now. I wouldn’t want to be out here battling with anyone else.”
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
The Titans were up 10-0 before the Mustangs started finding their rhythm. Sienknecht found Rodholm for a 55-yard touchdown pass to make it a 10-7 game.
But a good return and a 32-yard scoring run by Weingart once again made it a two-score game. Sienknecht once again found Rodholm after a fumbled snap which forced him to scramble out of the pocket.
Even after TCA had regained the momentum, the Mustangs kept finding a way to stay in the game.
But Weingart was able to answer once again, proving to be too much for Manitou.
“This is the most fight we’ve had in a battle of one of the top two or three teams in the state,” Manitou coach Cory Archuleta said. “I can’t be any more proud of a group of 18 kids that came out to fight the way they did.”
TCA just needed one break to add some padding to the scoring gap and got it when the ball was snapped over Sienknecht’s head and Alec Day recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown.
“That was huge,” Bervig said. “We just had to get one or two (more) scores for a cushion because we did not have an answer.”
The offensive output slowed in the second half, but the Titans were able to continue to pound the ball on the ground and control the flow of the game, without necessarily controlling time of possession. They only held the ball for 15 minutes and 32 seconds for the game.
The Mustangs held the ball for the well over the majority, even when attacking by the air. Sienknecht finished with 270 passing yards and five passing touchdowns on the night.
Now both teams await their playoff fate. The Titans know they will be in the 2A state playoffs, but are anxious to see if they will host their first game.
The Mustangs are at the mercy of RPI numbers. They came in ranked No. 10, which would put them in the field of 16. But Archuleta doesn’t want them thinking about that until Monday.
“We’ll figure it out,” he said. “If we get in, we get in. But if we don’t, then we just move on.”
The final RPI numbers will be released Saturday night and the 2A football bracket will be released on Sunday.