(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
MONUMENT — With under two minutes to go, Dieudonne Chea broke off a 36-yard touchdown run, sending the Rowdy Rangers into a frenzy.
Lewis-Palmer was an extra point away from trying the game against No. 5 Silver Creek in the quarterfinals of the Class 3A football playoffs.
But the try after was no good. The Raptors escaped Don Breese Stadium with a 28-27 win Friday night.
“It’s crazy,” Silver Creek running back George Ramirez said. “After those past two years of being 3-7, it’s just so nice to get back on the winning side of things and doing what we know how to do.”
If Friday night’s play is any measuring stick, the Raptors (12-0 overall) have the playmaking duo that could put them in the state championship conversation.
Dylan Ordway and Khari Harrison connected on three touchdowns in the first half and it was Harrison who got the ball in his hands on the penultimate play of the game-winning touchdown. Facing fourth and five, he got the ball on a reverse and pushed his way up for the first down.
Ramirez found the end zone on the very next play.
“I was a little nervous at first because you never know sometimes, when a team will stay home,” Harrison said. “As soon as I touched the ball and looked upfield, I only saw one guy and knew I had it.”
The Rangers (10-2) and Raptors brought contrasting styles into the game as the hosts were hoping to control the game on the ground with a healthy dose of Chea.
But it just took too long for the breakout back to find his rhythm. The Silver Creek defense held Chea to just 27 rushing yards in the first half.
“At the end of the day, our whole game plan was to stop their run,” Silver Creek coach Mike Apodaca said. “We knew that would give them some passing opportunities, but we had to take away one thing and that’s what they do, they run it.”
Offensively, when the Raptors went looking for their chances, they were able to connect on the them. The scoreless tie was broken when Ordway found Harrison for a 57-yard touchdown pass. Two possessions later, it looked like Silver Creek was going to try and get back in the end zone, but this time on the ground.
The Rangers were able to step up defensively as it clobbered Andreik Knechtel, who lost the ball for the first turnover of the game.
The Rangers once again went to Chea who broke off for a 16-yard run, but the lost the ball himself, giving the Raptors new life.
So Ordway went to Harrison.
This time they connected on a 41-yard touchdown pass, seizing the momentum.
But the Rangers weren’t going down without a fight. They got on the board with a Kevin Tims touchdown pass to Joel Scott. They surrendered one more touchdown pass from Ordway to Harrison, but at the start of the second half, the defense clamped down and the offense capitalized.
Tims found Chea for a 13-yard touchdown pass and then on the next possession, the senior quarterback found the end zone on a one-yard sneak.
“Our kids battled,” Lewis-Palmer coach Dustin Tupper said. “One thing we’kknow when you’ll get ll always be is physical. If you’re physical in football, you give yourself a shot.”
The Raptors started the next drive on their own 35-yard line. They were able to drive down to the Lewis-Palmer 29-yard line before facing fourth down. After Harrison got the first and Ramirez scored the touchdown, momentum was back on their side.
The Rangers got the ball back with 1:51 left and a chance to tie the game. Tims found Chase Allen for a 31-yard completion.
A holding call backed the Rangers up to the Silver Creek 36-yard line, but Chea erased everything with the touchdown run.
But Cody Fitzgerald couldn’t connect on the extra point, and it’s the Raptors who find themselves two wins away from the state championship.
“We talk to our kids all week that they can’t take this for granted,” Apodaca said. “We had a little run a few years ago and then some rough years. You just don’t know when you’re going to get back to even the quarterfinals.”
The Raptors will await the winner of Saturday’s game between Discovery Canyon and Fort Morgan.