Secretary of Defense: Thompson Valley captures first football title in program history

FORT COLLINS – With Thompson Valley’s defense coming up big all day, it was only appropriate that the first state championship in school history relied on that unit being on the field.

A Christian Hiner pass bounced out of the hands of Ryan St. Aubin, but it may not have mattered. CJ James was right there to make the stop. Another big play from the defense resulted in a piece of history heading home to Thompson Valley as the Eagles beat Mead 16-14 to claim the Class 3A football state championship.

“I’ve told this team all year that defense wins championships,” coach Jamie Steele said. “Offense sells tickets. We sold some tickets and the defense won the championship. They’ve been doing it all year. They’re that good.”

It was actually the defense that scored the final points of the day of for the Eagles (14-0 overall) and it happened in the closing minutes of the first half.

A deflected ball found its way into the hands of defensive end Dane Gray and he ran uninterrupted into the end zone to put Thompson Valley ahead 16-7 at the break. It turned out that the touchdown kept the game out of reach for the Mavericks (11-2), although they came out of halftime with an adjusted offensive plan and started moving the ball.

“We had to be on point,” Gray said. “We slipped up a little bit. We say we’re going to face adversity, so those big plays, we can’t let them get to our head. We have to keep being a powerhouse defense.”

The Eagles scored on their opening possession thanks to a 41-yard touchdown run from freshman quarterback Finley Lucas, but it was all setup by a botched punt which Eli Metzger was able to convert into a first down. That setup a big run from Lucas who had the benefit of leaning on a stout, experienced group in order for him to grow up a little bit on the campus of Colorado State University.

“That defense won the game for us,” Lucas said. “I can’t thank them enough. And for me to be a freshman going into this. I don’t even have words for that. I feel a lot more more [after this].”

The Mavericks several times found themselves in 3rd and short situations, but the Eagles seemingly had a wall built in front the necessary mark.

Mead broke through one time late in the first half, as a run from Griffin Kratochvil setup a 26-yard touchdown pass from Hiner to St. Aubin.

They cut the lead to two points early in the fourth quarter as Hiner found Noah Vroman for his second touchdown pass of the day. From there on out, each team created turnovers and made defensive stands, but neither one could put up another point. Perhaps the most fitting moment for the team was that several players had dads who played on the 1989 Thompson Valley team that last to Longmont 20-14 in the state title game.

To date, that had been the only other time the Eagles had made it to a football final.

“I’ve had [those dads] as guest speakers throughout the season,” Steele said. “As we win a game, win another game, they come and talk to the team. They tell them that it hurts them in their heart that they got there and lost, but they’re proud that they did get there. They wanted these guys to push a little further.”

Or in the case of a championship caliber defense, push the other guys away.