Green Mountain football gets back on the right track

LAKEWOOD — The Ram Standard returned for Green Mountain’s football team Friday night at Jeffco Stadium.

“It’s not the standard and hasn’t been the standard for four years,” Green Mountain senior linebacker and captain Hudson Burke said about the Rams losing back-to-back games for the first time since the 2021 season. “Something had to change. Guys stepped up tonight. Seniors, juniors and sophomores.”

Green Mountain righted the ship and celebrated its homecoming with a big 44-24 victory over Northridge. Despite back-to-back loss to Dakota Ridge (4A) and Pomona (3A) the previous two weeks, the Rams (2-2 record) were still No. 9 in the Class 3A Colorado Preps football rankings.

“It was really big. Team morale has been pretty low,” Green Mountain senior Demetreus Padilla admitted. “It’s homecoming, so there is a lot of pressure. It was a focused week and we got everyone dialed in.”

The Rams found the end zone four times from midway through the second quarter to early in the third quarter to grab a commanding 37-12 lead over the Grizzlies (1-3).

Junior Drew Contreras started the run with a 10-yard touchdown run. Following a quick 3-and-out for Northridge, Padilla returned a line-drive punt 36 yards for a special team touchdown for Green Mountain.

“I went inside and then I saw the hole open up on the outside,” Padilla said. “I knew I had to go get one (touchdown). I just followed my blocks and got the touchdowns.”

Northridge answered with a nice scoring drive capped off with an 11-yard touchdown run by quarterback Justin Thill with 2:37 left before halftime to cut the Rams’ lead to 23-12.

However, a big 52-yard touchdown pass from Rams’ senior quarterback Simon Lunsford to sophomore Alan Johnston in the final minute of the first half provided some halftime energy going into the locker room, along with a 30-12 lead for the Rams.

“I saw the safeties and cornerback’s eyes all on Padilla,” Lunsford said of Northridge keying on Padilla. “Alan was just running right by everyone. I just let it go. It fell right into his arms.”

Johnston was wide-open down Green Mountain’s sideline and Lunsford hit him in stride for longest pass play of the season for the Rams.

Padilla opened up the second half with a 48-yard touchdown run for his second score of the game to give the Rams a 37-12 lead. Green Mountain had four rushing touchdowns by four different players — Contreras, Padilla, senior Demarco Villalovas and junior Isaiah Osei — in the highest scoring output so far this season for the Rams.

“This whole week we were prepping for the run game,” Padilla said. “Our linemen showed up today. Without them none of this would have happened. All props go out to them (offensive linemen).”

The run game took some pressure off Lunsford and the Rams’ passing game.

“We need the run game to open up the pass game,” Lunsford said. “It showed tonight. My completion percentage was much better tonight and that comes from the run game.”

Lunsford said the seniors had a meeting after the 33-7 loss to Pomona last Thursday.

“After last week we were a little upset,” Lunsford said. “We all came together as a group of seniors and said we were going to figure this out. We were going to get better this week and show out on Friday.”

Green Mountain’s tough non-league schedule continues as the Rams host Lutheran (3-1) in a few weeks on Friday, Oct. 4, at Trailblazer Stadium. The Lions were No. 2 in the 3A rankings this week and got a big win over Resurrection Christian on Friday night.

“We are glad to have a bye week and get healthy,” Lunsford said of having a week off before the showdown with Lutheran. “We are ready to beat them. They have been circled on the schedule.”