Early disruption allows Cherry Creek to run into 5A football semifinals

GREENWOOD VILLAGE – Cherry Creek football coach Dave Logan wasn’t going to attempt to downplay the talent that Mountain Vista quarterback Austyn Modrzewski possesses.

So if the Bruins wanted a shot to get to a sixth consecutive Class 5A state championship game, disrupting the Golden Eagles gunslinger was essential.

Luke Owen provided that disruption with an interception on Vista’s first drive and Jordan Herron capitalized with his first of three rushing touchdowns of the night. From that point on, Creek was off and running, getting a 51-18 win to advance to the 5A semifinals.

The Bruins (12-0 overall) will host Ralston Valley after the Mustangs made the trip to Colorado Springs and beat Pine Creek 28-3.

But more on the rematch later.

To get to the semifinals, Creek had to take care of the task at hand and getting a 21-0 lead over Mountain Vista in the first quarter was a great way of doing that.

“They’re so dynamic on offense and Austyn is such a great player,” Logan said. “They have a lot of great skill and positions players as well. We knew we weren’t going to stop them and shut them completely down. You just want to give them different looks and different pressures and change the back end quite a bit. We knew going how talented of a passing game they had.”

The interception from Owen left the Bruins with a very short field, which Herron took advantage of. He scored Creek’s first two touchdowns of the night before Brady Vodicka found Jadyn Irving to make it 21-0.

The offensive started the game in a groove, but it was the spark from Owen’s interception that got things going.

“We came into this game looking to set the tone,” Owen said. “I had jumped offside right before that and Coach gave me another chance to stay out there and make up for it. We talked all week about how their receivers were really fast and they’re like a 7-on-7 team. Coach just put me in a perfect spot in that coverage and I made the pick.”

The Golden Eagles finally got points on the board in the second quarter thanks to a tipped pass that was hauled in for a touchdown. That seemed to break the dam for the offense as it looked more in sync for majority of the game from there on out.

But the Bruins never slowed down. Vodicka connected with Tyson Mauck for a pair of scores and Herron ran for another long touchdown to keep the game out of reach.

“Our energy comes from our defense and we just translate it to our offense,” Herron said. “Our defense did a great job and it just allowed us to keep feeding off that.”

For the semifinals, the Bruins take on a Ralston Valley team they saw in their first game of the year. Creek won that game 35-9 but it won’t expect anything to come easy with a trip to the state championship game on the line.

“They’re a really good team,” Logan said. “They have excellent balance, they’re good on offense, good on defense and they’re well-coached.”

The Bruins and Mustangs will meet at the Stutler Bowl at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The winner of that game will play the winner of the other 5A semifinal game between Chatfield and Columbine.