New Wheat Ridge football coach Dan Reardon. (Ty Renck)
PUEBLO — Even if Dan Reardon wrote the script himself, it couldn’t have gone much better.
In his coaching debut for Wheat Ridge’s football team, his squad was dominating in all phases, cruising to a 42-0 win over Class 3A Pueblo Central Thursday night at Dutch Clark Stadium.
“I think our kids have done a great job this offseason and we really challenged them to raise the standard,” said Reardon, whose team plays at the Class 4A level. “We worked very, very hard this offseason and this summer and I’m real proud of them because they deserved to play well (Thursday night).”
Reardon spent the past two seasons as Poudre High School’s football coach, compiling a 5-14 record. Prior to arriving at Poudre, Reardon coached at Ursuline High School in Youngstown, Ohio from 2004-2012 where he won three state championships.
Any butterflies Reardon may have had Thursday vanished immediately.
On its first offensive play, at their own 2-yard line, Farmers’ quarterback Nicco Young lofted a pass to running back Jordan Jones who split out wide and was left uncovered down the right side of the field. Jones sped untouched for the score at the 9:18 mark of the first quarter.
“We told the kids back in February that was going to be the first play of the season and it just worked out,” said Reardon, who also served as a graduate assistant at Youngstown State University from 1994-1996. “A couple of the coaches asked if that’s still what I wanted to do because we were that deep, and I thought it was a perfect situation to do it because they thought we were going to be conservative there.”
Wheat Ridge running back Jordan Jones. (Ty Renck)
That was a sign of things to come.
By halftime, the Farmers held a decisive 35-0 advantage, thanks in large part to Jones. He had 130 yards rushing, 115 yards receiving and a 67-yard punt return — and three touchdowns, one on a 70-yard run, and another on a 34-yard scamper.
“I was pretty nervous at first,” said the 5-foot-9, 165-pound Jones, a senior about starting the season with Reardon as the coach. “He obviously knows what he’s doing and he’s a good coach. On the first play, I went out there to block and no one blocked me and I went and the ball was there. It was a good team play. Coach (Reardon) told us we needed to come out strong and we did.”
Reardon replaced Reid Kahl who led the Farmers to two state championships in 2006 and 2008 in his eight seasons. Kahl was placed on leave because of a personnel issue last Oct. 28 according to Jeffco Public Schools and then he was relieved of his coaching duties.
“We did lose our old coach, but I feel like we have a good attitude,” Jones said. “These coaches are good and they know what they are doing. We are just here to win.”
Young, a junior, concurred with his teammate.
“He (Reardon) is a good coach and he knows what he’s doing,” Young said. “Obviously, we got the win, but there are tons of things we can work on and improve on.”
The Farmers’ defense also was stout in the first 24 minutes, limiting Central to 106 yards of offense while getting one interception and a fumble, both which led to Wheat Ridge scores. The second half was more of the same as Central failed to score.
Dylan Synko made a nifty catch in the end zone when the ball deflected off a Central defender pushing the Wheat Ridge advantage to 42-0 and also starting the running clock with 4:08 left in the third quarter.
“We do not have a large team as far as numbers go, but I think our kids work very, very hard and I think we have a lot of the right pieces to be successful,” Reardon said. “It’s a process, and we have to improve every game, and every week.”