Each Monday, as part of our Colorado Preps Weekly series, we recap the past week in high school sports for the teams and schools on the Eastern Plains. This new series allows Colorado Preps to branch into other sports than just football and volleyball in the Fall. This article also appears in several weekly newspapers across the regions each week. The weekly update is presented by Pro Ag Solutions in Limon.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JESI CHARTIER-HOLMES
Another week of the fall season is in the books and the top teams and individuals are already beginning to separate themselves from the pack. The past week was full of important clashes that filled the highlight reel.
In volleyball, there was a huge match-up in the 1A North Central last Thursday, where Briggsdale, #3 at the time, took down last week’s top-ranked squad, Fleming, in three sets (25-22, 26-24, 25-21). It was a good night to be named Krise, as sisters Courtney (14 kills) and Jenna (7 kills), along with cousin Kylie (13 kills) pounded out 34 kills in the match. Kally Kirkwood and Whitney Chintala countered with 14 and 12 kills, respectively, to lead Fleming. The two programs will meet again on October 8th, in Fleming.
Last week’s fourth-ranked team in 1A, Wiley, picked up a tough four-set victory over #10 Sangre de Cristo on Saturday. The Panthers won the first two sets before seeing the Thunderbirds rally to take the third. Wiley entered this week 3-0.
Kit Carson dropped two tough matches late last week, falling to 2A #10 Limon 3-2 and 1A #9 Genoa-Hugo by a 3-1 count. The Wildcats are 3-4 heading into this week, with five of the seven matches coming against ranked opponents.
Cheyenne Wells had been rolling, entering last Saturday’s trip to Stratton. The Tigers were 3-0 after beating South Baca in three last Thursday. Stratton pushed its record to 4-1 with a three-set victory over the Tigers.
Fowler was poised to move up the 2A rankings after improving to 4-0 with a sweep of Rye last Thursday. The Grizzlies have only dropped one set in their first four matches of the season. Fellow Santa Fe league opponent, Hoehne, lost its first match of the season last Monday, falling to 3A Alamosa in a sweep. Fowler and Hoehne meet for the first of two contests a week from Tuesday, with the Farmers having the home court advantage.
Las Animas improved to 3-2 on the season with three straight wins, all in league play. Last week, the Trojans took sweep victories over Holly and Swink. They will put that streak on the line Thursday, when they visit Crowley County.
Between 1A and 2A, six LPAA teams were ranked last week, including the top two teams in the 2A poll, Wiggins and Sedgwick County, and 1A #2 Merino. Haxtun (1A #6), Yuma (2A #7), and Holyoke (2A #10) rounded out the group.
Lamar, ranked #4 in 3A last week, will end a nearly two-week layoff on Thursday when it goes out of state to play Garden City (KS) before traveling to Buena Vista on Saturday. The Savages have not played since Aug. 28, and take a 2-0 mark into this week.
Moving to softball, La Junta handed Lamar its first loss of the season last Thursday, 9-8. Lamar led 5-2 through five innings, and added another run in the top of the sixth, but the Tigers rallied with four in the bottom of the frame to tie it. The Savages took an 8-6 lead into the bottom of the seventh, before La Junta rallied to walk it off on a two-run single by Hunter Wallace. Lamar bounced back to beat Wray and Burlington on Saturday, 14-0 and 11-1, respectively.
The highlight of the 6-man football schedule last week was Saturday’s clash between Cheyenne Wells and Stratton. The Tigers came in ranked second, with the host Eagles owning the fourth spot in the polls. Cade Mitchek helped propel Cheyenne Wells to a 52-37 victory in a game that was closer than the final score indicated. The talented senior ran for 191 yards and four touchdowns, caught another long touchdown pass, and returned a punt for a score. Blake Gilmore tossed three touchdown passes, and Rogelio Rangel had a big day, snagging five passes for 177 yards.
Granada had to wait a week longer than most teams in the field to get its first official game, and the Bobcats did not disappoint. The Bobcats rolled to a 48-6 win over Eads on Friday to start a weekend of celebration, that concluded with assistant coach Tyndan Marquez getting married the following day. Granada will visit Idalia, ranked fifth this past week, on Friday, with a big affair against Cheyenne Wells the following week.
Idalia moved to 2-0 with a 68-6 win over Otis last Friday. The Wolves are one of five teams in the classification to have already scored more than 100 points, with a class leading 131 through two games. Branson/Kim (116), Cheyenne Wells (116), Sierra Grande (114), and Fleming (112) are also part of the group. Fleming has thrown back-to-back shutouts in its first two games, adding a 70-0 blasting of Peetz last week to a 42-0 blanking of Arickaree/Woodlin in week one.
Arickaree/Woodlin responded by downing Flagler 66-36 in week two. Logan Wright had a huge game; rushing for 316 yards and seven touchdowns on just 22 carries. He also completed both pass attempts for 64 yards while helping his club score 35 fourth-quarter points.
While most eyes in eight-man were on Saturday’s clash between #1 Sanford and #4 Dayspring Christian, the game of the week just may have taken place Friday night at Holly. The Wildcats hosted Akron and four quarters were not enough to determine a victor. In the overtime session, the visiting Rams were able to punch one in and secure a 36-30 win. That moved the Rams to 2-0 on the young season, and handed Holly its first loss.
Haxtun continued to shine on offense and defense in its 60-14 win over West Grand on Friday. The Fightin’ Bulldogs have scored at least 60 points in both wins, and are allowing an average of seven a game on defense. Michael Gerk and Isaac Andersen each went over 100 yards on the ground and scored a combined five touchdowns in last week’s victory. Haxtun hosts Wiley on Friday and then opens Plains league play next week at Caliche.
Burlington got it’s first win in 22 months when the Cougars went to 2A Lamar on Friday and downed the Savages 36-0. Junior quarterback Garrett Richardson had a big night, throwing for two scores and running for one, while also intercepting three passes as the free safety. The Cougars, who host Goodland (KS) on Friday, have won 12 of the last 15 meetings with Lamar.
Two other foes from the 1A North Central also got their first wins of the season last weekend. Holyoke went to Rye and got a 41-9 victory in its opener, while Limon opened the campaign with a 43-6 win at Meeker. Wiggins is now 2-0 after beating 2A Valley 45-0, while Yuma and Wray are both 1-1. Wray beat Goodland 30-0, and Yuma dropped a 19-16 heart breaker to Strasburg.
In the 1A Santa Fe, Rocky Ford and Trinidad are both 0-1. Rocky did not play last week, while the Miners opened their schedule with a 49-12 loss at Raton (NM).
Shifting to 3A boys soccer, Lamar dropped to 3-2 overall with last Thursday’s 3-2 loss at Pueblo County. It was their second straight loss.
And, finally, sticking with Lamar, Branden Davis won the individual title at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede that was held on the same course that is used for the state meet.
