No. 6 Falcons win league “dogfight”
The Denver Post
One of the biggest complaints about the waterfall system currently used in Colorado high school football is that its topheavy leagues — often headlined by one elite team — result in blowout after blowout during the second half of the regular season.
Such was not the case Friday night at Shea Stadium, as No. 6 Highlands Ranch outslugged No. 9 Fountain-Fort Carson 38-24 in a back-and-forth battle in the Mount Lincoln conference, which very well could be the deepest league in Class 5A with No. 1 Valor Christian (7-0), Lakewood (5-2) and Poudre (4-2) also of note.
Two clutch second-half drives by Highlands Ranch were the difference in the game, while junior running back Dominic Bettini had three touchdowns as the Falcons’ big men controlled the trenches when it mattered most.
“Coming in, we knew it was going to be a dogfight,” Bettini said. “Fountain’s a really good team, and it’s a league game, so when they tied it in the third quarter, we looked at each other on the sideline and said, ‘OK, let’s go.’ Because this is what we strive for — a rough, physical dogfight.”
Highlands Ranch grabbed the momentum on the game’s first play from scrimmage, when senior safety Joseph Alber — also the team’s starting quarterback for the night — intercepted Trojans senior Eric Donnell to set up an early 3-0 Falcons lead.
“I knew it was going to be a pass from his eyes, and from our film work, we saw that he liked to chuck it up and trust his guys,” Alber said. “I knew that if I hung back in the secondary, I could swat the ball down or make a play on it.”
Donnell led his offense down the field on the ensuing drive, which ended in a chip-shot field goal that sailed wide left. The Falcons compounded that missed kick with an impressive response drive, this time marked by a 65yard touchdown run by Bettini to make it a 10-0 advantage with 11:22 to play in the second.
Fountain-Fort Carson took advantage of a muffed punt inside Falcons’ territory to get on the board next, with Donnell’s screen pass to senior running back Gavin Green cutting the score to 10-7.
The teams continued to trade scores throughout the rest of the first half, with an Alber 1-yard touchdown run and a FountainFort Carson 35-yard field goal to send the teams into the half with Highlands Ranch leading 17-10.
And even though the Trojans were able to strike first in the second half via another Donnell TD pass that tied the game at 17, it was the Falcons who owned the rest of the game via one touchdown run by junior Jacob Krzeminski and two more by Bettini.
“It’s an honor running behind those guys,” Bettini said. “Two of them (center Drake Nugent and guard Austin Johnson) have college offers already, and the whole line simply doesn’t get enough credit as a whole. They were as good tonight as they’ve been all fall.”
Highlands Ranch (6-1) hosts Valor Christian next Friday, while Fountain-Fort Carson (4-3) plays at Legend on Thursday night.
“We’ve got to stick to our guns against Valor, and stick to our game plan,” Bettini said. “We’ve circled them on our calendar as a really big game, and we have high expectations for ourselves.”