Football roundup: No. 7 Arapahoe escapes Gateway’s upset bid with goal-line stand

Arapahoe made a stop at the goal-line on the final play of the game to hold off an upset bid from Gateway and win 28-24.

The Warriors, ranked No. 7 in Class 5A, trailed nearly the whole game but rallied to take the lead late in the fourth quarter and then held on to keep their perfect record intact. They are now 6-0 for the first time since 2005.

Nick Thompson scored what proved to be the winning touchdown on a 1-yard run with 2:52 to play.

Gateway jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the first half, and was up 24-14 at the break.

But Arapahoe’s defense pitched a shutout in the second half, and the offense slowly chipped away.

4A: (7) Dakota Ridge 30, (9) Ponderosa 27

Harper Silliman kicked the game-winning field goal as time expired to lift the seventh-ranked Eagles (5-1) to their best win of the season so far.

It turns out Silliman is Dakota Ridge’s backup kicker. The starter was out with a concussion.

“Harper had made two extra points earlier in the game, and missed a field goal earlier in the game. And I told him, ‘You’re going to be a hero tonight. Keep your head in there. You’re going to have a chance to win it,'” Dakota Ridge coach Ron Woitalewicz told the Colorado Preps Scoreboard Show. “It was a 44-yard field goal, and it probably went 44-and-a-quarter yards.

“We really felt at that point (of the final attempt) that we were either going to win it or we were going to go to overtime, and so we let him give it a shot. He came through. Big-time, clutch kick for us.”

After a back-and-forth first quarter, Ponderosa grabbed a 24-19 lead at halftime. The lead grew to 27-17, but Dakota Ridge answered with a rushing touchdown from Jeremy Lujan to make it 27-24 with 4:38 to go in the third quarter. A field goal late in the third quarter tied the game.

The teams were scoreless until the fourth quarter — until Silliman’s kick.

Lujan had four touchdowns for Dakota Ridge.

3A: (9) Lewis-Palmer 63, Canon City 48

The Rangers won a wild one with all kinds of offense.

The two teams combined for 1,184 yards of total offense — the 11th-highest combined total in a single game — and dotted the record book with new entries. Ultimately, Lewis-Palmer’s ground attack won out over Canon City’s passing offense.

Lewis-Palmer rushed for 547 yards and nine touchdowns as a team. Of that, Nick Pavlik had 404 yards and seven touchdowns. The seven TDs are tied for the fifth-most in state history, while the 404 yards are No. 14 all-time.

There’s more: Canon City quarterback Luke Nethercot tied the state record, set just last week against Lewis-Palmer, with 41 completions on 50 attempts. He threw for 461 yards and six touchdowns.

Lewis-Palmer is now 5-1.

4A: Pueblo West 66, Palmer 21

Pueblo West’s Devyn Morgan had seven rushing touchdowns and 401 yards in Pueblo West’s win. Again, the seven touchdowns are tied for the fifth-most in state history.

1A: (3) Paonia 34, (9) Meeker 30

Panoia pulled out the close win to move to 5-1.

“It was a fun night here in Paonia. They had a great gameplan ready for us, and it worked,” Paonia coach Brent McRae told the Scoreboard Show. “It was back-and-forth, and you just kind of had to hold your breath there are the end.”

2A: (4) Platte Valley 37, (5) Brush 0

Platte Valley jumped out to a 29-0 halftime lead, and cruised from there. The Broncos are now 5-1, and have won five in a row.

“When you lose some of the skill kids we did in the past, some explosive ones, we had to replace them,” Platte Valley coach Troy Hoffman told the Scoreboard Show. “Tanner Schwindt coming in as a quarterback, being a senior, a lot of his time was in the backup role or in some other spot duty, so we had to find a way for him to gain some experience early on, and really just gain some confidence. That’s really, truly, what he’s done.

“Where we are right now, and what we’re doing, I’m very proud of where Platte Valley football is.”

2A: (2) Bayfield 27, (9) Gunnison 7

Bayfield led 19-7 at halftime, then added to that in the second half to pull out the important top-10 win.

The lead was actually 19-0 in the second quarter before Gunnison got a late score just before the half.

Notables

Aurora Central improved to 6-0 with a 45-7 win over Golden. It the most wins the Trojans have had since going 7-3. That year, Aurora Central started 2-3 before running off five in a row.
Another surprise 6-0 team: Westminster, which beat Prairie View 14-6.
In 3A, No. 3 Fort Morgan handled Lutheran 55-7. “Our kids came out and they were fired up,” Fort Morgan coach Harrison Chisum told the Scoreboard Show. “They’ve been looking for this game since we went there last year and let it slip away.”
In an I-25 rivalry game, Northglenn beat Thornton 29-27.
Sedgwick County, newly-minted as the No. 1 team in 8-man, beat No. 9 Merino 52-8.
A dandy in 8-man: No. 6 Granada beat No. 7 Holly 28-26 in two overtimes.