Heritage quarterback Chase Hansen (14) rolls out of the pocket to find an open receiver. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
COLORADO SPRINGS — As the calendar turned to November, the trenches of Garry Berry Stadium played host to a couple of 5A football teams fighting for survival; and fighting with everything they had.
Late hits and personal fouls seemed to define contest between the Doherty Spartans and the Heritage Eagles which saw the Eagles emerge with a 28-27 victory. With the win, Heritage (7-3 overall) advances to the round of 16 in the Class 5A state football tournament.
“We tried to dig ourselves as big a hole as possible,” Eagles coach Tyler Knoblock said. “We told our kids at halftime to never quit and we settled in and were able to do what we wanted to do all along.”
Finding themselves down 7-0 early, the Eagles decided to employ the strategy they thought was best designed to beat the Spartans; they threw the ball down the field. A 77-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Chase Hansen to junior wide receiver Tim Pless got the game back to even.
“We had the deep shots all night,” Hansen said. “We just kept going after we knew we could connect on them.”
On the shoulders of running backs Tequan Baker and Justice Littrell, the Spartans were able to regain a seven-point lead. After stalling on their next offensive possession Heritage was forced to lean on their defense to hold strong and keep the score of the game manageable. Doherty was forced to punt the ball back to Heritage who turned it over on the second play of their fourth offensive drive.
Hoping to drive his team back down the field to tie the game, Hansen forced a bad throw that was intercepted by D’Angelo Vasquez. The Spartans were able to generate points from that turnover as Harrison Cobbs connected on a 27-yard field goal. Cobbs was able to connect for three more points right as time expired in the first half to give the Spartans a 20-7 lead with 24 minutes left to play.
“Those kids have been through so much and fought so hard,” Knoblock said. “We told them to stay patient and wait for their opportunities. They’ll come sooner or later.”
It felt like they would come later as the Eagles drove right down the field to start the second half, only to have disaster strike. Hansen was picked off by Zach Zimmer who returned the ball 99 yards to give Doherty a seemingly insurmountable 20-point lead in the third quarter.
But then something happened. Adjustments were made and the Eagles were able to find their way into the end zone to cut the Spartans’ lead to 13 and slow the home team’s momentum.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
The Eagles’ defense began to bottle up Doherty’s running attack and Hansen soon found himself once again with the ball in his hands. He connected with Jared Leonard for a 32-yard touchdown pass. With over eight minutes to play, the Eagles were down by only a score.
“It’s a great attitude from the kids,” Knoblock said. “I’ll take a group of kids who are a group of fighters and will give their best every play.”
Up by six points, the Spartans went to their bread and butter in their running attack to try and hold on to the lead. But it was the Heritage defense that came up with the necessary plays. They ripped the ball from Littrell’s hands and only moments later were back in the end zone for what would be the game-winning score.
While trying to march down the field to answer, Littrell once again lost the ball to the Eagles’ defense, giving Heritage a first round win on the road.
“They just fought hard; that’s an extremely well-coached football program and that team will fight,” Spartans coach Jeff Krumlauf said. “They did a really good job of boxing up our run and they just made a few more plays than we did.”
Next up for the Eagles is No. 2 seed Regis Jesuit, which topped Monarch 48-7 Friday night.
“I’m so proud of those guys,” Knoblock said. “And we’re really fortunate that we get to work with this group of seniors for one more week. It’s a really great group of kids.”